• AC Home
  • News
  • Events
  • Quick Links
Austin College Logo

Sherman, Texas

Apply

Visit

MENU
  • 2022 Issue
    • From the President
    • … Worth a Thousand Words
    • Planet Hunters
    • Austin College Can Feel Like Home – For Everyone
    • The Joy of Giving While We’re Living
    • They’re Somethin’ in the Water
    • How Many Laps Make a Champion?
    • An UP and Coming Sport
    • Arts Prevail in Pandemic Times
    • How to Not Get Lost in the Woods
    • Healing in the Arts
    • From Ida Green to the LA Scene
    • ‘Roo Notes 2022
    • In Other Words
  • Issues
    • 2021 Issue
      • From the President
      • Seeing 20/20
      • On the Front Lines
      • A Broad Worldview Helps Doctors Face a Global Challenge
      • Finding A New Normal
      • Making A Way
      • This Family is All In
      • A Dream Realized
      • No One Plans for a Pandemic
      • Pastoring in 2020
      • CREATE at 5
      • Transformed: Student Success
      • An Expert in the House
      • A Voice for Good Health
      • ‘Roo Notes 2021
      • In Other Words
    • 2020 Issue
      • From the President
      • Global Life: ‘Roos Around the World
      • Good to Go
      • Just Keep Running
      • Pledged to the Public Good
      • Leaves Book and Tea Shop
      • Public Health Program Provides Popular Major and Minor
      • Power to the ‘Roos
      • ‘Roo Notes 2020
      • In Other Words
    • 2019 Issue
      • From the President
      • TWELVE
      • The Making of a Legend
      • One Legend’s Story
      • Sacred Expressions
      • Powering the Future
      • Fierce and Friendly
      • The Stories of the Stones
      • Truth in Art
      • ′Roo Notes 2019
      • In Other Words
    • Winter 2018
      • Snapshot
      • From the President
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • The President’s Home at Wood House
      • Roots
      • Home Team
      • 100 Years of Co-Education
      • President Steven P. O’Day
      • Giving to Prepare Future Servant Leaders
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • July 2017
      • Snapshot
      • Roots
      • From the Interim President
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Home Team
      • The Adventure of a Lifetime
      • Au Revoir
      • The Momentum of Discovery
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • January 2017
      • From the President
      • For Love of the Game … and the Players
      • This Is Us – Diverse and United
      • Snapshot
      • Roots
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Home Team
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • Winter 2016
      • From the President
      • Snapshot
      • Roots
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Home Team
      • Living the Liberal Arts
      • At Home in the Rainforest
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • Summer 2015
      • From the President
      • Snapshot
      • Roots
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Community Impact
      • Of Gratitude and Wonder
      • Home Team
      • Reimagining the Liberal Arts in A Digital Age
      • Medical Experience in Mexico
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • Spring 2014
      • From the President
      • Snapshot
      • Roots
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Preventing Pandemic
      • Home Team
      • A Wild Semester
      • The Bottom Line is Greener
      • The Business of Learning
      • Blazing Trails
      • An IDEA Realized
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • Winter 2014
      • From the President
      • Snapshot
      • Roots
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Making A Difference in the Natural World
      • The Mentor Advantage
      • ‘Roos Who Write
      • Storytellers’ Gift
      • Strategic Plan
      • Home Team
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • Summer 2013
      • From the President
      • Snap Shot
      • Roots: On the Road Again
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Heard Around Campus
      • The Austin College Experience
      • Looking Back and Planning Ahead
      • Faculty Retirees Reflect
      • The Business of Food
      • Class of 2013 Takes on the World
      • A Legacy of Law
        • What is Pre-Law?
      • Dr. Kenneth Street
      • Making History
      • Home Team
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • Fall 2012/Winter 2013
      • From the President
      • Mission Around the Globe
      • My Summer of Learning
      • Views of the Outback
      • Our Identity
      • IDEA Center Challenge
      • Investing in Austin College
      • Snap Shot: Opening Convocation
      • Roots: Majestic Music
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Home Team
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • Summer 2012
      • From the President
      • Detours to Adventure
      • At the Core of Excellence
      • Who Values Education? WE DO!
      • Sowing the Seeds
      • Banned, Buoyed, & Laureled:
      • A Lifetime In College
      • Snap Shot: Commencement
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Heard Around Campus
      • Home Team
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
      • Roos for Roos
    • Spring 2012
      • From the President
      • Postcards from Abroad
      • Costa Rica Sisters
      • Texas Super Lawyers
      • An American in…Bucharest
      • My Internship in Congress
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Home Team
      • ‘Roo Notes
    • Winter 2012
      • From the President
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • A Century of Science
        • Digging the Antarctic
        • Science in Everyday Life
        • Alumnus Integral To The Manhattan Project
        • Starry, Starry Nights
        • Telling Her Story
        • Celebrating the Unknown
        • A Look Back
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • Fall 2011
      • From the President
      • A New Year Begins
        • Meet the Class of 2015
        • Pieces of Home
        • Enrollee to Student
        • Freshman Legacies
        • The Summer Read
      • Gifts That Matter
        • Making Moments Matter
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Home Team
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • Honor Roll of Donors
    • Summer 2011
      • From the President
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Commencement Photos
      • The Many Faces of Success
      • Ghost Light
      • Time
      • In Full Bloom: Lives of Success
      • The Light Shines for Texas
      • Home Team
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • Spring 2011
      • From the President
      • From the Editor
      • JanTerm 2011
      • Commencement 2011
      • ACtivator Event #500
      • The Homesick Texan
      • Remembering Chase Gaddy
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Home Team
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
  • Archives
  • Contact Us
Info For...
  • AC Home
  • News
  • Events
  • Quick Links
Home » Issues » Winter 2012 » A Century of Science » Celebrating the Unknown

