Stephon Alexander

Stephon Alexander is a theoretical and computational physicist, author and Jazz musician, whose work is at the interface between cosmology, particle physics, AI, quantum gravity and music technology. His expertise lays in constructing new theories of the early universe and elementary particle physics that have predictions for the universe at present, such as dark energy, dark matter, and the large-scale structure of the universe. He also combines mathematics and tools from theoretical physics into the geometry and cognition of musical perception, signal processing, and computational algorithms.

Alexander is a Professor of Physics at Brown University and a past President of the National Society of Black Physicists. Alexander was also the Executive Director of the Harlem Gallery of Science and is currently the Founder and CEO of Sound+Science- an afterschool program for public school juniors in NYC. He had previous appointments at Stanford University, Imperial College, Penn State, Dartmouth College, and Haverford College. Alexander is a specialist in the field of string theory and cosmology, where the physics of superstrings are applied to address longstanding questions in cosmology. In 2001, he co-invented the model of cosmic inflation based on string theory.

In his critically acclaimed books, The Jazz of Physics and Fear of a Black Universe.  In The Jazz of Physics, Alexander revisits the ancient interconnection between music and the evolution of astrophysics and cosmology. He explores new ways music, in particular jazz music, mirrors modern physics, such as quantum mechanics, general relativity, and the physics of the early universe. He also discusses ways that innovations in physics have been and can be inspired by "improvisational logic" exemplified in Jazz performance and practice.