Sean Carroll

Ph.D., Harvard University

California Institute of Technology

Professor Sean Carroll is a Senior Research Associate in Physics at the California Institute of Technology. He earned his undergraduate degree from Villanova University and his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Harvard in 1993.

Before arriving at Caltech, Professor Carroll taught in the Physics Department and the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago, and did postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Professor Carroll is the author of Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity, published in 2003. He has taught more than 200 scientific seminars and colloquia and given more than 50 educational and popular talks. In addition, he has written for numerous publications including Nature, New Scientist, The American Scientist, and Physics Today.

Professor Carroll has received research grants from NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation, as well as fellowships from the Sloan and Packard foundations. He has been the Malmstrom Lecturer at Hamline University, the Resnick Lecturer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a National Science Foundation Distinguished Lecturer. While at MIT, Carroll won the Graduate Student Council Teaching Award for his course on general relativity. In 2006 he received the Arts and Sciences Alumni Medallion from Villanova University.

Save Up To $185	Mysteries of Modern Physics: Time Professor Sean Carroll Time rules our lives. From the rising and setting of the sun to the cycles of nature, the thought processes in our brains, and the biorhythms in our day, nothing so pervades our existence and yet is so difficult to explain. Time seems to be woven into the very fabric of the universe. But why? In 24 riveting half-hour lectures, Mysteries of Modern Physics: Time shows how a feature of the world that we all experience connects us to the instant of the formation of the universe—and possibly to a multiverse that is unimaginably larger and more varied than the known cosmos.

	Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe Professor Sean Carroll Everything we can see with our eyes and with powerful instruments—everything we think of as atom-based matter—is only 5 percent of what we know exists. The rest of the contents of the cosmos is invisible to our current methods of detection—but something out there is holding galaxies and galaxy clusters together, and something else is causing space itself to fly apart. These invisible components are dark matter and dark energy, the most eagerly studied subjects in astronomy and particle physics today.

	Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe & Particle Physics for Non-Physicists (Set) Professor Sean Carroll Peer into the dark and infinitely small corners of our universe in these two eye-opening science courses. A theoretical physicist tells the absorbing story of dark matter and dark energy—the two most eagerly studied subjects in astronomy and particle physics today—in Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe. Then, unlock the secrets of the universe with Particle Physics for Non-Physicists: A Tour of the Microcosmos, an equally accessible look at the quantum world of quarks, neutrinos, and more.

	Impossible: Physics beyond the Edge & Dark Matter, Dark Energy (Set) Professor Sean Carroll Peer inside two of the most mysterious corners of the scientific world with this fascinating course set. First, encounter some of the most intriguing concepts at the edge of modern physics with Impossible: Physics beyond the Edge. Then, explore the invisible components that have brought us to the brink of knowing—for the first time in history—what the universe is made of with Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe.

	Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe & Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, 2nd Edition (Set) Professor Sean Carroll Uncover answers to the mysteries and secrets of our universe and our physical reality in this riveting course set. Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe explores two of the most eagerly studied subjects in modern cosmology. And in Einstein’s Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, 2nd Edition, grasp the fascinating concepts of relativity and quantum physics in a way that any interested person can understand.

	Physics and Our Universe: How It All Works & Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe (Set) Professor Sean Carroll Embark on a thrilling and unforgettable tour of the physical universe with this richly illustrated and highly rewarding two-course set. First, get an introduction to scores of fundamental ideas such as Newtonian mechanics, thermodynamics, electricity, quantum theory, and so much more in Physics and Our Universe: How It All Works. Then, learn the absorbing scientific story behind the two most eagerly studied subjects in astronomy and particle physics today with Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe.

	Chaos & Dark Matter, Dark Energy (Set) Professor Sean Carroll Travel to the frontiers of science in these two fascinating courses that give you new ways to think about the universe and your everyday world. Chaos is an in-depth exploration of the history and applications of chaos theory—the study of how sensitive systems behave over time. Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe explores how the concepts of dark matter and dark energy—the most eagerly studied subjects in astronomy and particle physics—have brought us closer than ever to understanding the true nature of the universe.

	Cosmology: The History and Nature of Our Universe & Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe (Set) Professor Sean Carroll Journey to the farthest reaches of the cosmos and explore our latest understanding of some of its most mysterious characteristics with this two-course set. In Cosmology: The History and Nature of Our Universe, investigate the origin, composition, evolution, and probable fate of the universe in a series of richly illustrated lectures. Then, in Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe, confront two of the most intriguing and eagerly studied phenomena in astronomy and particle physics.

	Mysteries of Modern Physics: Time & Black Holes Explained (Set) Professor Sean Carroll Endeavor to understand two concepts that may have previously seemed beyond comprehension in this mind-bending two-course set. First, Mysteries of Modern Physics: Time shows how a feature of the world that we all experience connects us to the instant of the formation of the universe—and possibly to a multiverse that is unimaginably larger and more varied than the known cosmos. Then, Black Holes Explained reveals the secrets of photon spheres, event horizons, Einstein rings, and other concepts involved in the study of black holes.

	The Science Of The Next 100 Years (Set) Professor Sean Carroll Science, more than any other field of human study, is home to lightning-fast changes with the power to instantly revolutionize our understanding of the universe. So what are the scientific ideas that will occupy headlines and news stories for the next 100 years? What effects will they have on the way you think about—and live in—the world around you? The courses featured in this special section are your quick and easy way to finally make sense of these undeniably fascinating and important subjects. Shrink down and examine the microscopic realm of quantum mechanics, learn how scientists use chaos theory to grasp how complex systems work, journey to the heart of a supermassive black hole, and more.

	Mysteries of Modern Physics: Time & Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe (Set) Professor Sean Carroll Embark on an exploration of physics that will change the way you view the world in this two-course set from Professor Sean Carroll of the California Institute of Technology. First, in Mysteries of Modern Physics: Time, you’ll examine how a feature of the world that we all experience connects us to the instant of the formation of the universe—and possibly to a multiverse larger and more varied than the known cosmos. Then, in Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe, you’ll learn that forces invisible to our methods of detection are holding galaxies and galaxy clusters together, and causing space itself to fly apart.

	Mysteries of Modern Physics: Time & Impossible: Physics beyond the Edge (Set) Professor Sean Carroll Explore the mind-bending insights that modern physics has to offer in this two-course set. First, in Mysteries of Modern Physics: Time, you’ll examine how a feature of the world that we all experience connects us to the instant of the formation of the universe—and possibly to a multiverse larger and more varied than the known cosmos. Then, in Impossible: Physics beyond the Edge, you’ll learn more about physics than you ever imagined in lectures that probe black holes, reversing the flow of time, and more.

	Mysteries of Modern Physics: Time & Quantum Mechanics: The Physics of the Microscopic World (Set) Professor Sean Carroll Unlock the secrets of the universe with two physics courses designed for nonscientists. First, in Mysteries of Modern Physics: Time, you’ll examine how a feature of the world that we all experience connects us to the instant of the formation of the universe—and possibly to a multiverse larger and more varied than the known cosmos. Then, in Quantum Mechanics: The Physics of the Microscopic World, you’ll get a picture of the world so radically counterintuitive that it has changed our perspective on reality itself.

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Sean Carroll