Centaur Science: Adventures in AI+Physics

by Jesse Thaler (MIT)

Wednesday 4 Feb 2026, 16:30 → 18:00 Europe/Zurich

500/1-001 - Main Auditorium (CERN)

PLEASE NOTE THE UNUSUAL DAY!

The mythical centaur (half human, half horse) has become a metaphor for human-AI collaboration.  In this talk, I explore what centaur science looks like at the intersection of artificial intelligence and fundamental physics.  I share adventures from both directions of this exchange: teaching machines to "think like a physicist" by incorporating physics principles into machine learning frameworks, and teaching physicists to "think like a machine" to maximize discovery opportunities in both experimental and theoretical physics.

Bio:
Jesse Thaler joined the MIT Physics Department in 2010, and is currently a Professor in the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics — a Leinweber Institute (CTP-LI).  From 2006 to 2009, he was a fellow at the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science at the University of California, Berkeley.  He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University in 2006, and his Sc.B. in Math/Physics from Brown University in 2002.   In 2020, Prof. Thaler became the inaugural Director of the NSF AI Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions.

 

Coffee and tea will be served at 16h

Organised by : Alexander Zhiboedov

 

 

jthaler_2026_02_04_CERN_Centaur.pdf

Recording