Sabrina González Pasterski is 33 years old, was born in Chicago, and works on one of the most ambitious problems in modern physics: reconciling Einstein's general relativity with quantum mechanics.
In an interview published by El País, the scientist spoke about her research, her Cuban-American identity, and her new attitude towards the comparison with the German physicist that has followed her for years: "I was embarrassed when they called me the next Einstein, but now I think: let them have it."
An extraordinary journey
González Pasterski showed an unusual ability from a young age. At 12, she began building a model aircraft from a kit that came partially assembled by the manufacturer, a Zenith CH 601 XL , and by the age of 16, she learned to pilot it.
"As a girl, I was interested in engineering, the limits of what was possible to achieve. Later, I learned to appreciate the impossible, the complexity of trying to understand the structure of the universe," she explained.
Her time at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was equally extraordinary: she graduated in Physics in just three years with a perfect score, being one of the first women to achieve this distinction.
During her first year, she was also the first student at that level to receive a NASA operational internship scholarship. Later, she participated in the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and completed her PhD at Harvard in 2019, under the supervision of physicist Andrew Strominger.
In 2016, his work on gravitational memory and black holes was cited by Stephen Hawking, while his research also helped to complete the so-called Pasterski-Strominger-Zhiboedov triangle, a theoretical framework that links three fundamental phenomena in physics: the asymptotic symmetries of spacetime, the theorems regarding low-energy particles, and the memory effects produced by gravitational waves or electromagnetic pulses.
The model establishes an equivalence relationship among these three concepts, such that understanding one allows for insights into the others. Its development, to which Sabrina González Pasterski contributed along with Andrew Strominger and Alexander Zhiboedov, is part of research efforts aimed at deepening the relationship between quantum mechanics and gravity.
Despite receiving offers from Blue Origin —Jeff Bezos personally wrote to her when she was a teenager— she preferred to remain in pure academic research.
Since 2021, she has been working at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada, where she founded and leads the Celestial Holography Initiative. As the name suggests, the field of study is celestial holography, which she defines as "a useful way to mathematically describe the universe."
"The celestial holography seeks to develop a holographic description of gravity in a flat spacetime, similar to the one that our universe approximately describes," he explained.
Regarding artificial intelligence, González Pasterski sees it as a key tool, albeit with reservations.
"We are entering a time where AI tools enable us to ask questions about the universe that are a step above traditional scientific inquiries, but I worry that academic research may be sidelined in that process," he expressed.
Her Cuban roots
González Pasterski does not speak Spanish, but she publicly identifies as "a proud first-generation Cuban-American." Her mother, María González, was born in Cuba and emigrated to the United States when she was a child. Her father, Mark Pasterski, is an attorney and electrical engineer in the United States.
The scientist has pointed out that growing up with the close experience of a migrant family influenced her perspective of the world. This connection to Cuba is maternal and cultural, but she asserts it clearly: the surname González, which she carries before Pasterski, is her most visible way of preserving that heritage.
Sabrina González Pasterski has been recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list twice —in 2015 and 2017— and in 2018, the Albert Einstein Foundation included her in its Genius 100 Visions project as one of the 100 best innovators, scientists, and visionaries of the moment.
Regarding the big question that guides her work, González Pasterski is clear about its limits and her ambitions: "I don't think a single person will solve it. I would like to contribute to building the infrastructure we need to explore mathematically consistent theories."
Filed under: