Stephon Alexander – Cosmic Sound: The Emergence of Structure in the Universe

Join us in the WAS Classroom on July 21, 2026 for this live lecture with Stephon Alexander. The event will be live-streamed on YouTube and as a Webinar on Zoom, but we’d love to see you in the classroom at the Westport Observatory. As always, the talk will be posted on our YouTube channel afterwards.

Dr. Alexander will revisit the interconnection between music and the evolution of astrophysics and the origin of large scale structure in the universe. We will explore new ways music, in mirrors modern physics, such as quantum mechanics, general relativity, and the physics of the early universe.

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Stephon Alexander is the Director of the Center for Theoretical Physics and Innovation at Brown University, is a leading theoretical physicist, author and jazz musician. His research bridges cosmology, particle physics, quantum gravity and the AI-physics connection. Alexander specializes the physics of the early universe, notably co-inventing a model that explains the origin of matter over antimatter in the universe and a new unification between Gravity and the Weak Interaction. A past President of the National Society of Black Physicists, he founded SoundPlusScience Inc., connecting music and STEM for high school students. His acclaimed book, The Jazz of Physics, explores parallels between jazz and modern physics. Alexander has held positions at Stanford, Imperial College, Penn State, and Dartmouth, contributing globally to science and education

The next Cal’s Corner will feature will feature a nebula that reminded some astronomer of a Tolstoy novel.