Albert Einstein was a great pioneer in the quest for the fundamental laws that govern the regularities exhibited universally by all physical systems, without exception, without qualification, and without approximation. We will discuss Einstein's vision for the nature of these laws and for their discovery by a process of abstraction, generalization, and unification guided by mathematical elegance. The discovery of his theory of gravitation --- general relativity --- will illustrate this vision. But Einstein's vision has had to be modified to accommodate the quantum mechanical laws of microscopic physics. We will discuss the implications of quantum mechanics for the nature of the fundamental laws, for our picture of the universe on the largest scales of cosmology, and for our understanding of the origin of the universe in the big bang where large and small are one. Lessons for the nature of scientific authority will be drawn.

Hartle's scientific work is concered with the application of Einstein's general relativity to realistic astrophysical situations, especially cosmology near the origin of the universe, where quantum mechanics and gravity overlap.

Hartle has made important contributions to the understanding of gravitational waves, relativistic stars, and black holes. He has visited Cambridge often since 1971 and has collaborated closely with Stephen Hawking over many years, most notably on their famous "no boundary proposal" for the origin of the universe. Hartle is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a past director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara.