In theoretical physics, quantum cosmology is a field attempting to study the effect of quantum mechanics on the formation of the universe, or its early evolution, especially just after the Big Bang. Despite many attempts, such as the Wheeler-deWitt equation, the field remains a rather speculative branch of quantum gravity.

An important problem in this field is the origin of physical information in the universe.

Andrei Dmitriyevich Linde (Russian: Андрей Дмитриевич Линде; born March 2, 1948) is a Russian-American theoretical physicist and professor of Physics at Stanford University. Dr. Linde is best known for his work on the concept of the inflationary universe. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Moscow State University. In 1975, Linde was awarded a Ph.D. from the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow. Among the various awards he's received for his work on inflation, in 2002 he was awarded the Dirac Medal, along with Alan Guth of MIT and Paul Steinhardt of Princeton University.

Linde is best known for proposing "eternal chaotic inflation" to explain a number of problems in cosmology. This variant of cosmic inflation proposes that the false vacuum is eternally inflating in exponential growth powered by repulsive constant random zero point dark energy of negative pressure. This false vacuum is like supersaturated steam in which liquid bubbles of more stable vacuum form with Higgs-Goldstone fields that describe the cohering of most of the pre-inflationary random dark energy into the smooth fabric of curved spacetime. Our universe is only a small causal part of a single bubble, and there are 10^10^10^7 bubbles. In fact, there are 10^10^10^7 of universes like ours on a single bubble which is more like an expanding infinite sheet than a finite spherical surface (suppressing 1 space dimension for ease of visualization).

Carlo Rovelli is an Italian physicist who has worked in Italy, the USA, and France. His work is mainly in the field of quantum gravity. He is among the founders of the Loop Quantum Gravity theory.

Carlo Rovelli was born in Verona, Italy, in 1956. In the 1970s he participated in the student political movements in Italian universities. He was involved with the free political radio stations Radio Alice in Bologna and Radio Anguana in Verona, which he helped found. In conjunction with his political activity, he was charged, but later released, for crimes of opinion related to the book Fatti Nostri, which he co-authored with Enrico Palandri, Maurizio Torrealta, and Claudio Piersanti. In 1981 he graduated with a BS/MS in Physics from the University of Bologna, and in 1986 he obtained his PhD at the University of Padova, Italy. He refused military service, which was compulsory in Italy at the time, and was therefore briefly detained in 1987. He held postdoctoral positions at the University of Rome and at Yale University. He was on the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh from 1990 to 2000. He is currently at the Université de la Méditerranée, in the Centre de Physique Théorique, in Marseille, France. He has also long held the post of Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science of the University of Pittsburgh.

Antony Valentini is a theoretical physicist and a professor at Clemson University. He is known for his work on the foundations of quantum physics.

Valentini obtained an undergraduate degree from Cambridge University, then earned his Ph.D. in 1992 with Dennis Sciama at the International School for Advanced Studies (ISAS) in Trieste, Italy. In 1999, after seven years in Italy, he took up a post-doc grant to work at the Imperial College with Lee Smolin and Christopher Isham.

He currently works at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Since February 2011, he is professor of physics and astronomy at Clemson University.

Together with Mike Towler, Royal Society research fellow of the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, he organized a conference on the de Broglie-Bohm theory the Apuan Alps Centre for Physics in August 2010, hosted by the Towler Institute located in Vallico di Sotto in Tuscany, Italy, which is loosely associated with the Theory of Condensed Matter group of the Cavendish Laboratory. Among the questions announced for discussion, the organizers included “Why should young people be interested in these ideas, when showing interest in quantum foundations still might harm their careers?”