Celebrating the Unknown

Donald SalisburyAll of Don Salisbury’s 34 years of research boil down to two simple questions: Who are we? What is our place in the universe?

With every project, the professor of physics gets a little closer to an answer—theoretically.

Salisbury, professor of physics and a member of the Austin College faculty since 1987, specializes in the kind of theoretical physics that deals with the nature of time and space. He tries to construct theories to explain phenomena such as black holes, dark matter, and time travel.

The best-known leaders in his field are researchers like Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein. In fact, Salisbury’s thesis advisor as a graduate student was Einstein’s assistant. Salisbury’s fundamental training in physics began with Einstein’s general theory of relativity and has kept up ever since.

Albert EinsteinEinstein is part of Salisbury’s inspiration to keep plugging at near-impossible problems. “Sure, he was a genius, but that characterization alone really doesn’t illustrate the full picture. He never gave up,” Salisbury said. “The essential ingredient is not so much inherent intelligence, because everyone has that, but it is persistence. I think that characterizes most scientists.”

Salisbury is trying to resolve what he calls the “fundamental unsolved problem in physics: attempting to merge Einstein’s theory of relativity with quantum mechanics.” Quantum mechanics deals with subjects such as the structure and motion in an atom, while Einstein’s theory is about massive objects like stars, galaxies, and even the whole universe. “Those two theories are inconsistent with each other, and no one has yet succeeded in synthesizing an equation that combines both,” Salisbury said.

Bad Arolsen-Conducted archival Holocaust research at the International Tracing Service-2008The problem is this: Einstein’s theory says space and time don’t exist as separate, fixed entities; time and space don’t exist outside of the universe. But quantum mechanics depends upon the idea that time is an independent external parameter. General relativity says that time is meaningless without a measuring device. But quantum mechanics then says that time must be inherently uncertain. Without being sure that time is the same everywhere, the theories completely fall apart. The challenge is combining a theory with a flexible perspective of time with a theory with a constant perspective.

The theory of relativity already impacts us: without it, global positioning systems wouldn’t work. They are based on Einstein’s theories of space and time.

Arcetri, Italy - 2004

Don Salisbury with Max Grober and Jeff Fontana at entrance of Galileo’s home in Arcetri, Italy. National Science Foundation Chautauqua, Florence, Italy, May, 2004

Salisbury’s research deals with a tricky question: What would our perception of time be if we had an equation that solved the quantum mechanics versus relativity problem? “That’s right; I’m trying to answer what it would be like if we had a theory that doesn’t currently exist,” Salisbury said.

It’s a challenge. “There’s a sense in quantum mechanics that general obviously inconsistent observations of phenomena all can be true at the same time,” he said.

As well as traveling the world to give lectures on his research—he speaks English, Spanish, German, French, and Italian, Don recently was in Pereira, Colombia, where he taught a short course on Einstein’s path to relativity theory. “I’ve always been interested in history and the larger social context,” he said. “I am convinced that the more aware one is of the path that has been taken to get to our current view of the universe, the better one can understand and be better prepared to make improvements. There is no end to the kind of improvements we could make.”

For this project, he has visited many contemporary leaders in the field and read extensively about past leaders. 1911 is a centennial anniversary of Einstein’s theory of relativity, and Salisbury and his colleagues have integrated that milestone into their research. “We asked ourselves how history could have been altered, if, instead of the direction he took, he had taken the heuristic approach that led to quantum mechanics in the 1920s. It leads to some surprising conclusions,” he said.

Salisbury has an unusual dedication to his research, which he thinks is beneficial to his students. “I hope I can pass that idea to students, that if there are mysteries they want to solve, they are capable. I hope to be that role model,” he said.

“Keep thinking. There’s no end to the mysteries out there,” he said. “Celebrate the unknown. It’s something we have to come to terms with as members of the human race. It’s essential to progress.”

Comments? Email editor@austincollege.edu.

GET IN TOUCH

903.813.2000
Austin College
900 N. Grand Ave.
Sherman, TX 75090

Contact Us

GET SOCIAL

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn

GET LINKED

  • Quick Links
  • Human Resources
  • Campus Offices
  • Directory
  • Email

GET CONNECTED

Subscribe to Austin College E-Communication

Connect to AC

Copyright © 2022 - All rights reserved | Privacy Policy | Consumer Information | Site by thrive-logo