about-pacific-science-institute

WELCOME TO THE PACIFIC SCIENCE INSTITUTE

Our mission is to provide scientists the freedom to explore the boundaries of knowledge in an independent, transdisciplinary research community outside the confines of traditional academic institutions.

The Pacific Science Institute is an outpost on the frontier of science, geographically and intellectually, with an ever-expanding reach. We envision an ideal theoretical research environment, where resident guests do groundbreaking and valuable work. In this idyllic location, diverse worldviews and a playful approach to life converge, opening doors to creativity and breakthrough thinking. Within this supportive environment, edgier research directions can be pursued to new conclusions. Scientists from myriad traditions, fields, locations, and cultures intersect and share their ideas, raising the intellectual bar for each other.

It is in the nature of science to push boundaries; it is how breakthroughs happen and history gets made. By providing a world class location to visit, work, play, and collaborate with other scientists and science-friendly creatives, the Pacific Science Institute aims to increase creative productivity and overall quality of life for scientists, and foster a broad range of exciting new ideas, papers, and collaborations from within the ranks of our community. Participants share their discoveries at PSI gatherings, and worldwide.

featured-guest

Featured Guests

Melanie Matheu

Melanie earned her PhD in biology at the University of California, Irvine, and her undergrad in biochemistry from UC Santa Barbara. Fascinated by the communication networks within the immune system that allow for rapid signal integration at the single cell and multicellular level, she believes that building a better understanding of these networks will allow us to approach major diseases through the lens of individualized structure-based problem solving rather than through symptom based nonspecific care. She is also a trail running enthusiast, amateur mycologist, surfer, and loves taking her white german shepherd on hiking trips.

Ryan Reece

Ryan Reece is a postdoctoral researcher at the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, working with the ATLAS experiment at CERN. Previously, as a graduate student at Penn, also with ATLAS, he helped commission the Transition Radiation Tracker (TRT), a subdetector of the ATLAS tracker, during the startup of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2009-2012. Ryan’s research has primarily focused on supporting and optimizing the reconstruction of hadronic tau decays, and searching for exotic new physics in ditau and diphoton events, including signs of Grand Unified Theories and Supersymmetry.

Hans Westman

Hans Westman earned his PhD in theoretical physics at Gothenburg University in 2004. His research has focused on the foundations of quantum theory and general relativity. He investigated the status of the equivalence principle within quantum field theory in curved spacetimes and developed a general formalism for describing localized qubits, including teleportation, entanglement, and multipartite states. He also developed a formalism for studying local quanta, vacuum entanglement, and the problem with unitary inequivalent Fock representations. He is currently involved in developing Cartan gravity as a novel approach to dark energy, scale invariance, and the unification of fundamental forces.

history

History

The Pacific Science Institute began as a dream of theoretical physicist Garrett Lisi. Having eschewed a traditional physics career in an academic setting, Garrett embarked upon a life of independent research on the island of Maui, with periods of work punctuated by outings to surf, kiteboard, or paraglide. In living this fun, focused, free lifestyle, and seeing its effect on the quality of his work and his life, he envisioned an institute where other scientists could enjoy the same experience: working and playing in a beautiful locale, guided by their intellectual curiosity and sense of adventure.

founders

Leadership

Garrett Lisi, Director

Garrett is an iconoclastic physicist. After getting his Ph.D. from UC San Diego, he moved to the island of Maui to find an optimum balance between enjoying the outdoors and pursuing his own theoretical research. While pursuing an unanswered question at the heart of Quantum Field Theory, he soon found himself looking at the most beautiful unified model of particle physics anyone had ever seen. Dr. Lisi has authored numerous publications, earned many awards, and presented in forums around the world. His story and work have been featured at TED, in Outside Magazine, The New Yorker, and recently in Scientific American.

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Melanie Matheu, President

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Keith Powers, Advisor

Keith has been active in start-ups, investments and building world-class companies and organizations for almost 20 years. He is currently a Managing Partner at Engaged Partners, LLC, and works closely with inventors, entrepreneurs, investors, philanthropists, and CEO’s to help them take their passions to the next level. He is also the Executive Director of the Palo Alto Longevity Prize, a $1M incentive prize to foster breakthroughs in health and longevity. He previously has held senior leadership positions at REI Capital, the X PRIZE Foundation, Prize Capital, Singularity University, City Year, Sun Apparel-The Polo Jeans Company, Zaya, Khan Academy and Zepp Technologies. He is an advisor to a variety of startups including Swell.am (Acquired by Apple in 2014),Zepplabs.com, WholeShare.com, Skild.com, YummieLife.com, and HubNami.com. He is also a co-founder of the Maui based Aloha Initiative – which provided citizens ofJapan who were displaced by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis with awarm and welcome home on Maui. He has served on numerous boards and is amember of NRDC’s Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2). He splits his time between PaloAlto, CA and Maui, HI.