- Speaker
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Netta Engelhardt, Ph.D.Associate Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The 2026 lecture series in physics is “Black Holes.” Through observational breakthroughs and theoretical advances, this series will explore black holes across scale — from stellar remnants to the supermassive giants at the center of galaxies. Topics will include high-resolution imaging, gravitational wave signals, the black hole information paradox and analogs of black holes in fluids on Earth. These lectures will illuminate how black holes offer a window into fundamental physics and provide a lens for understanding the universe’s most extreme environments.
2026 Lecture Series Themes
Biology – Folding the Future: The Structural Biology Revolution
Mathematics and Computer Science – Randomness
Neuroscience and Autism Science – Brain and Body: Communication and Connection
Presidential Lectures are a series of free public colloquia spotlighting groundbreaking research across four themes: neuroscience and autism science, physics, biology, and mathematics and computer science. These curated, high-level scientific talks feature leading scientists and mathematicians and are designed to foster discussion and drive discovery within the New York City research community. We invite those interested in these topics to join us for this weekly lecture series.
Stephen Hawking made many memorable contributions to science, but perhaps his greatest was a puzzle: Is information that falls into a black hole destroyed, in contradiction with the laws of quantum mechanics? This question sits squarely at the overlap of the quantum world and gravitation, a frontier of physics where direct experimental input is hard to come by.In this Presidential Lecture, Netta Engelhardt will (metaphorically!) dive straight into the black hole interior to explain the origin of this puzzle and its significance in modern physics. The lecture will then turn to the recent revolution in physicists’ understanding of the black hole information paradox and the current state of the resolution. She will conclude with a discussion of where these new insights may lead, what questions remain outstanding and how this may all fit into the universe at large.
About the Speaker
Engelhardt is a theoretical physicist whose research focuses on quantum gravity, black holes and holography. Her work has played a central role in understanding how space-time and gravity emerge from quantum systems, including contributions to the study of entanglement and information in gravitational settings. She received her B.Sc. in physics and mathematics from Brandeis University and her Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University and a member of the Princeton Gravity Initiative before joining the physics faculty at MIT in 2019. She received a 2019 Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists, the 2021 New Horizons in Physics Prize for calculating the quantum information content of black holes and their radiation, the 2023 Gribov Medal of the European Physical Society, and the 2024 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.