Claudia de Rham

Claudia de Rham

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Speaker Profile

Claudia de Rham is a theoretical physicist based at Imperial College London. Her work at the interface of gravity, cosmology and particle physics won her the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists in 2020. She is tireless campaigner against the underrepresentation of girls in physics and frequently speaks in schools and for other organisations about diversity in the sciences.

Her book The Beauty of Falling: A Life in Pursuit of Gravity tells the fascinating personal story of de Rham’s quest to gain intimacy with gravity, to understand both its feeling and fundamental nature. An aspiring astronaut whose opportunity to go into space was unexpectedly snatched away from her, de Rham has instead played with gravity as a diver, a pilot and – above all – an award-winning researcher who, in redirecting her energy towards physics, made an breakthrough at the very frontiers of gravitational science.

Books1

Ideas3

    Ideas Podcast: The Beauty of Falling, Claudia de Rham The Beauty of Falling While many of us presume to know gravity quite well, the brightest scientists in history have yet to fully answer the simple question: what exactly is gravity? De Rham reveals how great minds—from Newton and Einstein to Stephen Hawking, Andrea Ghez, ... Read More
    The Beauty of Falling audiobook cover Listen in: The Beauty of Falling Claudia de Rham is a world-renowned physicist seeking gravity’s true nature and who has found wisdom in embracing its force in her life. Listen to a sample chapter from the audiobook. Read More
    Illustrated depiction of a woman in a dress floating and falling. Blue sky, clouds, and airplane behind her. Claudia de Rham on The Beauty of Falling Claudia de Rham shares captivating stories about her quest to gain intimacy with gravity, to understand both its feeling and fundamental nature. Her life’s pursuit led her from a twist of fate that snatched away her dream of becoming an astronaut to ... Read More