physics

Paul Ginsparg

Paul Ginsparg is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Paul Ginsparg rather than just read about it. In short: Paul Henry Ginsparg is an American physicist. He developed the arXiv.org e-print archive.

Key takeaways

Paul Ginsparg belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Paul Ginsparg to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Paul Ginsparg from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Paul Henry Ginsparg is an American physicist. He developed the arXiv.org e-print archive.

Education He is a graduate of Syosset High School in Syosset, New York, on Long Island. He graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in physics and from Cornell University with a Doctor of Philosophy in theoretical particle physics with a thesis titled Aspects of symmetry behavior in quantum field theory.

Career in physics Ginsparg was a junior fellow and taught in the physics department at Harvard University until 1990. The pre-print archive was developed while he was a member of staff of Los Alamos National Laboratory, 1990–2001. Since 2001, Ginsparg has been a professor of Physics and Computing & Information Science at Cornell University. He has published physics papers in the areas of quantum field theory, string theory, conformal field theory, and quantum gravity. He often comments on the changing world of physics in the Information Age.

Awards

He has been awarded the P.A.M. (Physics-Astronomy-Math) Award from the Special Libraries Association, named a Lingua Franca "Tech 20", elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society, awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002, received the Council of Science Editors Award for Meritorious Achievement, and received the Paul Evans Peters Award from Educause, ARL, and CNI. He was a Radcliffe Institute Fellow in 2008–2009. He was named a White House Champion of Change in June 2013. He was awarded with Einstein Foundation Award in 2021 for creating the arXiv.org.

Personal life He has two children - a daughter, Miryam Ginsparg (b. 2000), and a son, cellist Noam Ginsparg (b. 2004). His wife is Laura Jones, a mathematical biologist, statistician and researcher.

Publications "Creating a global knowledge network", UNESCO Expert Conference on Electronic Publishing in Science, Paris, 19–23 February 2001, Second Joint ICSU Press Fluctuating geometries in statistical mechanics and field theory, Editors François David, Paul Ginsparg, Jean Zinn-Justin, Elsevier, 1996, ISBN 978-0-444-82294-9 "First Steps toward Electronic Research Communication", Gateways to knowledge: the role of academic libraries in teaching, learning, and research, Editor Lawrence Dowler, MIT Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0-262-04159-1 Ginsparg, P. (2006). "As We May Read". Journal of Neuroscience. 26 (38): 9606–9608. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3161-06.2006. PMC 6674456. PMID 16988030. Ginsparg, P.; Houle, P.; Joachims, T.; Sul, J. (2004). "Mapping subsets of scholarly information". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 101 (Suppl 1): 5236–5240. arXiv:cs/0312018. Bibcode:2004PNAS..101.5236G. doi:10.1073/pnas.0308253100. PMC 387301. PMID 14766973. Bachrach, S.; Berry, R.; Blume, M.; Von Foerster, T.; Fowler, A.; Ginsparg, P.; Heller, S.; Kestner, N.; Odlyzko, A.; Okerson, A.; Wigington, R.; Moffat, A. (1998). "Who should own scientific papers?". Science. 281 (5382): 1459–1460. Bibcode:1998Sci...281.1459B. doi:10.1126/science.281.5382.1459. PMID 9750115. S2CID 36290551. Freedman, D.; Ginsparg, P.; Sommerfield, C.; Warner, N. (1987). "String-ghost interactions and the trace anomaly". Physical Review D. 36 (6): 1800–1818. Bibcode:1987PhRvD..36.1800F. doi:10.1103/physrevd.36.1800. PMID 9958364. Ginsparg, P. (1987). "On toroidal compactification of heterotic superstrings". Physical Review D. 35 (2): 648–654. Bibcode:1987PhRvD..35..648G. doi:10.1103/physrevd.35.648. PMID 9957701.

Notes

External links

eprints (co)-authored by Ginsparg at arXiv.org "Paul Ginsparg", Berlin 6 Open Access Conference Quick Study: Paul Ginsparg ’77, JF ’81, RI ’09

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Paul Ginsparg

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Paul Ginsparg claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Paul Ginsparg before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Paul Ginsparg ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Paul Ginsparg

In research: Paul Ginsparg appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Paul Ginsparg in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Paul Ginsparg is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1955 births, 21st-century American physicists, Cornell University alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Paul Ginsparg outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Paul Ginsparg in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Paul Ginsparg means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Paul Ginsparg out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Paul Ginsparg in simple terms?

Paul Henry Ginsparg is an American physicist. He developed the arXiv.org e-print archive.

Why does Paul Ginsparg matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Paul Ginsparg?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Paul Ginsparg.