Carlo Rovelli

Carlo Rovelli serves as Affiliated Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, where he was a faculty member in the Department of Physics and Astronomy from 1990 to 2000, progressing from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor and then Full Professor. He received his Laurea in Fisica with honors from the Università di Bologna in 1981 and his Ph.D. in Physics from the Università di Padova in 1986. Currently, he holds the position of Professeur de classe exceptionnelle in the Department of Physics at Aix-Marseille University, where he founded the quantum gravity research group at the Centre de Physique Théorique. Rovelli is recognized as one of the founders of loop quantum gravity theory, a non-perturbative approach to quantizing general relativity. His research focuses on quantum gravity, exploring the fundamental structure of space-time at the Planck scale.

Rovelli has authored influential monographs including Quantum Gravity (Cambridge University Press, 2004), providing a comprehensive introduction to background-independent quantum gravity, and Covariant Loop Quantum Gravity with Francesca Vidotto (Cambridge University Press, 2014), detailing the covariant formulation of the theory. He has also written acclaimed popular science books such as Seven Brief Lessons on Physics (Penguin, 2015), translated into 43 languages with 1.3 million copies sold worldwide, The Order of Time (Penguin, 2018), Reality Is Not What It Seems (Penguin, 2016), and Helgoland (Penguin, 2021). Notable early papers include 'Loop space representation for quantum general relativity' with L. Smolin (Nuclear Physics B, 1990). His contributions have shaped theoretical physics, particularly in relational quantum mechanics and quantum gravity phenomenology. Rovelli has received the 2021 Watkin’s Prize, the 2019 Prix du Duc de Villars for The Order of Time, and the 2017 Premio De Sica. He serves as Chief Editor of Foundations of Physics since 2016 and has held editorial roles for journals including Classical and Quantum Gravity and Annales Henri Poincaré. Additionally, he has delivered numerous public lectures on quantum gravity and the philosophy of science.