How diversity will help us understand the universe | Viraf Mehta | TEDxUniGoettingen

What does a theoretical physicist look like? Why should that matter? The history of physics is filled with great discoveries by great individuals but in a time of `big data’ science from large, international scientific collaborations, is the idea of the lone genius physicist still relevant? Viraf Mehta has been a researcher in theoretical physics for over 10 years and is trained to ask questions of nature and the universe. However, in this talk, he’d like to ask a question that can shape science of the future: how can diversity, equity and inclusion help us ask better questions about the universe? He will argue that, as well as the morally just path, science is improved and made more sustainable when undertaken by people with different backgrounds. Viraf, who is a postdoc in theoretical physics in Göttingen and has been a researcher in this field for over 10 years. If he's not a scientist he likes to play drums , but he's also a really active squash player. At the moment he's thinking a lot about representations in high energy physics and what the unwritten rules are for who is allowed to be theorist. The history is filled with great discoveries by great individuals but in a time of 'big data' science from large international scientific collaborations, is the idea of a typical genius physicist still relevant? What does a theoretical physicist look like? And why should that matter? Since he worked in the intersections of particle physics, astrophysics, mathematical physics and mathematical statistics, he is trained to ask questions of nature and the universe. However in his talk, he'd like to ask a question that can shape the science of the future: how can diversity, equity and inclusion help us to install now a better understanding of the universe? This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx