Dr. Martin Land

Senior Lecturer, Computer Science

A native of New York City, Martin Land received a BA in Physics from Reed College in Portland, Oregon in 1977, an MS in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University in New York in 1979, an MS in Physics from Hebrew University in 1986, and a PhD in Physics from Tel Aviv University in 1996. He has been active in computer hardware engineering and networking since 1975, developing fiberoptic networks at Bell Laboratories and parallel computing platforms at Hebrew University. Since joining the Hadassah College faculty in 1997, Dr. Land has developed and taught courses in computer architecture, microprocessor systems, computer networking, and embedded systems at the undergraduate and graduate level. As a member of the Computer Science projects committee, he has supervised many BSc and MSc final projects related to computing infrastructure.

Martin Land's research interests include the problem of time in the theory of relativity, foundations of electromagnetism, relativistic quantum theory, the social impact of computing technology and responsible computing platforms, critical theory in Jewish studies, and the application of concepts from systems engineering and system performance studies to social science and the humanities. He serves as president of the International Association for Relativistic Dynamics (IARD).

Contact

02-6291982
martin@hac.ac.il

Such oddities as time dilation, black holes, and time machines enter popular consciousness through science fiction and daily news reporting. For physicists, a consistent description of material trajectories in spacetime is no less daunting. To make sense of empirical observations, we distinguish two aspects of time. An event is observed by its spacetime coordinates, 3D space and a laboratory clock time, but observation and the chronological order of occurrence may be reversed. The distinction has consequences for the foundations of relativistic physics, and especially in electrodynamics and general relativity. Over thirty years, Dr. Land has made important contributions to this field. He has serves as president of the International Association for Relativistic Dynamics (IARD), collaborating with several association members.

Dr. Land extends this research into the humanities, developing insights from the study of time in relativity into a more general language for discussing temporality in human experience. The problem of time is a philosophical issue for scholars from medieval rabbis to postmodern critical theorists, with practical implications for our understanding of the past, and our thinking about the future. In 2006 Dr. Land wrote a paper with Prof. Jonathan Boyarin, now head of Jewish Studies at Cornell University, relating the notions of present-future and future-present in the philosophy of Jacques Derrida to similar ideas in physics. This collaboration has led to two books and number of joint papers.

Over the past hundred years, the integration of scientific knowledge into the fabric of life as 'technology' (a political-economic structure) has transformed human civilization into a global machine. Should this machine to stop functioning, only a fraction of our population could be supported. Dr. Land brings the tools of systems theory to these issues, in particular the threats posed by climate change, automated systems for mass social control, and individual willingness to trade away quality of life for illusory notions of convenience.

Peer Reviewed Publications

Books

Boyarin J, Land MC, and Ginsburg S, Jews and the Ends of Theory, Fordham University Press, 2018.

Boyarin J and Land MC, Time and Human Language Now, Prickly Paradigm Press, 2008.

Articles

Land MC, Mass-Energy-Momentum Radiation in Stueckelberg-Horwitz-Piron (SHP) Electrodynamics, Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Volume 1239 (2019) 012005. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1239/1/012005/pdf

Land MC, Classical Stueckelberg-Horwitz-Piron Electrodynamics, chapter in Relativity, Gravitation, Cosmology: Beyond Foundations, edited by Valeriy Dvoeglazov, Nova Science Publishers, 2019.

Land MC, Mass stability in classical Stueckelberg-Horwitz-Piron electrodynamics, Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Volume 845 (2017) 012025.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/845/1/012025/pdf

Land MC, Speeds of light in Stueckelberg-Horwitz-Piron electrodynamics, Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Volume 845 (2017) 012024.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/845/1/012024/pdf

Land MC, The Particle as a Statistical Ensemble of Events in Stueckelberg-Horwitz-PironElectrodynamics, Entropy 2017, 19(5), 234; doi:10.3390/e19050234.
https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/19/5/234

Boyarin J and Land MC, Jewish Rhetorics and the Contemplation of a Diminished Future, transversal: Journal for Jewish Studies, 14 (2016), 11

Land MC, Field signature for apparently superluminal particle motion, Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 615 012008 (2015).
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/615/1/012008/pdf

Land MC, Pair production in Classical Stueckelberg-Horwitz-Piron electrodynamics, Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 615 012007 (2015).
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/615/1/012007/pdf

Land MC, Electrostatics in Stueckelberg-Horwitz Electrodynamics, Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 437 012012 (2013).
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/437/1/012012

Land MC and L. P. Horwitz, Offshell Quantum Electrodynamics, Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 437 012011 (2013).
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/437/1/012011

Land MC, The Abraham-Lorentz-Dirac equation in 5D Stueckelberg Electrodynamics,
Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 330 012015 (2011).
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/330/1/012015

Land MC, Harmonic Oscillator States with Integer and Non-Integer Orbital Angular Momentum, Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 330 012014 (2011).
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/330/1/012014

Land MC and Boyarin J, The State between Race and Religion: A Conversation, in Race and Political Theology, edited by Vincent W. Lloyd and Gregory Kaplan, Stanford University Press (2011).

