Smitha Vishveshwara
The Loomis Confessions: Smitha Vishveshwara
If you couldn’t be a physicist, what career would you choose?
Writer; world explorer; social worker; Freddie Mercury (at least his stage persona)… Come to think of it, life as a physicist rocks! And it tends to have a little of each of these elements!
What is your favorite place?
A clear, warm ocean to swim in, feeling surrounded by the Infinite. These days, I love standing under the gigantic autumnal trees, gazing up, enveloped in their gold and fiery foliage radiance. A quiet place to muse, calculate, write—say a good library, a coffee shop, a corner at home. Being in the arms (or at least the engaged company) of a dear one—from newborns to nanogenarians.
What is the greatest scientific blunder in history?
This one is impossible! Also, some are seeming blunders, others perceived or partial virtues. Accidental mold (snot, in one version) leading to penicillin? Music of the spheres describing planetary motion? Discovering nuclear power? Developments leading to greenhouse gas emission?
Who is/are your favorite artist(s) in any medium—painters, composers, authors, filmmakers?
So, so many come to mind. Frieda Kahlo; Thyagaraja, a legendary composer of classical South Indian music; good ol’ Beethoven—oh, his late string quartets, piano sonatas, the 7th. Lately I’ve been listening to Idir, Jasraj, Roberta Flack, and ooh, ABBA’s made a comeback! Authors—in the past few years, Allende for House of Spirits, Lauren Gunderson for her play, Silent Sky, Hafiz (‘Even/After/All this time/The sun never says/To the Earth/”You owe me.”/Look/What happens/With a love like that./It lights the/Whole/Sky.’)
I also have the privilege of collaborating with some phenomenal artists on art-physics confluences, and they are all my favorites.
Some of my favorite multi-media artists: Children!
Who is/are your favorite hero(es) in life or in fiction?
Everyday heroes around us, especially in these pandemic times. Those who strive against odds, those who work for the greater good. In addition, some people who flash in my mind’s eye, apart from near-dear ones I admire: Jane Goodall, Einstein, Myriam Sarachik, J. Krishnamurti, Malala Yousafzai. I also picture winged beings lifting otherwise doomed innocents from disasters of all sorts up into the sky to much fanfare and triumphant music.
Who is/are the villain(s) you love to hate?
Macbeth might be my favorite! We studied the Shakespeare play in high school for two years and really got into it. Once, as a postdoc starting out in Urbana, I saw a sign for an audition for it and I walked in impromptu. I could only remember Macbeth’s ‘Tomorrow, and tomorrow…’ monologue, and did three versions, including writhing on the floor. I got a role(!), but with no car back then, the rehearsal commutes were too long and I declined. Lately, I find him and his wife getting scarier.
What is your idea of happiness?
The human condition (also perhaps experienced by other lifeforms)—what a miracle to be alive, experience consciousness, whatever that means, for a brief moment in time!
On a personal level, I associate my favorite places described above with happiness. Then there’s the joy of seeing those you care about, those you take under your wing, thrive and be well. Then, there’s dancing with complete abandon. And dark chocolate. Then, there’s this sheer bliss that transcends thought and pleasure—am not there yet, at least in any sustained fashion.
What is your idea of misery?
The human condition (same parenthetical remark as above)—suffering, loss. In current times, in some moments, when it hits, I’ve broken down at how many lives the current pandemic and wars have taken.
But on a day-today basis, there’s all sorts of things I shouldn’t get preoccupied with—feeling certain I’ve made a boo-boo and am in for it. Stuck in some line for hours, like at the airport or DMV, with no gadget, pen and paper, or conversation (good luck trying to meditate). Walking in the icy cold in Chicago for 45min to find the tapas place I had my heart set on closed.
What quality do you most admire in others?
Compassion, generosity, imagination…the ability to be curious and inspired, take flight, and create something completely new.
What scientific question do you hope will be answered in your lifetime?
A couple, partially inspired from my condensed matter physics background (starting with the teachings of my graduate advisor) and those of my biophysicist mother and late astrophysicist father: Following the exciting detection of anyons, what new quantum creatures, predicted or otherwise, will be experimentally observed? What signatures of black hole quasinormal modes (ringdown), whose prediction my father pioneered, can gravitational wave detectors observe in their full richness? (He only lived to see this first wave detection.) What will it take to curtail pandemics and global warming? To what extent are quantum coherent processes present in our bodies, and how far can science go in understanding human thought, and perhaps even consciousness? (Though, I imagine it won’t be remotely close to the full extent and am perfectly content with the mystery.)