Cohl Furey facts for kids

Cohl Furey, also known as Nichol Furey, is a Canadian mathematical physicist. This means she is a scientist who uses advanced math to understand how the universe works, especially tiny particles.

Cohl Furey's Education and Work

Cohl Furey has studied a lot to become a physicist. She earned a bachelor's degree in math and physics from Simon Fraser University in 2005. Then, she got a master's degree from the University of Cambridge in 2006.

She completed her Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Waterloo in 2015. Theoretical physics is about using math to explain how the universe works, without needing to do experiments.

Research and Fellowships

From 2016 to 2019, Dr. Furey was a research fellow at Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge. She also spent time at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cape Town.

Since 2020, she has been working at the Humboldt University of Berlin. She is there thanks to a special grant called a Freigeist Fellowship from the Volkswagen Foundation.

What Cohl Furey Studies

Dr. Furey is very interested in special types of math called division algebras, Clifford algebras, and Jordan algebras. She explores how these math ideas connect to particle physics. Particle physics is the study of the smallest pieces that make up everything around us.

Her main goal is to find a hidden mathematical structure that explains the Standard Model of particle physics. The Standard Model is like a rulebook that describes all the known fundamental particles and forces in the universe.

Octonions and the Standard Model

Dr. Furey is especially known for her work on octonions. These are a type of number system that is more complex than regular numbers. She tries to use octonions to understand the Standard Model.

In 2018, she published an important paper. In this paper, she showed how octonions could help explain the Standard Model's symmetry group. This group describes how particles behave. Her math correctly predicted the electric charges and other features of particles like electrons, neutrinos, and quarks. It also included their anti-particles.

Her work also suggested why electric charge comes in specific, whole units. It's like how you can only have a whole number of apples, not half an apple. In 2022, she and Mia Hughes found a link between how symmetries break in physics and these special math systems, including octonions.

Media Recognition

In 2019, Wired.com featured Cohl Furey in an article. The article was called "10 Women in Science and Tech Who Should Be Household Names." This shows that her work is recognized as important.

Notable Publications

Cohl Furey has written many important scientific papers about her research.