David Kaiser

David Kaiser is Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science and Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also recently served as inaugural Associate Dean for MIT’s new multidisciplinary efforts in Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing. Before joining the MIT faculty, Kaiser completed PhDs in theoretical physics and in the history of science at Harvard University. 

He is the author of several award-winning books about modern physics, including Drawing Theories Apart: The Dispersion of Feynman Diagrams in Postwar Physics (2005), which received the Pfizer Prize from the History of Science Society for best book in the field; and How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival (2011), which received the Davis Prize from the History of Science Society for best book aimed at a general audience, and was named “Book of the Year” by Physics World magazine. His latest book, Quantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World (2020), was honored with book-of-the-year accolades from Physics Today and Physics World magazines and was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title.

Kaiser directs a research group in MIT’s Center for Theoretical Physics that focuses on black holes and the big bang, and he has collaborated with Nobel laureate Anton Zeilinger to design and conduct novel experimental tests of quantum entanglement. A Fellow of the American Physical Society and recipient of the APS LeRoy Apker Award, Kaiser has also received MIT’s highest honors for excellence in teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate-student levels. A frequent contributor to National Public Radio and PBS NOVA television documentaries, his work has also been featured in Science, Nature, the New York Times, and the New Yorker magazine. Kaiser recently served as an advisor to a working group of the US National Academy of Sciences regarding generative AI and the natural sciences.