Reading Einstein’s Papers: an Introduction to General Relativity and the Philosophy of Space and Time with John Hessler

hessler

Lifelong Learning LogoCourse Title: Reading Einstein’s Papers: an Introduction to General Relativity and the Philosophy of Space and Time

Instructor: John Hessler

Brought to you by Odyssey   

March 28, 2024 - May 02, 2024 (6 Sessions)  

Thursday,  6:45 PM ET  

In Person at Homewood Campus 

 

 

Course Description: In the early part of the 20th century Albert Einstein wrote a series of papers that would transform, not only the foundations of physics and cosmology, but also the philosophy and practice of science. In this course, students will be taken on a guided reading of several of Einstein’s papers, including his 1915 exposition of General Relativity, and explore many of his unpublished materials. We will look deeply into his Zurich notebook and other archival materials, in order to get a better sense of the mathematical and philosophical foundations of his theories. The course will also delve into Einstein’s notion of the structure of space and the concept of causality. We will see how his ideas about the structure of reality continue to resonate in modern ideas of the global structure of space-time and we will consider the mathematical and philosophical underpinnings of current theories, like causal set theory and quantum gravity. 

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Johns Hopkins alumni, staff, faculty and their spouse or domestic partners are eligible for tuition remission for Odyssey lifelong learning courses. Select the correct ticket pricing during registration. If we cannot confirm your eligibility, you will be requested to pay the full registration price for the course.  Eligibility details can be found here. 

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100% refund- Prior to the start of the course. 

50% refund- During the first week of the course. 

No refunds will be given after the first week of each course unless in exceptional cases. 

Please note, refunds apply only to the tuition portion of an Odyssey participant’s charges and are not applicable to any fees or gifts made to the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association. Registrants will be notified by email if a refund is approved within (5) business days. 

ABOUT John Hessler
Director of the Biomap-Lab and Lecturer at Johns Hopkins University.

John Hessler is an applied mathematician, computer scientist, and lecturer in the Odyssey Program at Johns Hopkins University. 

He is the founder and director of the biomap-lab, where they are developing new statistical and computational tools for mapping and visualizing the dynamics of far from equilibrium spatial processes, like the spread of pandemics, non-stationary urban processes, and mass population movement. Their current computational research centers on retrospectively mapping the spatial phylodynamics and complex transmission pathways of the 2014-2016 Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, and on studying the geographic distribution of the earliest cases of SARS-CoV-2.

 Event Date
Starts:
Thursday, March 28, 2024
6:45pm EDT

Ends:
Thursday, May 2, 2024
8:00pm EDT

 Location

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
Baltimore, MD 21210

 Contact
Odyssey
1-800-JHU-JHU1 (548-5481)
odyssey@jhu.edu

Status message

Thank you for your interest in Odyssey. This course is now closed. For questions, please contact odyssey@jhu.edu.