7pm - 8:30pm
Wednesday 22 October 2025
Surrey Speaks Quantum: The Strangeness of the Quantum World
Join us for Surrey Speaks: Quantum – The Strangeness of the Quantum World, a captivating lecture series exploring the famously puzzling nature of quantum physics. In celebration of the 2025 International Year of Quantum Science & Technology.
Free
Manor Park Campus
University of Surrey
Guildford
Surrey
GU2 7AL
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Overview
Discover why quantum physics is so famously strange—and how logic helps us make sense of it. Inspired by physicist Richard Feynman’s idea of a “logical tightrope, ” this talk explores how we can think about quantum systems in a way that connects surprisingly well with everyday reasoning. No prior physics knowledge needed—just curiosity!
This event is brought to you by the University of Surrey Quantum Sciences Group.
Speaker: Professor Fay Dowker
Professor Helen Fay Dowker (born 9 September 1965 in Manchester, England) is a distinguished British theoretical physicist renowned for her work in quantum gravity and causal set theory. She studied at Manchester High School for Girls before pursuing the Mathematical Tripos at the University of Cambridge, where she earned the Tyson Medal in 1987. Dowker completed her PhD in 1990 under the supervision of Stephen Hawking, focusing on spacetime wormholes.
Her postdoctoral research took her to prestigious institutions including Fermilab, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Caltech. She later lectured at Queen Mary University of London before joining Imperial College London, where she is currently a Professor of Theoretical Physics and a member of the Theoretical Physics Group. She also holds a Visiting Fellowship at the Perimeter Institute.
Dowker’s research spans quantum cosmology, black hole physics, and the foundations of spacetime. She has published extensively in leading journals and contributed significantly to the development of causal set theory. In 2018, she delivered a heartfelt eulogy at Stephen Hawking’s funeral, describing him as her “teacher, mentor and friend.”
She is the daughter of physicist Stuart Dowker and was featured on BBC Radio 4’s The Life Scientific in 2017.
