Joseph Conlon




I am Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford. I joined Oxford physics in October 2008 and am a Tutorial Fellow in physics at New College (which means a significant part of my job involves giving weekly tutorials to New College physics undergraduates). My New College profile can be found here.

Over my career I have worked on a wide range of topics across string theory, cosmology, particle physics and astrophysics. My current research involves the intersection of string theory and early universe cosmology, in particular in the period between inflation and nucleosynthesis, where very little is known observationally.

I enjoy writing. I am the author of the 2015 book Why String Theory?, explaining the who, what and why of string theory to a general audience (Physics World Book of the Year 2016), and the upcoming Origins: The Cosmos in Verse (Oneworld, 2024), a verse account of the early universe.

An old CV from 2017 is (to be updated shortly) .

During my time at Oxford my research has been funded through individual grants from the Royal Society through a University Research Fellowship (2008-2016) and European Research Council through a Starting Grant (2012-2017), and as a member of the particle theory group through the consolidated grant from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (2008 onwards and renewed at three-yearly intervals).