Christopher Isham

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British theoretical physicist

title: "Christopher Isham" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["living-people", "academics-of-imperial-college-london", "british-theoretical-physicists", "donegall-lecturers-of-mathematics-at-trinity-college-dublin", "members-of-the-international-society-for-science-and-religion", "british-christians", "1944-births", "deans-of-the-imperial-college-faculty-of-natural-sciences"] description: "British theoretical physicist" topic_path: "science/mathematics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Isham" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British theoretical physicist ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox scientist"]

FieldValue
nameChristopher Isham
image
birth_date
fieldsQuantum gravity
Quantum theory foundations
workplacesImperial College London
alma_materImperial College London (PhD, 1969)
doctoral_advisorPaul Taunton Matthews
academic_advisorsAbdus Salam
known_forResearch in Quantum gravity
awardsIOP Dirac Medal (2011)
::

| name = Christopher Isham | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_date = | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | nationality = | fields = Quantum gravity Quantum theory foundations | workplaces = Imperial College London | alma_mater = Imperial College London (PhD, 1969) | doctoral_advisor = Paul Taunton Matthews | academic_advisors = Abdus Salam | doctoral_students = | known_for = Research in Quantum gravity | awards = IOP Dirac Medal (2011) Christopher Isham (; born 28 April 1944), usually cited as Chris J. Isham, is a theoretical physicist at Imperial College London.

Research

Isham's main research interests are quantum gravity and foundational studies in quantum theory. He was the inventor of an approach to temporal quantum logic called the HPO formalism, and has worked on loop quantum gravity and quantum geometrodynamics. Together with other physicists, such as John C. Baez, Isham is known as a proponent of the utility of category theory in theoretical physics. In recent years, since at least 1997, he has been working on a new approach to quantum theory based on topos theory.

He is the author of Modern differential geometry for physicists, first published in 1989.

Isham has appeared in several NOVA television programmes as well as a film about Stephen Hawking. Physicist Paul Davies has described Isham as "Britain's greatest quantum gravity expert". As a practising Christian, Isham has also written about the relationships among philosophy, theology, and physics.

Awards

Bibliography

  • Isham, C. J., Physics, Philosophy, and Theology, 1988
  • Isham (1989), Modern Differential Geometry for Physicists; 2nd edn in 1999.
  • Christopher Isham, "Quantum Theories of the Creation of the Universe," in R. Russell, N. Murphy and C. J. Isham (eds.), Quantum Cosmology and the Laws of Nature (Vatican City: Vatican Press, 1993), p. 74.
  • Christopher Isham, "Creation of the Universe as a Quantum Tunnelling Process," in (eds. R. J. Russell et al.), Physics, Philosophy and Theology (Vatican City: Vatican Press, 1988), pp. 375–408.
  • Isham, C. J. (1993), "Canonical Quantum Gravity and the Problem of Time", in L. A. Ibort and M. A. Rodríguez (eds.), Integrable Systems, Quantum Groups, and Quantum Field theories. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 157-288.
  • Isham, C. J., K. V. Kuchař, "Representations Of Space-Time Diffeomorphisms. 2. Canonical Geometrodynamics," Annals of Physics 164:316 (1985).
  • Isham, C. J. (1994), Prima facie questions in quantum gravity, in Ehlers and Friedrich 25 (1994), 1-21.
  • Isham, C. J. (1997), "Structural Issues in Quantum Gravity", in M. Francaviglia et al. (eds.), Florence 1995, General Relativity and Gravitation, World Scientific.
  • Butterfield, Jeremy, and Chris Isham (1999), "On the Emergence of Time in Quantum Gravity", in Butterfield (1999), 111-168.
  • Butterfield, Jeremy, and Christopher Isham (2001), "Spacetime and the Philosophical Challenge of Quantum Gravity", in Craig Callender and Nick Huggett (eds.) (2001), 33-89.
  • Döring, Andreas and Isham, Chris, "What is a Thing?: Topos Theory in the Foundations of Physics", in Bob Coecke, New Structures in Physics, Chapter 13, pp. 753–940, Lecture Notes in Physics, 813, Springer, 2011, , (also see )

References

References

  1. "Christopher John Isham".
  2. Gordon Fraser, ''Cosmic Anger: Abdus Salam — The First Muslim Nobel Scientist'', OUP, 2008, p. 119.
  3. ''Who's who of British Scientists'', Vol. 8, Simon Books, 1981
  4. Victorino, Terrence James. (2011-10-16). "Christopher Isham". Log Press.
  5. [http://www.iop.org/about/awards/gold/dirac/medallists/page_51317.html 2011 Dirac Medal of the Institute of Physics] on the [[Institute of Physics. IOP]] website

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living-peopleacademics-of-imperial-college-londonbritish-theoretical-physicistsdonegall-lecturers-of-mathematics-at-trinity-college-dublinmembers-of-the-international-society-for-science-and-religionbritish-christians1944-birthsdeans-of-the-imperial-college-faculty-of-natural-sciences