Trinidadian Theoretical Physicist Dr Stephon Alexander has won the prestigious National Geographic Emerging Explorer award.
By Gizelle MorrisAlexander, an assistant professor at Pennsylvania State University, is one of eight individuals to be singled out by the Society this year. He is also the first Trinidadian to receive this honour.
In a release Caroline Braun, manager, Communications Editor of the Society, described Alexander as one of eight ? visionary trailblazers who are making a significant contribution to world knowledge while still early in their careers.?
A string theorist, who studies the secrets of the early universe, Alexander said he was surprised when contacted last December by National Geographic?s director of special projects Susan Reeve.
?I thought that they were asking me to recommend someone. Then I realised that it was me,? said Alexander in an e-mail.
The 34-year-old added: ?I was excited, being a fan of National Geographic, it?s very cool to be part of their mission.?
Each year the National Geographic?s Emerging Explorer programme awards US$10,000 grants to people nominated by experts in fields as diverse as anthropology, space exploration and music.
According to the Society?s guidelines the emerging explorers should be at the beginning of a promising career and their recent accomplishments should show potential for future breakthroughs.
Alexander, who was eight years old when his family migrated from Moruga to the USA, developed an interest in sociology, philosophy and physics at Haverford College in Pennsylvania.
He then earned his PhD in theoretical physics (Superstrings and Cosmology), at Brown University and pursued his first post-doctoral at the Imperial College in London.
The string theorist has researched the interface between fundamental physics and cosmology. He has also worked on developing a new way of explaining observed matter-antimatter asymmetry directly from the inflationary epoch (the period of rapid expansion after the big bang) in the early universe from primordial gravitational waves.
