The other ADM

Abstract In the peculiar manner by which physicists reckon descent, this article is by a ‘child’ and ‘grandchild’ of the late Stanley Deser. We begin by sharing reminiscences of Stanley from over 40 years. Then we turn to a problem which was dear to his heart: the prospect that gravity might nonperturbatively screen its own ultraviolet divergences and those of other theories. After reviewing the original 1960 work by ADM, we describe a cosmological analogue of the problem and then begin the process of implementing it in gravity plus QED.