LUCY MASON

I am a postdoctoral associate at the University of Pittsburgh working on perspectives in science, primarily in physics. I look at ideas relating to how 1st person embedded perspective informs our understanding of reality and how it influences the interpretation of theories such as statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics. Perspectives are closely related to inter-theoretic relations of emergence and reduction; I am keen to explore exactly what that relation is!

The idea of measurements and records, and how these are related perspectives, is also central to my work. I am looking at what a measurement is and what a record is, and how they measurement in physics compares to other sciences. Thinking about measurement theory can help us to understand issues regarding measurement in the interpretation of quantum mechanics, and the arrow of time in statistical mechanics. These issues also effect how we think about empirical confirmation and what it means to have objective scientific knowledge.

Prior to my current role I was a postdoc at Royal Holloway working as part of the project 'What is metrology if quantum measurements participate in making reality' (more details on this project here), applying these ideas to measurement in quantum mechanics. Before that I did my PhD at King's College London focusing on how perspectives, information, and emergence help us understand the metaphysics of time.

In addition to my main areas of research I also co-run a Philosophy of Sex, Sexuality and Gender reading group based in London at LSE and draw from feminist epistemology to inform my work on perspectives in science. Additionally, I am very interested in environmental philosophy and our relationship with nature (both scientific, cultural, and personal). I have written a blog post about this here.

My pronouns are she/her.