Activities

astrophysics	physics	geo/paleontology	computational science	natural philosophy

My main research interest concerns investigations of the structure of the world, from different points of view. My work as an astrophysicist aims at increasing our understanding of the physical world on the largest scales in time and space, by studying the history of the Universe. Interdisciplinary collaborations have allowed me to branch out from astrophysics per se to physics in general, as well as to geology and paleontology, where I found each discipline to rely on remarkably different views of the material world. In addition, my research in computational science showed yet other views of the world, when seen in the light of structures of information. And over the last several years I have attempted to summarize what I have learned in these various areas through some journeys into natural philosophy. See also my weekly blog.

Note: my next-to-latest field of interest is Origins of Life. I plan to add an entry for that field here above, when I find the time to do so. For now, please have a look at some of the weekly ipa@ias lunches that I organized for a while, and the Earth-Life Science Institute in Tokyo with which I am affiliated. See also my contribution to the IAS newletter. My latest field of interest is metacognition, or knowledge of knowledge. See the new weekly series in my group on the topic of cognition and awareness.