Monica Jinwoo Kang


Address:
The Center for Particle Cosmology
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Pennsylvania
209 South 33rd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6396, U.S.A.

email: monica6@sas.upenn.edu

Office: 2N1D David Rittenhouse Laboratory


Hello! I am a Center of Particle Cosmology Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania in the High Energy Theory group and the Center of Particle Cosmology. Prior to that, I was a Sherman Fairchild Postdoctoral Fellow at California Institute of Technology(Caltech) in the Particle Theory Group and Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics. My research interests are gravity theories and CFTs, with or without supersymmetry, via algebraic, geometric, string-theoretic, and field-theoretic perspectives. In particular, I work on supersymmetric theories from 3d to 6d (both bottom up field theoretic approach and top down string-theoretic approach), gravity theories and holographic constructions, operator-algebraic approach to AdS/CFT and entanglement entropy, and holographic codes.

I received Ph.D in Physics at Harvard University in May 2019 on "Two Views on Gravity: F-theory and Holography." My thesis is based on works with my collaborators Mboyo Esole, Shing-Tung Yau, and others. I graduated from UC Berkeley for Bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Physics in May 2012 where I was fortunate to be guided in condensed matter physics, geometry, and analysis. Before my undergraduate studies, I attended Korea Science Academy.

I am organizing a conference on "Integrability, geometry, and QFTs: 1st MaPhyAg Workshop" with mathematicians at Universidad Complutense de Madrid on October 7-11th of 2024, at Madrid, Spain. The aim of this conference is to bring together mathematicians and physicists working at the interface of integrability, geometry, topology, and quantum field theory. I have organized a conference on "Stringy Geometry for Junior Researchers" on Friday, September 28th of 2018, at Northeastern University with Mboyo Esole. This is a conference for (graduate) students and postdocs in near Boston area; the speakers and their talk titles can be seen in the linked website.

I am an organizer for the high energy theory seminar series at the University of Pennsylvania from Spring 2024. I was the organizer for the high energy theory seminar series at Caltech for Spring & Summer 2020, Fall 2020, and 2021-2022.

Outside of math and physics, I enjoy dancing, singing, and playing the violin. Throughout grade school and secondary school I danced lyrical and contemporary competitively; I have danced ballroom/latin as a member of the Harvard Ballroom Dance Team.