Macarthur Fellow Credits Lc Teacher Woman Awarded $235,000 Grant For Work In Physics

As a teenager, Eva Silverstein became fascinated with the idea that time could slow down.

Her father, a philosophy professor, first piqued her interest with a brief explanation of Einstein’s theory of relativity - that time slows down as an object approaches the speed of light.

So she read one of Albert Einstein’s books. And then, when she landed in her first physics class at Lewis and Clark High School in the late 1980s, there was no turning back.

“Using high school algebra, you can make incredible calculations about the world,” said Silverstein, an assistant professor and theoretical physicist at Stanford University. “That got me hooked.”

This past summer, Silverstein was named a MacArthur Fellow, one of 32 selected throughout the country for the prestigious honor, often referred to as the “genius award.”

Silverstein, 28, was recognized for her work in string theory, a mathematical description of the universe that uses infinitesimal vibrating strings, rather than conventional particles, as building blocks.

As part of the award, Silverstein received a $235,000 grant to use as she pleases.

“It was a huge shock,” Silverstein said during a recent telephone interview from New Jersey, where she is spending the semester doing research at Princeton University’s Institute for Advanced Study. “First of all, there are lots of people in my area who are at least as qualified, if not more qualified.”

Among them, Silverstein believes, is her research partner and husband, Shamit Kachru, whom she says deserves equal credit. While she said she’s very disappointed Kachru wasn’t also recognized by the MacArthur Foundation, she is still appreciative of the award.

Silverstein’s parents, Harry Silverstein and Lorinda Knight of Spokane, are obviously proud, but still find it challenging explaining to friends what their daughter does.

“She’s explained it to us several times and after she’s done, we can make meaningful hand gestures,” said Harry Silverstein, who teaches philosophy at Washington State University in Pullman.

Eva Silverstein is among about 400 string theorists around the world who are working feverishly to answer a very daunting question: How does the universe work?

While Einstein was able to theorize about the laws of gravity over very large objects - such as planets - his theories didn’t apply to the motion of small subatomic particles, which is called quantum mechanics.

For most of the 20th century, Einstein’s theories and those of quantum mechanics, postulated by other physicists, have been incompatible.

String theory attempts to bridge the gap between the laws of the large and the laws of the small by hypothesizing that there is one unified theory.

That theory, some physicists believe, can be explained by using string theory - that matter is made up of microscopic string-like objects that vibrate like rubber bands through multiple dimensions of space.

“It’s a very strange theory and Eva has helped us shed light on it with a very surprising and novel theory,” said Edward Witten, a world-famous physics professor at the Institute for Advanced Study. “I definitely think she has helped us get closer to the truth about it.”

In addition to her parents, Silverstein gives credit to Lewis and Clark High School physics teacher Larry Elsom for challenging her and reinforcing her strong interest in math and physics early on.

“He had a very creative, very serious way of teaching science, which also really sparked my interest,” Silverstein said. “He was an incredible teacher.”

Elsom said he will never forget the petite and extremely pleasant young woman who breezed through his classes a decade ago.

“By far, she was the strongest physics student I ever had,” Elsom said. “Even as a freshman, I could tell she was someone special. There was one semester when she never missed a single problem on any test.”

That was in Elsom’s calculus physics class. No other student has ever duplicated that feat, he said.

Silverstein graduated from Lewis and Clark in 1988, received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1992 and her doctorate from Princeton in 1996.

She has no idea who nominated her for the genius award. The MacArthur Foundation uses anonymous talent scouts to nominate exceptionally talented individuals. Since the program began in 1981, a total of 479 fellows have been named.

Silverstein said she loathes the label genius and points out that the MacArthur Foundation chooses not to use it.

“Genius sounds exclusive,” she said. “I tend to think that a lot of scientific progress and creativity isn’t some special thing that only a few have. In my field, there are hundreds of people who are extremely bright and gifted.”