== Research Biography ==

Eric Myers' research interests have been a mixture of high
energy physics, quantum field theory, gravitation, and cosmology,
using a mixture of computational and analytic methods.  His Ph.D
dissertation at Yale University used zeta function regularization to
compute quantum vacuum fluctuations in General Relativity in
space-times with more than four dimensions, applied to the cases when
the extra dimensions form a torus or a sphere. A stable solution
might explain the overall pattern of the fundamental forces in our
four-dimensional world (but alas, none were found).

He went on to perform computer simulations at Boston University of the
intersections of cosmic strings, to determine that such strings would
intercommute -- i.e., change ends when crossing, rather than
interlocking or passing through each other -- both of which would have
ruled out cosmic strings in the early universe. At the University of
Texas he performed Monte Carlo simulations of a quantum field theory
-- the SO(2,1) non-linear sigma model -- which served as a simple
model of quantum gravity. The team he worked with were able to take
the perturbatively non-renormalizable field theory and regularize it 
by non-perturbative means, which was a small step toward a working 
quantum theory of gravity.

As a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Dr. Myers was
part of the team which set up a massive distributed volunteer
computing system called Einstein@Home, which uses computers ranging
from personal laptops to huge Beowulf clusters to scan through data
from the LIGO and Virgo observatories in search of the elusive signal
of continuous wave sources of gravitational waves.  Einstein@Home has
also been used to search through radio telescope and satellite data
for radio and gamma ray pulsars, with over 70 new pulsars discovered
so far.

Dr Myers has taught at the University of Michigan, Vassar College, and
the United States Military Academy at West Point.  He has mentored
Pioneer students for the past six years, helping them learn all about
gravitational waves and how to detect them, and guiding them in using
real data from the LIGO and Virgo interferometers to perform their own
personal research investigations.