Cohl Furey, also known as Nichol Furey,[1] is a Canadian mathematical physicist.[2][3]
Furey has a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics from Simon Fraser University (2005), Master's degree from the University of Cambridge (2006) and a Ph.D in theoretical physics from the University of Waterloo (2015).[4] She was a research fellow at the University of Cambridge from 2016 to 2019[5] and spent a few months at the African Institute for Mathematical SciencesinCape Town. Since 2020, she has been at the Humboldt University of Berlin on a Freigeist-Fellowship by the Volkswagen Foundation.[1][6]
Her main interests are division algebras, Clifford algebras, and Jordan algebras, and their relation to particle physics. Her work focuses on finding an underlying mathematical structure to the Standard Modelofparticle physics. She is most noted for her work on octonions.[7][8][9]
She has worked on attempting to obtain the Standard Model of particle physics from octonionic constructions.[2][7][9] In her 2018 paper "SU(3)C × SU(2)L × U(1)Y ( × U(1)X ) as a symmetry of division algebraic ladder operators,"[10] according to Quanta Magazine, "she consolidated several findings to construct the full Standard Model symmetry group, SU(3) × SU(2) × U(1), for a single generation of particles, with the math producing the correct array of electric charges and other attributes for an electron, neutrino, three up quarks, three down quarks and their anti-particles. The math also suggests a reason why electric charge is quantized in discrete units — essentially, because whole numbers are."[2] In 2022 together with Mia Hughes, she linked the symmetry breaking in physics to division algebras including octonions.[11]
In 2019, Wired.com listed her in their article "10 Women in Science and Tech Who Should Be Household Names".[12]
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