Alexander Vilenkin is the Leonard and Jane Bernstein Professor and Director of the Institute of Cosmology at Tufts University. A theoretical physicist who has been working in the field of cosmology for 35 years, Vilenkin has written over 150 papers and is responsible for introducing the ideas of eternal inflation and quantum creation of the universe from nothing. His work in cosmic strings has been pivotal.

He received his undergraduate degree in physics in 1971 in the former Soviet Union (University of Kharkiv). He later moved to the United States, where he obtained his PhD at University at Buffalo in New York.

Vilenkin’s research areas of interest include Cosmic inflation, dark energy, cosmic strings and monopoles, quantum cosmology, high-energy cosmic rays, the multiverse, and anthropic selection. Among his published books are Many Worlds in One: The Search for Other Universes and Cosmic Strings and Other Topological Defects. His work has been featured in numerous newspaper and magazine articles in the United States, Europe, Russia, and Japan, and in many popular books.

Papers

See Alexander Vilenkin’s Papers