Nicholas Huggett

Nick Huggett is an LAS Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, specializing in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of physics. His early publications concentrated on quantum field theory (especially in collaboration with Robert Weingard), and on theories of space from antiquity to the present (e.g., Space from Zeno to Einstein, MIT Press, 1999; “The Regularity Account of Relational Spacetime” in Mind, 2006; and with Craig Callender [UCSD] Physics Meets Philosophy at the Planck Scale, CUP, 2001). He has also collaborated with Tom Imbo (UIC Physics Department) on the foundations of quantum mechanics.

His book Everywhere and Everywhen (OUP, February 2010) introduces a general audience to the philosophy of physics. Most recently he has been collaborating with Christian Wüthrich (University of Geneva) on a project, supported by ACLS, NSF and the John Templeton Foundation, on philosophy and quantum gravity: see www.beyondspacetime.net for information. They have written articles (for example, “Emergent Spacetime and Empirical (In)coherence” in Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 2013), organized conferences, edited a journal special edition and two edited volumes from CUP and OUP. They are in the final stages of co-writing a book. During his time at the Center, he will be working on the next phase of the project, focussing on the implications of quantum gravity for cosmology.