Cumrun Vafa

I’m excited to share my new book, Puzzles to Unravel the Universe, based on a freshman seminar I teach at Harvard. It includes over a hundred puzzles and discussion on how they relate to deep ideas in physics and math. Available in paperback and Kindle: amazon.com/Puzzles-Unrave…

Interesting paper about AI and physics from an author I know very well!

New paper: How can you tell if a transformer has the right world model? We trained a transformer to predict directions for NYC taxi rides. The model was good. It could find shortest paths between new points But had it built a map of NYC? We reconstructed its map and found this:

Belated updates: 1- I defended my PhD in May! Big thank you to my committee and especially to my advisor, @blei_lab. 2- I'm excited to start a postdoc at Harvard! Very grateful to @harvard_data for the opportunity.

1/ I had the opportunity to join the @DataSkeptic podcast to discuss CAREER, a method that uses transfer learning to model career trajectories. This is a project I've been working on with @blei_lab and @Susan_Athey's group. Thank you for having me on! open.spotify.com/episode/7tZ032…

Excited to speak this Saturday at the #NeurIPS2022 Workshop on Distribution Shifts about CAREER, a transformer-based method for modeling career trajectories from labor sequence data. arxiv.org/abs/2202.08370 w/ @Susan_Athey, @blei_lab, @EmilPalikot, @TianyuDu7, @AyushKanodia

New paper: arxiv.org/abs/2109.06387 Consider a sequence generated by a language model. Which words were most important for generating each word? We propose greedy rationalization: greedily finding the smallest subset of words that would make the same prediction as the full text.

Tune in this Friday, August 21 at 11am EDT for @bgreene’s live conversation with @brkthroughprize winner @cumrunv. They will discuss the past, present and future of string theory and how puzzles ignited his interest in physics. Join us here: bit.ly/30ugQNR #WorldSciU

Thank you @HarvardMagazine for the nice article about my book: harvardmagazine.com/2020/09/right-…

I’m excited to share my new book, Puzzles to Unravel the Universe, based on a freshman seminar I teach at Harvard. It includes over a hundred puzzles and discussion on how they relate to deep ideas in physics and math. Available in paperback and Kindle: amazon.com/Puzzles-Unrave…

My public website cumrunvafa.org includes a selection of my lecture videos, as well as interviews and publications.

ICTP Interviews: Professor Vafa youtu.be/QM_31Eglyaw via @YouTube

Will you be watching curling at the #Olympics? Last year the Crimson curling program finished 4th in the country at the USA College Championships hrvd.me/brooma1b0

Is it just me or does this extra from the Big Bang Theory look like me?

To see the view, climb the mountain. Without confusion, clarity is hard to appreciate. These times will also pass and clarity will set in.

If you thought Trump's address was a little bizarre, check out these inauguration word clouds keyonvafa.com/inauguration-w…

Optimism is a key to successful research. The belief that somehow things will work out at the end, usually leads exactly to that result!

As an Iranian-American I'm inspired by the legacy of ancient Persian scientists. Science is a timeless borderless adventure.

Reality is too strange to pass as a believable science fiction plot. No science fiction plot can do justice to the unreal nature of reality.

In a sense all scientists are religious. Otherwise, why would they be searching without believing there's something out there worth finding?

Pursuing science is the most fun game and at the same time the most meaningful activity a mind can be engaged in. I feel very lucky!