Theoretical physicist Sabrina González Pasterski, already considered by many to be the “next Albert Einstein”
He doesn’t (yet) have Einstein’s extravagant hair or magnificent mustache, but there are those who say that his brain is second to none. At just 32 years old, Sabrina Pasterski is one of the most prominent theoretical physicists in the world — but she rejects media attention and comparisons with the German physicist.
Born in Chicago on June 3, 1993, Sabrina González Pasterski became one of the most promising names in world theoretical physics.
At just 32 years old, the American scientist of Polish and Cuban descent has already achieved an enviable reputation in the study of quantum gravity and holographic celestialhaving often been nicknamed “the next Albert Einstein” — a comparison he rejects: “no one will ever be Einstein again.”
Pasterski’s story is as unusual as it is impressive. At the age of nine, he began to have piloting lessons. A few years later, between the ages of 12 and 14, built your own planea Zenith CH 601 XL, which he drove before he was even old enough to drive a car.
“It really felt like freedom,” Pasterski recalls of the first flights. This aeronautical feat helped her to be accepted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after initially being placed on waiting list.
In 2012, at the age of 19, she was chosen for the “” list of Scientific American. He said at the time that it had been Jeff Bezos to attract her to physics. Already at MIT, Pasterski decided to change the direction of his career. “I thought: I already did aerospace engineering, Now I’m going to be a physicist“he explains.
The decision turned out to be right. She graduated in 2013 with a perfect 5.0 GPA, becoming the first woman in decades with the best grade from your class in the MIT physics program. He then continued to Harvard, where he completed his doctorate in 2019, under the supervision of Andrew Strominger.
It was during his doctorate that Pasterski, together with Strominger and Alexander Zhiboedov, discovered a new gravitational memory effect related to gravitational waves, which would later be called by physicists “triângulo Pasterski-Strominger-Zhiboedov“, a fundamental contribution to the understanding of space-time symmetries.
This work would even be cited in a publication in 2016 by Strominger and Stephen Hawking already Physical Review Letters about “soft hair” in black holes, one of the attempts to rethink the information paradox.
Em 2021, Pasterski rejected a 1 million dollar proposal from the prestigious Brown University and joined the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, in Canada, where he founded and leads , a project that explores one of the most intriguing questions in physics: Is it possible to describe our three-dimensional universe through a two-dimensional theory?
“Celestial holography are two words: celestial and holography,” explains Pasterski. “By celestial, we literally mean looking at the night sky – how do you encode the physical universe as a hologram?”
If fully understood, this idea could lead to significant advances in mystery of quantum gravitysays the North American physicist.
Despite his brilliant career, Pasterski admits that media attention early brought unwanted pressure. “It wasn’t imposter syndrome – it was knowing that you are really an impostor” due to the titles that, even before completing her doctorate, already dubbed her the “next Einstein”.
Today, at the Perimeter Institute, Pasterski says he has found his place. “I definitely found my people here“, he says. In his office, among physics books, airplane projects and a pinball machine, the young scientist continues to unlock the secrets of the universe – one discovery at a time.
