This Perimeter Institute (PI) for Theoretical Physics event, *”The Universe in a Box” won’t take place until Wednesday, July 30, 2025, if you can attend in person. here are the details for getting a ticket or two this Monday morning, from a July 18, 2025 PI announcement (received via email),
The Universe in a Box with Andrew Pontzen
Wednesday, July 30 [2025] at 7:00 pm ET
You’re invited to an exclusive public lecture with Professor Andrew Pontzen, one of today’s leading voices in the study of cosmology.
Merging black holes, collapsing dark matter, giant supernova explosions: a tapestry of cosmic events stretching over the past 13.8 billion years have shaped our existence in a vast universe. Faced with this complexity, humanity has increasingly turned to computers to help extract a clear understanding of the cosmos and our place within it. This lecture will explore the history of how these tools have developed, in parallel with more down-to-earth computational pursuits like weather forecasting. We will see how the resulting codes have unlocked our understanding of the universe, from galaxies and black holes to the essence of matter. And the lecture will conclude with a look at a contentious idea put forward by some philosophers and scientists – that we may already be living inside a simulation.
Andrew Pontzen is a professor of cosmology, and from January 2026 will direct Durham University’s Institute for Computational Cosmology [UK]. His research concerns how structure formed in our universe, from its opening moments to the present day. He has written for the New Scientist, BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation] Sky at Night and BBC Science Focus; lectured at the Royal Institution; appeared on BBC, Amazon Prime and Discovery Channel documentaries; and contributed to BBC Radio 4 programmes including Inside Science and The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry. He is also the author of The Universe in a Box which dives into the role of simulations in cosmology and beyond, recently published to critical acclaim.
Don’t miss out! Free tickets to attend this event in person will become available on Monday, July 21, [2025] at 9 am ET.
If you didn’t get tickets for the lecture, not to worry – you can always catch the livestream on our website or watch it on YouTube after the fact.
Here’s more from the event registration page,
Date and time
Starts on Wednesday, July 30 · 6:45pm EDT
Location
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics 31 Caroline Street North Waterloo, ON N2L 2Y5
Agenda
6:00 p.m.
Doors Open
Perimeter’s main floor Atrium will be open for ticket holders, with researchers available to answer science questions until the talk begins.
6:45 p.m. – 6:45 p.m.
Doors Close
Theater doors close to ensure all guests have enough time to enter and be seated by our ushers.
7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Public Talk
The talk will begin at 7:00 PM, offering a live stream for virtual attendees. This will include a full presentation in the Theatre as well as a Q&A session.
8:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Atrium (Optional)
After the talk, head to the Atrium to mingle with other attendees and meet the speaker.
About this event
Please Note: Your ticket will be valid until 6:45 PM. This ensures all guests have enough time to enter the Theatre and be seated by our ushers.
Live-stream of the event will start at 7 p.m. EDT on our YouTube channel.
Our ushers seat guests beginning from the front rows of the Theatre toward the back.
Good luck getting a ticket! If you want one.
One last thing, Andrew Pontzen’s eponymous website can be found here.
*Title for a previous PI event removed on August 15, 2025 and other minor corrections (removing a space and ‘but’ from the same sentence) were made.