Alan Lightman

"At the Crossroads of Science and the Humanities"

Does science ever intersect with art, language, and literature? Physicist, novelist, essayist, and author of the bestseller Einstein’s Dreams, Alan Lightman, explored this question and investigated the relationship between the sciences and the humanities in the 2015 IHR Distinguished Lecture in February of 2015.

Lightman is Professor of the Practice of the Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was the first faculty member to receive an appointment in both the humanities and sciences. Through works such as The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew (2014), Lightman explores everything from multiple universes to the perception of time to the question of God’s existence, illustrating along the way the value of being a humanist and physicist simultaneously.

Lightman’s prolific writing reflects his long engagement with both the sciences and the humanities, with works of fiction (such as Good Benito and Song of Two Worlds) and nonfiction (such as Great Ideas in Physics and The Discoveries: Great Breakthroughs in 20th Century Science) counting among his more than twenty books published to date.