Professor Anninos said: “My research is in the field of theoretical physics. My main focus concerns a mathematical description of the quantum properties of space and time.
“The motivation stems from recent experimental results indicating that our universe is expanding at an accelerated pace. The acceleration is driven by the presence of a source of energy, often referred to as dark energy or the cosmological constant, whose physical properties we do not yet understand. Among other remarkable features, the acceleration shields the light emitted by distant regions of our universe from ever reaching us! As such, the behaviour of our universe at large scales is related to properties of black holes.
“The aim of the research is to investigate the character of black holes, and the expanding nature of our universe. These questions are intertwined with quantum mechanics, the theory governing the atomic and sub-atomic world, but now also applied to the largest possible distance and time scales. A mathematical theory for an expanding universe, in turn, is necessary for a complete understanding of the earliest period of our universe, sometimes referred to as the big bang era.
“The questions I research have been with us, in some form or another, since the dawn of science. I often give public talks on these topics, at schools and more general audiences. Although these are age-old questions, the last twenty-five years have seen tremendous developments. As is often the case with fundamental or pure science, along the way there are unexpected applications that stem from such developments that have major impact. For instance, the problems I study tie, in a remarkable and unexpected way, to the theory a type of information known as quantum information. This is the same information theory that people are trying to implement in the construction of novel types of quantum computers.