7

THRIVING ON A RIFF

During the summers, I would take a break from Imperial and visit Brian
Greene’s group at Columbia University’s Institute for String Cosmol-
ogy and Astrophysics (ISCAP) to work on a new project, striving to
bring a key idea from string theory into cosmology. But at the time I
had no idea that the connection would come from a chance meeting
with a jazz legend. Although I eventually decided to take the job at Im-
perial College, Brian Greene was the first person to offer me a position,
after a five-month stretch of postdoc rejection letters. Brian was known
for his groundbreaking work on topology change in string theory, yet
it was his passionate investigation into what string theory could say
about the early universe that prompted my visit. The institute, formed
in 2000 with Greene as codirector, was a natural evolution from his re-
search program, applying superstring theory to cosmological questions.
These programs have provided opportunities for many young cosmolo-
gists of my generation, for which they will be forever grateful. I remain
indebted to Brian for making me that job offer. Fortunately, after I de-
cided to go to Imperial, he extended to me a visiting postdoctoral po-
sition at ISCAP, so in the summer I’d travel from London to New York
to visit ISCAP and do calculations and play at my favorite jazz spots.
But I wasn’t the only expatriate New Yorker physicist who would re-
turn home for his homeboy fix. Lee Smolin was also in New York doing

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