Valia Allori

Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Northern Illinois University
Zulaf Hall 920, Dekalb, 60115 IL
Phone: 815 753 6412 (office) 

E-mail: vallori@niu.edu 

Webpage: http://www.niu.edu/~vallori/

Research Interests: Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Physics, Metaphysics

Overview: 

Valia Allori has studied physics and philosophy first in Italy, her home country, and then in the United States. She has worked in the foundations of quantum mechanics, in particular in the framework of Bohmian mechanics, a quantum theory without observers. Her main concern has always been to understand what the world is really like, and how we can use our best physical theory to answer such general metaphysical questions. In her physics doctoral dissertation, she discussed the classical limit of quantum mechanics, to analyze the connections between the quantum and the classical theories. What does it mean that a theory, in a certain approximation, reduces to another? Is the classical explanation of macroscopic phenomena essentially different from the one provided by quantum mechanics? In her philosophy doctoral dissertation she turned to more general questions that involve the structure of fundamental physical theories, the metaphysical status and the epistemological role of the theoretical entities used in these theories. Do all fundamental physical theories have the very same structure, contrarily to what one might think? If so, what is this telling us about the nature of explanation? She has worked mainly in collaboration with Detlef Duerr, Sheldon Goldstein, Roderich Tumulka and Nino Zanghi in Bohmian mechanics, writing several articles with them. She is also co-author of a book on the philosophy and foundations of physics, written in Italian, together with Mauro Dorato, Federico Laudisa and Nino Zanghi. The book, "La Natura delle Cose" ("The Nature of Things"), has been written for a philosophy or a physics student who is interested in the main problems of the theory of relativity, statistical mechanics, quantum theory and causation, but it might be accessible, even if with some effort, by an interested reader.

• Personal background
• Teaching

Curriculum vitae 

• PDF( longer version)

Education

• Ph. D., Philosophy, Rutgers University, Fall 2007 (defense date: May 14, 2007).
• Thesis Title: "Fundamental Physical Theories: Mathematical Structures grounded on a Primitive Ontology."
• Supervisor: Tim Maudlin (Philosophy Department, Rutgers University).  Committee: Frank Arntzenius, Barry Loewer (Philosophy Department, Rutgers University), Sheldon Goldstein (Department of Mathematics, Physics and Philosophy, Rutgers University), David Z. Albert (Philosophy Department, Columbia University).
• Ph. D., Physics, University of Genova (Italy), Fall 2001 (defense date December 5, 2001).
• Thesis Title: "Decoherence and the Classical Limit of Quantum Mechanics."
• Supervisor: Nino Zanghi (Physics Department, University of Genova, Italy). Committee: Detlef Duerr (Mathematics Department, University of Munich, Germany), Lodovico Lanz (Physics Department, University of Milano, Italy).
• Certificate in Scientific Communication, University of Milano (Italy), Fall 1999.
  
• Laurea (M.A.), Physics (Summa cum laude), University of Milano (Italy), Spring 1997 (defense date: March 26 1997).
• Thesis Title: "Interaction of 12C with 103Rh at Energies greater than 33 MeV/nucleon."
• Committee: Ettore Gadioli (supervisor), Claudio Birattari, Roberto Bonetti, University of Milano (Italy).  

Area of Specialization

• Philosophy of Physics, Philosophy of Science, Metaphysics.

• Logic, Philosophy of Mathematics.
  

Publications (Philosophy)

• Book Contract: "Dismantling Quantum Paradoxes,'' Springer-Verlag.
  
• "La Natura delle Cose: Introduzione ai Fondamenti e alla Filosofia della Fisica," (transl.: "The Nature of Things: Introduction to the Philosophy and the Foundation of Physics"), (with M. Dorato, F. Laudisa, N. Zanghi) Carocci eds., Roma (2005).
• Table of Contents 
• Introduction 
• Press Release
• Reviews

• "Many-Worlds and Schroedinger's First Quantum Theory."  The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 62 (1), 1--27 (2011) -- (with S. Goldstein, R. Tumulka, and N. Zanghi). 
• "On the Classical Limit of Quantum Mechanics."  Foundations of Physics, 10.1007/s10701-008-9259-4 (2008) -- (with N. Zanghi).
• "On the Common Structure of Bohmian Mechanics and the Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber Theory." The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 59 (3), 353-389 (2008). (with S. Goldstein, R. Tumulka, and N. Zanghi)
• "E' completa la descrizione della realta' fisica fornita dalla meccanica quantistica?" (transl.: “Is the Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Complete?”) Il Protagora Vol. 9, 163-180 (2007) --  (with N. Zanghi).
• "What is Bohmian Mechanics." International Journal of Theoretical Physics 43, 1743-1755 (2004) --  (with N. Zanghi).
• "Seven Steps Toward the Classical World." Journal of Optics B 4, 482–488 (2002) -- (with D. Duerr, S. Goldstein, N. Zanghi). 

