Professor Robert de Mello Koch, University of the Witwatersrand


Collingwood College January - March 2013


Robert de Mello Koch holds the Chair of Fundamental Physics and String Theory at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. After completing a BS in Engineering, he switched to Physics obtaining a PhD from the University of the W itwatersrand and completing a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Brown University in 1998-1999. Professor de Mello Koch has published widely on the large Nlimit of quantum field theories, string theory and gauge theory / gravity dualities, which are providing profound insights into the problem of uniting Einstein’s theory of General Relativity with Quantum Mechanics to produce a single theory of Quantum Gravity .


For the last five years his work has focused on non-planar limits of these dualities and he has developed novel methods that allow the use of group representation theory to solve quantum field theory problems. His projects have been supported by the Royal Society and by the National Research Foundation of South Africa who awarded him the President’s Award in 2001. He serves on the board and management committee of the newly formed National Institute for Theoretical Physics of South Africa. He is a fellow of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies.


He received the Friedel Sellschop Award in 1999 for his work on the large Nlimit of matrix models and the Silver Jubilee Medal of the South African Institute of Physics in 2001 for his work on tachyon condensation in open bosonic string field theory.


While at the IAS, Professor de Mello Koch will participate with colleagues on projects centred on the Institute’ s sub-theme ‘Nature and Geometry of Time.’ In particular, he will be developing his most recent ideas which have led to the discovery of integrability in non-planar large Nlimits of N= 4 super Yang-Mills theory. Two lines of development will be pursued. The emergence of time and geometry from quantum field theories as well as the dynamical role of the newly discovered integrability.


Professor Jerry Moore, California State University, Dominguez Hills Trevelyan College January - March 2013


Jerry D. Moore is an anthropological archaeologist and Professor of Anthropology at California State University Dominguez Hills, California. His research interests focus on cultural landscapes, the archaeology of architecture, and human adaptations on the north coast of Peru and northern Baja California.


Moore’s current archaeological research examines the origins of settled village life and emergent social complexity in the far north of Peru. Directing excavations in the little known Department of Tumbes in 2006/7 Moore uncovered a sequence of prehistoric dwellings and other structures dating from ca 4700 to 500 BC. This research also documented the creation of elaborate mortuary rituals and public architecture between 3500 and 1600 BC. In 2011, Moore co-directed excavations at the Inca provincial centre of Huaca Cabeza de Vaca, where investigations uncovered a prehispanic workshop dedicated to the manufacture of highly prized shell beads.


Moore’s archaeological fieldwork has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Harvard University’s Center for Pre-Columbian Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D.C., and other agencies and foundations. Moore has been a fellow in Pre-Columbian Studies at Dumbarton Oaks Research Libraries and Collections (1992- 93), at the Sainsbury Centre for the Arts, University of East Anglia (1994), and the Getty Research Institute (2001-2002).


Moore is widely published with over thirty-two articles and book chapters, seventeen reviews, and sixty-four professional papers. He has written several books including The Prehistory of Home (2012). Since 2011, Moore has been the editor of Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology.


During his stay at the IAS Professor Moore will continue to explore archaeological constructs of time in South American prehistory.


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