Sabrina González Pasterski is 33 years old, was born in Chicago, and is working 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 to the German physicist that has followed her for years: "I used to feel embarrassed when they called me the new Einstein, but now I think: let them be."
An extraordinary journey
González Pasterski displayed an unusual ability from a young age. At 12, she began to build a model aircraft from a kit that came partially assembled by the manufacturer, a Zenith CH 601 XL , and by 16, she learned to fly it.
"When I was a child, I was interested in engineering, in the limits of what was possible to do. 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 earned a degree 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 contributed to completing the so-called Pasterski-Strominger-Zhiboedov triangle, a theoretical framework that connects three fundamental phenomena in physics: the asymptotic symmetries of spacetime, theorems regarding low-energy particles, and memory effects produced by gravitational waves or electromagnetic pulses.
The model establishes an equivalence relationship between these three concepts, such that understanding one provides information about the others. Its development, contributed to by Sabrina González Pasterski along with Andrew Strominger and Alexander Zhiboedov, is part of the research that seeks to deepen the relationship between quantum mechanics and gravity.
Despite receiving offers from Blue Origin —Jeff Bezos personally wrote to her when she was a teenager— and from NASA, she chose 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 directs the Celestial Holography Initiative. As its name suggests, the field of study is celestial holography, which she herself defines as "a useful way to mathematically describe the universe."
"Holographic cosmology seeks to develop a holographic description of gravity in a flat spacetime, similar to that which approximately describes our universe," he explained.
Regarding artificial intelligence, González Pasterski sees it as a key tool, albeit with reservations.
"We are entering an era where AI tools allow us to pose questions about the universe that are a step above traditional scientific inquiries, but I am concerned 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 as a child. Her father, Mark Pasterski, is an American lawyer and electrical engineer.
The scientist has pointed out that growing up with the close experience of a migrant family influenced her way of viewing the world. That connection to Cuba is maternal and cultural, but she clearly asserts it: the last name 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 featured her in its Genius 100 Visions project as one of the 100 top innovators, scientists, and visionaries of the moment.
Regarding the big question that guides her work, González Pasterski is clear about her limits and ambitions: "I don’t believe a single person is going to solve it. I would like to contribute to building the infrastructure we need to explore mathematically consistent theories."
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