• "On the Metaphysics of Quantum Mechanics.'' In:  S. Lebihan (ed.)," La philosophie de la physique: d'aujourd'hui  a demain." Editions Vuibert (forthcoming).    
• "Primitive Ontology and the Structure of Fundamental Physical Theories." In: D. Albert, A. Ney (eds.), "The Wave Function." Oxford University Press (forthcoming).
• "What Does Quantum Mechanics tell us about Time?" In: "Proceedings of the Italian Society for Logic and Philosophy of Science International Conference" (forthcoming).
• "La storia del gatto che era sia vivo che morto'' (transl: ''The Story of the Cat that was both Dead and Alive''). In: E. Giannetto, G. Giannini (eds.), "Da Archimede a Majorana: la fisica nel suo divenire," 273-283. Guaraldi (2009).
• "Ontologie Quantistiche di Particelle, Campi e Lampi" (transl.: “Quantum Ontologies of Particles, Fields and Flashes"). In: V. Fano and M. Antonelli (eds.), "Strutture dello spazio tra fisica e psicologia," Teorie e Modelli XII, III, 9-29 (2007) -- (with N. Zanghi).

• Book Review of "Everywhere and Everywhen, Adventures in Physics and Philosophy," by Nick Huggett; Notre Dame Philosophical Review (2011).
  
• Book Review of "Quantum Mechanics- a Philosopher's Overview," by Salvator Cannavo; International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 24 (3), 330-333 (2010).
• Book review of "The Kantian legacy in the Nineteenth -Century Science,'' M. Friedman, and A. Nordmann (eds.); Journal of the History of Philosophy 47 (3), 478-479 (2009).

•  "Angular Distributions and Forward Recoil Range Distributions of the Residues Created in the Interaction of 12C and 16O ions with 103Rh." Nuclear Physics A 641, 271–296 (1998) -- (with E. Gadioli, et al.).
•  "The Interaction of 12C  and 16O with 103Rh." Acta Physica Hungarica New Series -Heavy Ion Physics 7 (now European Physical Journal A - Hadrons & Nuclei), 275-287, (1998) -- (with E. Gadioli, et al.).
• "Comprehensive Study of the Reaction of 12C with 103Rh up to 33 MeV/nucleon." Physics Letters B 394, 29–36, (1997) -- (with E. Gadioli, et al.).
•  "Spectra of Alpha Particles Emitted in the Interaction of 12C with 93Nb." NAC Annual Report (1998). (with M. Cavinato, et al.).
• "Study of the Interaction of 12C and 16O with 103Rh." NAC Annual Report (1997) -- (with E. Gadioli, et al.).

• "Observation of the Doppler Broad and Shift of the Gamma Lines of residues Produced in the interaction of 400 MeV 12C Ions with 63Cu." In: "Proceedings of the International Conference on Nuclear Physics," Berkeley, CA (2001) -- (with E. Gadioli, et al.).
• "Low Linear Momentum and Energy Transfer Reactions in the Interaction of 12C with 103Rh." In: "Proceedings of the 8^th  International Conference on Heavy Nucleon Reaction," Paris, France (1998) -- (with E. Gadioli et al.).
• "Exitation Functions, Angular Momentum and Recoil Range Distributions of Resideues Created in Heavy-Ion Reactions." In: "Proceedings of the South African Institute of Physics National Conference," Cape Town, South Africa (1998) --(with E. Gadioli, et al.).
• "A Comprehensive Study of the Interaction of 12C with 103Rh up to 33 MeV/nucleon." In: E. Gadioli (ed.), "Ricerca Scientifica ed Educazione Permanente," Suppl. 111, 171-181 (1997) -- (with E. Gadioli, et al.).
• "Comprehensive Study of the Interaction of 12C with Nuclei." In: G. Giardina, G. Fazio, M. Lattuada (eds.), "Large Scale Collective Motion of Atomic Nuclei." World Scientific (1996) -- (with E. Gadioli, et al.). 

• "Rolling Stone Magazine -Italia" (in Italian)  
• "La Soglia Oscura" (Part 1 and 2,  in Italian) 

• Google Scholar Profile
• Academia.edu Profile
• PhilPapers
• Facebook
• Google+
• Twitter
  

Back to NIU Philosophy Department Homepage