David Albert

At the World Science Festival in May 2008.

David Z Albert, Ph.D., is Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy and Director of the M.A. Program in The Philosophical Foundations of Physics at Columbia University in New York. He received his B.S. in physics from Columbia College (1976) and his doctorate in theoretical physics from The Rockefeller University (1981) under Professor Nicola Khuri.^[1] Afterwards he worked with Professor Yakir Aharonov of Tel Aviv University.

Prof. Albert has published two books (Quantum Mechanics and Experience (1992) and Time and Chance (2000) ) and numerous articles on quantum mechanics. His books are both praised and criticized for their informal, conversational style, but he is routinely credited by both fan and critic as having a talent for communicating difficult, highly abstract concepts in ways that are accessible to the lay science reader.

Appearance in What the Bleep Do We Know!?

Prof. Albert appeared in the controversial movie What the Bleep Do We Know!? (2004). He was disappointed with the final product, claiming that the film's producers used selective editing to make him appear to agree with claims that he completely disagreed with.

According to a Popular Science article, he is "outraged at the final product." ^[2] The article states that Albert granted the filmmakers a near-four hour interview about quantum mechanics being unrelated to consciousness or spirituality. His interview was then edited and incorporated into the film in a way that misrepresented his views. In the article, Albert also expresses his feelings of gullibility after having been "taken" by the filmmakers. Although Albert is listed as a scientist taking part in the sequel to What the Bleep, called "Down the Rabbit Hole" ^[3], this sequel is a "director's cut", composed of extra footage from the filming of the first movie. ^[4] The "Down the Rabbit Hole" version features David as the first subject in the interview portion of the film. In that interview he expresses his disagreement with the major thrust of the original "What the Bleep Do We Know!?"

References

1. ^ His doctoral thesis was entitled: Determination of the critical exponents of the n-vector model by Borel resummation
2. ^ http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/463c0b4511b84010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html
3. ^ http://www.whatthebleep.com/scientists/drh-scientists.shtml
4. ^ http://www.whatthebleep.com/

External links

• David Albert faculty page
• Review of What the Bleep Do We Know!? from Popular Science quoting Prof. Albert's opinion on his involvement with the film
• David Albert Interview at BigThink.com. Discussing the measurement problem in quantum mechanics theory (53 minutes).
• Video discussions with Sean Carroll about science related topics on Bloggingheads.tv

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Name	Albert, David
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Date of birth	1954
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