Land MC, Coulomb Potential from Lorentz Invariance in N Dimensions, Foundations of Physics, 37 (2007).

Boyarin J and Land MC, A Moment of Danger, A Taste of Death, Cardozo Law Review, 26 (2005).

Land MC, Duality in Off-Shell Electrodynamics, Foundations of Physics, 35 (2005).

Land MC, The Discrete Symmetries of Off-Shell Electrodynamics, Foundations of Physics, 35 (2005).

Land MC, Higher-Order Kinetic Term for Controlling Photon Mass in Off-Shell Electrodynamics, Foundations of Physics, 33 (2003) 1157.

Land MC, The Covariant Stark Effect, Foundations of Physics 31 (2001) 967.

Land MC, Thoughts on Cyber Terrorism and Information Warfare, The Age of Super and Cyber Terrorism: Selected Papers, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, Yonah Alexander, ed., (1999). Reprinted in Cyber Terrorism and Information Warfare: Threats and Responses, Yonah Alexander, Michael S. Swetnam, eds., Transnational, Ardsley, NY, (June 1, 2001)

Land MC, The Classical Coulomb Problem in Pre-Maxwell Electrodynamics, Foundations of Physics 28 (1998) 1499.

Land MC, Pre-Maxwell Quantum Electrodynamics, Foundations of Physics 28 (1998) 1489.

Land MC, Pre-Maxwell Electrodynamics, Foundations of Physics 28 (1998) 1479.

Land MC and L.P. Horwitz, Off-Shell Phenomena In Coulomb Scattering, Physics Letters A. 239 (1998) 135.

Land MC, Events and Particles in Classical Off-Shell Electromagnetism, Foundations of Physics, Vol. 27, 1997, p. 19 (invited paper).

Land MC and L.P. Horwitz, The Zeeman Effect for the Relativistic Bound State, Journal of Physics, A: Mathematical and General, Vol. 28, 1995, p. 3289.

Land MC, N. Shnerb, and L.P. Horwitz, On Feynman's Approach to the Foundations of Gauge Theory, Journal of Mathematical Physics, Vol. 36, 1995, p. 3263

Land MC, R.I. Arshansky, and L.P. Horwitz, Selection Rules for Dipole Radiation from a Relativistic Bound State, Foundations of Physics, Vol. 24, p. 563, 1993.

Land MC and L.P. Horwitz, Green's Functions for Off-Shell Electromagnetism and Spacelike Correlations, Foundations of Physics, Vol. 21, p. 299, 1991.

Land MC and L.P. Horwitz, The Lorentz Force and Energy-Momentum for Off-Shell Electromagnetism, Foundations of Physics Letters, Vol. 4, p. 61, 1991.

In 1998, Martin Land was a co-founder of the International Association for Relativistic Dynamics (IARD) at its initial meeting in Houston, Texas, USA. IARD has held ten subsequent conferences in this field, at Bar Ilan University, Howard University in Washington, Saas Fee, Switzerland, University of Connecticut, Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece, Hualien, Taiwan, Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics (GGI) in Florence, Italy, Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico. IARD 2020 will take place in June 2020 at Czech Technical University in Prague. Land was IARD secretary from 2004 to 2006, and serves as president since 2006. These meetings bring together researchers from diverse fields of relativistic dynamics, both classical and quantum. The conferences present new developments in theoretical aspects of quantum field theory, conformal and string theories, manifestly covariant classical mechanics, statistical mechanics, general relativity, classical and quantum gravity, high energy electron spectroscopy, quark-gluon plasma generation in heavy ion collisions, general high energy scattering and particle decay, cosmology, gravitational waves, and relativistic quantum information. IARD has been a fruitful source of collaboration for over 20 years.

The leading figures in the founding of IARD were John Fanchi, now at Texas Christian University and Larry Horwitz of Tel Aviv University. Land carried out his doctoral research under the supervision of Horwitz from 1988 – 95, and this collaboration has continued.

Martin Land and Jonathan Boyarin met as students in 1974 and have been collaborating formally and informally for over 45 years. Boyarin, and anthropologist and ethnographer of Jewish culture today heads the program in Jewish studies at Cornell University. Together they have led an interdisciplinary approach to natural science, social science, and the humanities and integrated aspects of the human endeavor. This collaboration has led to two books and numerous collaborative articles.