Rafael Sorkin

He is best known as initiator and main proponent of the causal sets approach to quantum gravity.

Sorkin grew up in Chicago, Illinois, and was educated at the New Trier Township High School (valedictorian, 1963), Harvard University (A.B., Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, 1966), and California Institute of Technology (Ph.D., 1974).

He also hypothesises that the phenomena of topology change and the thermodynamics of the black hole structure provide important clues to the formation of the final synthesis.

His findings include that the topological geons can exhibit remarkable statistical properties.

He also discovered evidence that topology change is a required feature of any consistent quantum gravity theory.