Laura Mersini-Houghton
Laura Mersini-Houghton | |
|---|---|
Mersini-Houghton in 2016 | |
| Born | |
| Nationality | Albanian, American |
| Alma mater | Tirana University University of Maryland University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee |
| Known for | Multiverse, Origin of the Universe theory, Hawking radiation theory |
| Spouse | Jeff Houghton |
| Children | 1 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | cosmology and theoretical physics |
| Institutions | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| Doctoral advisor | Leonard Parker |
Laura Mersini-Houghton (née Mersini) is an Albanian-American cosmologist and theoretical physicist, and professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a proponent of the multiverse hypothesis and the author of a theory for the origin of the universe that holds that our universe is one of many selected by quantum gravitational dynamics of matter and energy. Predictions of her theory have been successfully tested by astrophysical data.. She argues that anomalies in the current structure of the universe are best explained as the gravitational tug exerted by other universes.