Big Bang Theory comes to life in Vancouver for five days this August

Some downtown Vancouver hotel suites might be looking like sets from the TV sitcom Big Bang Theory for a week in August. 

From August 15 to 19, the Westin Bayshore hotel will be hosting the first Quantum Gravity Conference, a five-day gathering of some of the world's top theoretical and experimental physicists, including three Nobel laureates.

Like Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter, two goofy Caltech physicists looking for women and the answers to life's mysteries, the more than two dozen physicists coming to town as featured speakers and presenters are seeking to solve one of the universe's biggest riddles: the theory of quantum gravity.

That's not to say that Dungeons & Dragons tournaments will be breaking out, but the Bayshore should probably make sure rooms are well-stocked with whiteboards—and comic books.

The puzzle of the theory of quantum gravity is really that so little is known about how it can connect the irreconcilability of aspects of Einstein's theory of relativity and the theory of quantum mechanics, both of which are cornerstones of our understanding of physics and the world around us.

Most physicists think that a theory of quantum gravity will help us understand black holes and the origin of the universe. UBC physics professor Philip Stamp, who is appearing at the event, took it a little further with a quote in a July 21 conference news release. “Discovering the Theory of Quantum Gravity could lead to the possibility of time travel, new quantum devices, or even massive new energy resources that produce clean energy and help us address climate change,” Stamp said.

Stamp, who is also visiting associate in theoretical astrophysics at Caltech, is not short on vision: “The potential long-term ramifications of this discovery are so incredible that life on Earth 100 years from now could look as miraculous to us now as today’s technology would have seemed to people living 100 years ago.”

The conference will see the launch of the Vancouver-based Quantum Gravity Institute, which will encourage and support both experimental and theoretical research into quantum gravity. Organizers plan to assemble the world’s top archive of papers and lectures associated with the attempts to reconcile these two theories over the past century.

To foster such global collaborative efforts, two dozen top international physicists have been engaged to deliver keynote addresses and present papers during the Monday-to-Friday conference, including Nobel laureates Kip Thorne (2017, Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, emeritus, Caltech), Jim Peebles (2019, Princeton University), and Sir Roger Penrose (2020, University of Oxford).

Renowned physicists Baron Martin Rees, Markus Aspelmeyer, Viatcheslav Mukhanov, and Paul Steinhardt will likewise be presenting during the convention, which will also see the contributions of three UBC physicists: the aforementioned Stamp, Gary Hinshaw, and William Unruh.

Twenty other notable researchers will take to the podiums during the week, and if your knowledge of astrophysics is as limited as that of Leonard's girlfriend or Sheldon's mother on Big Bang Theory, they have a special day for you.

The conference's midpoint day (Wednesday [August 17]) is being called Keynote Day, when the public is invited to a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to listen to some of the world's top physicists, including all three of the Nobel laureates. (Speakers schedule and registration link is directly below the next photo.)

Both the conference and institute are projects of the Quantum Gravity Society, which was founded in Vancouver in 2020 by leading Canadian physicists and tech and business leaders. Among the society's goals are advancing physics and facilitating research on quantum gravity.

“We look forward to welcoming many of the world’s brightest minds to Vancouver for our first Quantum Gravity Conference,” Frank Giustra, the CEO of Fiore Group and cofounder of the Quantum Gravity Society, said in the July 21 release.

“One of the goals of our society will be to establish Vancouver as a supportive home base for research and facilitate the scientific collaboration that will be required to unlock this mystery that has eluded some of the world’s most brilliant physicists for so long," Giustra said.

“The format is key,” Terry Hui, UC Berkley physics alumnus and cofounder of the Quantum Gravity Society, also said in the bulletin. “Like the Solvay Conference nearly 100 years ago, the Quantum Gravity Conference will bring top scientists together in salon-style gatherings.

"The relaxed evening format following the conference will reduce barriers and allow these great minds to freely exchange ideas," Hui continued. "I hope this will help accelerate the solution of this hundred-year bottleneck between theories relatively soon.”

To register for the conference or to see a schedule of speakers for the five days, including the "Keynote Day" for the public, go here.

Following is a list of invited speakers for the Quantum Gravity Conference as presented in a July 21 Quantum Gravity Society bulletin.

QUANTUM GRAVITY CONFERENCE SPEAKERS (August 15-19)