#312 Sabrina Pasterski - Theoretical Physicist on the Hidden Code of the Universe

June 11, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

When Sabrina Pasterski was nine years old, she asked Santa for a flying broomstick. Her parents, both lawyers, convinced her that flight lessons were the next best thing. By age fourteen, she had not only soloed a plane but had spent two years building a single-engine Zenith from a kit in her garage—a project that would later become the deciding factor in getting her off MIT’s waitlist. Now a theoretical physicist at the Perimeter Institute, Pasterski leads the Celestial Holography initiative, a project that treats the entire universe as a projection from a two-dimensional surface. She is quick to downplay the "next Einstein" label, but her work sits at the center of one of physics' deepest ambitions: to find a single mathematical framework that can unite quantum mechanics and general relativity.

The Accidental Physicist

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What you'll learn

1 (02:11) **Intro & "Next Einstein" Label** - Pasterski downplays the nickname while reflecting on field legacy
2 (02:55) **Celestial Holography Core Idea** - Universe encoded as a hologram to unite quantum mechanics and general relativity
3 (04:53) **String Theory Basics** - Mathematical framework avoiding pitfalls of quantum gravity
4 (07:31) **Building the Plane Lesson** - Hands-on Zenith aircraft project shaped systematic problem-solving approach
5 (09:14) **Chicago Upbringing & Parents** - First-generation Cuban-American family, public defender father and EPA lawyer mother
6 (10:48) **Flight Lessons & Early Networking** - Age-nine obsession leading to Canadian loophole training and FAA mentors
7 (17:08) **High School to MIT Path** - Math & Science Academy, PhD faculty exposure, and wait-list admission via airplane story

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Show Notes

Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski is a first-generation Cuban-American theoretical physicist from Chicago whose life has been shaped by flight and physics. She began flight lessons at age nine and, between ages 12 and 14, built a single-engine Zenith CH 601 XL aircraft from a kit, making her own engineering modifications after fatal midair breakups involving the model. At 16, before she had a driver’s license, she flew the aircraft solo. The FAA later allowed her demonstration flight to validate her modifications before grounding the fleet.

At MIT, Pasterski became the first freshman selected for NASA’s January Operational Internship, received the inaugural MIT Freshman Entrepreneurship Award, interned at NASA Kennedy Space Center and CERN, and graduated first in her MIT Physics class. She earned her PhD from Harvard in 2019 under Andrew Strominger, focusing on quantum gravity, then joined Canada’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics at 27 as its youngest faculty member and one of only three women on staff at the time. She now leads the Celestial Holography Initiative, and her honors include Scientific American’s 30 Under 30, Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science, and the Albert Einstein Foundation’s “100 Greatest Innovators.”

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Sabrina Pasterski Links:

Perimeter Institute - https://perimeterinstitute.ca/people/sabrina-pasterski

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