# Who’s That Surfer Physicist? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 16, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-that-surfer-physicist/517813 "2009-11-16T19:35:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-that-surfer-physicist/517813/1 "2009-11-16T19:35:14Z")
Or maybe he’s a mathematician—who’s that guy I was reading about in the popular media a couple of years ago who has some sort of new TOE, or made some very significant contribution to a currently existing TOE? From what I remember reading about him, he spends most of his off time down at the beach surfing, and I think he’s homeless—he’s spent his entire adult life camping on friends’ couches. He believes that he has figured out the actual shape of the universe, and the article I read showed a representation of it. I just started reading Brian Greene’s first book last night and I want to see that picture again. I wiki’ed all of the names that usually get thrown around in GC, but all of them seem to be too old. Who was I reading about? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-that-surfer-physicist/517813/2 "2009-11-16T19:37:41Z")
> **[Antony Garrett Lisi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_Garrett_Lisi)** > > Antony Garrett Lisi (born January 24, 1968), known as Garrett Lisi, is an American theoretical physicist. Lisi works as an independent researcher without an academic position. > Lisi is known for "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything," a paper proposing a unified field theory based on the E8 Lie group, combining particle physics with Einstein's theory of gravitation. The theory is incomplete and has unresolved problems. The theory has been extensively criticized in the scientific communit... ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-that-surfer-physicist/517813/3 "2009-11-16T19:43:25Z")
An answer (and the right one, at that) even before my edit window closed. I don’t know what I would do without this place. A million thanks. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-that-surfer-physicist/517813/4 "2009-11-16T19:43:47Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > [Antony Garrett Lisi - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_Garrett_Lisi) Heh, most of that is so written by Antony Garrett Lisi himself. “He also began daydreaming about building a custom RV and shipping it to Maui. That spring, Lisi purchased a Ford E-Series van and spent the following summer in a San Diego friend’s woodworking shop, customizing the van interior to his own design.” C’mon. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-that-surfer-physicist/517813/5 "2009-11-16T19:45:16Z")
[Lisi’s TED talk](http://www.ted.com/talks/garrett_lisi_on_his_theory_of_everything.html).