Michael Stoeltzner

Michael Stoeltzner is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina and a founding member of the interdisciplinary DFG-FWF research unit 'Epistemology of the Large Hadron Collider' (2016-2023). He received an MSc in Physics from the University of Vienna and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Bielefeld, with prior positions at Salzburg, Bielefeld, Wuppertal, and visiting fellowships at UC Irvine, Notre Dame, Bonn, and Stockholm.

• Education: MSc in Physics (Vienna), PhD in Philosophy (Bielefeld)

His research spans philosophy and history of physics and applied mathematics, focusing on foundational topics like the Principle of Least Action, quantum field theory, the Higgs mechanism, and models in science. He has published extensively on Feynman diagrams, model landscapes in particle physics, and the philosophical implications of quantum indeterminism.

Recent work analyzes the epistemology of the Higgs discovery and the shift toward model-independent strategies in particle physics. He received the Russell Research Award (2021) and has contributed to debates on causality, logical empiricism, and the axiomatic method in science.

• Grants: Epistemology of the Large Hadron Collider (DFG-FWF), Renaissance of Mathematical Physics (ASPIRE/CAS)