Join us for an evening of captivating stories about Claudia’s quest to gain intimacy with gravity, to understand both its feeling and fundamental nature. Claudia de Rham has been playing with gravity her entire life.

As a diver, experimenting with her body’s buoyancy in the Indian Ocean. As a pilot, soaring over Canadian waterfalls on dark mornings before beginning her daily scientific research.
As an astronaut candidate, dreaming of the experience of flying free from Earth’s pull. And as a physicist, discovering new sides to gravity’s irresistible personality by exploring the limits of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Her life’s pursuit led her from a twist of fate that snatched away her dream of becoming an astronaut to an exhilarating breakthrough at the very frontiers of gravitational physics.

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, and Roger Penrose - led her to the edge of knowledge about this fundamental force.

PROF. CLAUDIA DE RHAM

Claudia is professor of theoretical physics at Imperial College London working at the interface of gravity, cosmology and particle physics. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Claudia is ranked among the most influential researchers in fundamental physics of the past decade. She was one of the UK finalists in the Physical Sciences and Engineering category of the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists in 2018 for revitalizing the theory of 'massive gravity', and won the award in 2020.

Claudia will be signing copies of her new book The Beauty of Falling which will be available to purchase on the night.

• DOORS OPEN: 7pm (£5 on the door)

• TALK STARTS: 7:30pm

• AUDIENCE Q&A: 8:45pm

• BOOK SIGNING: 9:15pm

Brighthink is a non-profit organisation, none of our invited speakers charge for their time and all proceeds go towards running costs that allow us to put on these events for the public.