Fotini Markopoulou-Kalamara facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Fotini Markopoulou-Kalamara
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| Born | April 3, 1971 Athens, Greece
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| Alma mater | Queen Mary University of London Imperial College London Royal College of Art |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Theoretical physics Design engineering Technology |
| Institutions | Pennsylvania State University Imperial College London Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics Santa Fe Institute Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics |
| Academic advisors | Christopher Isham |
Fotini G. Markopoulou-Kalamara, born on April 3, 1971, is a brilliant Greek scientist. She is a theoretical physicist and a design engineer. Her work explores many exciting areas, including how gravity works at a tiny level (called quantum gravity), how the universe began (quantum cosmology), and how technology changes over time. She also studies how our bodies and minds work together and how to design groups that encourage new ideas and scientific discoveries.
Fotini is currently a leader at ComplexReal. This group looks at important points where science, technology, and culture meet. She also helped start the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and was a co-founder and CEO of Empathic Technologies.
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About Fotini's Journey
Fotini was born in Athens, Greece. Her parents, Dimitris Kalamaras and Maria Vassilatou, were both sculptors. She earned her PhD from Imperial College London in 1998. After that, she worked at several famous research centers, including the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and the Pennsylvania State University. She also visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Santa Fe Institute.
In 2010, Fotini received the Alexander von Humboldt Award, which is a special honor for experienced researchers. She also shared first prize at a symposium (a meeting for experts) held in honor of a famous physicist named J.A. Wheeler.
In 2014, Fotini earned two master's degrees in Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London. This program teaches people how to create new and important inventions by observing the world, thinking creatively, and using new technologies. Her group project for this program won the Deutsche Bank Award for Creative Enterprise in 2014. It was even shown at the John Lewis Future Store!
Exploring Quantum Gravity
Fotini Markopoulou-Kalamara has done important work in quantum gravity. This field tries to combine two big ideas in physics: quantum mechanics (which describes the tiny world of atoms) and general relativity (which describes gravity and the large-scale universe).
In one of her papers, she used ideas from a complex math area called "category theory" to create simple models of spacetime. Spacetime is the four-dimensional fabric of our universe, combining space and time. She imagined "evolving sets" to help understand how quantum spacetime might work.
Quantum Graphity: A New Idea
In 2008, Fotini and her team started studying a new model called Quantum Graphity. Imagine the universe as a giant network, like a graph. In this model, points in spacetime are like "nodes" (dots) on the graph. These nodes are connected by "links" (lines). These links can be "on" or "off," showing if two points are directly connected in spacetime.
When the links are "on," they have special properties that make the graph change and move. At very high temperatures (like at the very beginning of the universe), all the points are connected, and spacetime as we know it doesn't exist. But as the universe cools down, the model changes. Spacetime then appears, with points becoming less connected and forming geometric shapes. This idea suggests that spacetime itself might have "condensed" or formed during the Big Bang, similar to how water vapor condenses into liquid water.
Fotini is also one of the scientists who uses ideas from quantum computing to develop new theories about gravity. She has written about how spacetime itself might be like a giant computer.
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
In 1999, Dr. Markopoulou was invited to help start the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada. She joined two other famous physicists, Rob Myers and Lee Smolin. The institute received a large donation from Mike Lazaridis, who founded BlackBerry.
The Perimeter Institute is now one of the world's leading centers for research and training in theoretical physics. It brings together scientists from around the globe to make breakthroughs that can change our future. Fotini left the Perimeter Institute in 2011 when its new director decided to change the institute's main focus.
Empathic Technologies and Stress Reduction
From 2014 to 2022, Dr. Markopoulou was a co-founder and CEO of Empathic Technologies. This company used new discoveries about how our bodies and minds work together (called "embodied cognition") to create technologies that could change how people feel and behave.
One of their products was a wristband called "doppel." This wristband was designed to help reduce stress. Studies showed that doppel had a calming effect on people during stressful situations. Fotini received a U.S. Patent for this invention in 2016. In 2018, she won the Best Female-Led Investment Award from the UK Business Angels Association.
Focus on Emotions and Technology
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people faced challenges with their mental health. This led Fotini to expand the work of Empathic Technologies. She led a team that spent a year researching the future of emotions and technologies that could help with them.
How Technologies Evolve
Fotini Markopoulou-Kalamara has also explored how technologies change over time. She worked with other experts to study the growing difference between "physical technologies" and "social technologies."
Physical technologies are ways we organize matter, energy, or information, like building a computer or a bridge. Social technologies are ways we organize people and their behavior, such as laws, customs, or organizations. Sometimes, our physical technology advances much faster than our social technology. This can create problems.
Fotini helped organize workshops to bring together engineers, scientists, writers, and other thinkers. They worked to find ways to track these changes and create plans for the future. Their findings were shared in an article called "Collaborators in Creation." The workshops were also filmed and became part of an award-winning documentary called Solutions.
