The Abdus Salam Distinguished Lectures 2019 will be given on 28, 29 and 30 January 2019 by Prof. Juan Maldacena, from the School of Natural Sciences at IAS, Princeton, USA. Juan Maldacena’s work focuses on quantum gravity, string theory, and quantum field theory. He has proposed a relationship between quantum gravity and quantum field theories that elucidates various aspects of both theories. He is studying this relationship further in order to understand the deep connection between black holes and quantum field theories, and he is also exploring the connection between string theory and cosmology. The tentative schedule for the lecture series is as follows: Monday 28 January 2019 at 16.30 hrs Lecture 1: Quantum mechanics and the geometry of spacetime. Abstract: Black holes are fascinating objects which pose interesting puzzles for quantum physics. Studying these puzzles we are led to quantum mechanical models that describe special black holes as seen from the outside. Extrapolating from these descriptions we are lead to the idea that entanglement can create geometric connections or wormholes. Moreover, quantum teleportation can be interpreted as travelling through the wormhole. Tuesday 29 January 2019 at 16.30 hrs Lecture 2: Toy models for black holes. Abstract: We will review the Sachdev Ye Kitaev model and describe how it shares some features with nearly extremal black holes. We also describe the dynamics of nearly extremal black holes. We will go over different physical phenomena, including chaos, quantum teleportation, etc, and their common manifestation in these two systems. Wednesday 30 January 2019 at 11.00 hrs Lecture 3: Toy models for black holes (part two). This will be a more technical talk based on lecture 2 above. All lectures take place in the Budinich Lecture Hall, and will be livestreamed from the ICTP website. Light refreshments will be served after the talks. All are most welcome to attend. The Abdus Salam Distinguished Lecture Series receives generous support from the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS). For more information see: https://kfas.ictp.it/