The Mathematics of the Universe

University of Toronto mathematician captures prestigious Canadian research prize

Ottawa, Ontario, March 11, 2004 – With chalk and intense collegial conversation, Dr. Lisa Jeffrey is giving mathematical substance to a mind-blowing vision of our Universe.

In the recent PBS TV special The Elegant Universe, renowned Princeton University physicist Edward Witten is asked to explain his M-theory, which posits an 11-dimension Universe.

“M stands for magic, mystery or matrix, according to taste,” says Witten, one of the founders of string theory. “Some cynics have occasionally suggested that M may also stand for murky, because our understanding of the theory is so primitive.”

The University of Toronto mathematician is helping to clear up this cosmic murkiness.

“What I have done is largely to give mathematical proof of results found by theoretical physicists,” says Dr. Jeffrey.

Jeffrey’s internationally acclaimed work today captured her an NSERC Steacie Fellowship, one of Canada’s science and engineering prizes.

The award was among six announced today by Lucienne Robillard, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, and Dr. Tom Brzustowski, President of NSERC. University of Toronto colleague Dr. George Eleftheriades also receives one of the prestigious awards.

“NSERC Steacie Fellows are quickly rising to the top of their fields while providing role models for younger scientists and engineers,” said Minister Robillard. “Through their creativity and excellent research, they are helping Canada build the knowledge base needed for a 21^st century economy.”

“These awards are public recognition for outstanding scientific achievement,” said Dr. Brzustowski. “The researchers honoured today have already started their careers in an incredible way and I know that they will do great things for science in Canada.”

Dr. Jeffrey is to leading-edge physical and mathematical theory what a great player is to a Stanley Cup team. She's relentlessly working the boards, blackboards in her case, pounding away at mathematical proofs day after day to get her team into the finals.

It's the kind of work highly acknowledged by peers, and less understood by those outside the game. With good reason. Very little of Dr. Jeffrey's brand of mathematics is accessible to the outsider – a title that applies to anyone outside the rarefied field of symplectic geometry. (Even the term symplectic is arcane. It's a homologue of “complex,” coined because the term complex was already overused in geometry.)

The work has taken Dr. Jeffrey to the forefront of a field that is itself on the edge of a fascinating intersection of theoretical physics and mathematics.

As part of her NSERC Steacie Fellowship research, she'll be co-leading a year-long, international program in the Geometry of String Theory at the University of Toronto's Fields Institute.

“I hope that this program will supply some more wonderful problems to work on,” says Dr. Jeffrey. “One problem that I'm already working on has to do with non-orientable surfaces, such as the Klein bottle, ones in which the two ends, if folded to touch one another, don't match up exactly in two dimensions. Witten also proposed a formula for these shapes, but so far no satisfactory mathematical proof exists.”

While Dr. Jeffrey continues to help clear the mists from Witten's cosmic vision, she chuckles when describing his high public profile, including being picked as one of Time Magazine's 25 most influential Americans in 1996. “That will never be me,” says Jeffrey.

But with an academic career that already includes schooling at Princeton, Cambridge and Oxford, a Sloan Foundation Fellowship, an Ontario Premier's Research Excellence Award, and now an NSERC Steacie Fellowship, perhaps this powerful geometer can't imagine the potential scope of her own trajectory.

NSERC, now also known as Science and Engineering Research Canada, is a key federal agency investing in people, discovery, and innovation. It supports both basic university research through research grants, and project research through partnerships among postsecondary institutions, government and the private sector, as well as the advanced training of highly qualified people.

Contacts:

Dr. Lisa Jeffrey
Tel.: (416) 978-5142
E-mail: jeffrey@math.utoronto.ca

Arnet Sheppard
NSERC
Tel.: (613) 995-5997
E-mail: arnet.sheppard@nserc.ca

The Prize

NSERC Steacie Fellowships are awarded to outstanding Canadian university scientists or engineers, who have earned their doctorate within the last 12 years, and whose research has already earned them an international reputation. Nominations are received by NSERC from universities across Canada and judged by a distinguished panel of independent experts. The awards include increased research funding from NSERC and payments to the universities to allow the Steacie Fellows to pursue their research full-time. They are also eligible to compete for a special Canada Foundation for Innovation Career Award. The announcement of these awards will be made later.

The six winners this year are:

• Dr. Mosto Bousmina – Université Laval
• Dr. Thomas Brabec – University of Ottawa
• Dr. George Eleftheriades – University of Toronto
• Dr. Lisa Jeffrey – University of Toronto
• Dr. Eric Hessels – York University
• Dr. Patrick Keeling – University of British Columbia

Dr. Edgar William Richard Steacie, for whom the awards are named, was a physical chemist and President of the National Research Council from 1952 to 1962. He strongly believed that:

• fundamental research is essential to the development of science;
• the individual is key to research, and individual ideas are ultimately responsible for important advances in science;
• there are no national boundaries in science; and
• complete freedom is required for creative work.

Dr. Steacie felt that promising young scientists are our greatest asset and should be given every opportunity to develop their own ideas. Through the NSERC Steacie Fellowships, his philosophy lives on.