Edward Witten
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| Edward Witten | |
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| Born | August 26, 1951 Baltimore, Maryland |
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| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Theoretical physicist |
| Institutions | Institute for Advanced Study |
| Alma mater | Brandeis University |
| Doctoral advisor | David Gross |
| Doctoral students | Cumrun Vafa, Eva Silverstein, Shamit Kachru |
| Known for | string theory, M-theory, quantum field theory |
| Notable awards | Fields Medal (1990) Crafoord Prize (2008) |
Edward Witten (born August 26, 1951) is an American theoretical physicist and professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, who is widely known as “the most brilliant physicist of his generation,” [1], and "one of the world's greatest living physicists, perhaps even Einstein's successor". [2] He is a leading researcher in superstring theory. In 1990, Witten won the Fields Medal, the most prestigious award in pure mathematics.[3] In 1995, he suggested the existence of M-theory at a conference at the University of Southern California and used it to explain a number of previously observed dualities sparking a flurry of new research in string theory called the second superstring revolution.
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[edit] Birth and education
Edward Witten was born in Baltimore, Maryland to a Jewish family, the son of Lorraine W. Witten and Louis Witten, a theoretical physicist specializing in gravitation and general relativity. He received his bachelor's degree in history (with a minor in linguistics) from Brandeis University. Witten planned to become a political journalist, and published articles in The New Republic and The Nation. He worked briefly for George McGovern's presidential campaign. Then, he attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for one semester as an economics graduate student before dropping out. He then returned to academia, enrolling in applied mathematics at Princeton University before shifting departments and receiving a Ph.D. in physics in 1976 under David Gross, the 2004 Nobel laureate in Physics.
[edit] Academic career
After completing his PhD, he worked at Harvard University as a Junior Fellow and at Princeton as a professor. He was a Professor of Physics at Princeton University from 1980 to 1987. He also was briefly at Caltech for two years from 1999 to 2001. He is currently the Charles Simonyi Professor of Mathematical Physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
Witten has the highest h-index (110) of any living physicist.[4][5]
[edit] Research and achievements
Witten has made extensive contributions to theoretical physics, in work that has spawned a large number of highly mathematical results. He has been active primarily in quantum field theory and string theory, and in related areas of topology and geometry. His many contributions include a simplified proof of the positive energy theorem involving spinors in general relativity, his work relating supersymmetry and Morse theory, his introduction of topological quantum field theory and his related work on mirror symmetry and supersymmetric gauge theories, and his conjecture of the existence of M-theory.
Witten was awarded the Fields Medal[6] by the International Mathematical Union in 1990, becoming the first physicist to win the prize. Sir Michael Atiyah said of Witten, "Although he is definitely a physicist, his command of mathematics is rivaled by few mathematicians... Time and again he has surprised the mathematical community by a brilliant application of physical insight leading to new and deep mathematical theorems... he has made a profound impact on contemporary mathematics. In his hands physics is once again providing a rich source of inspiration and insight in mathematics."[7] One such example of his impact on pure mathematics is his framework for understanding the Jones polynomial using Chern-Simons theory. This had far reaching implications on low-dimensional topology and led to quantum invariants such as the Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev invariants.
He is currently working on the possible relations between Gauge theories and Geometric Langlands program.[citation needed]
[edit] Personal life
He is married to Chiara Nappi, who is a professor of physics at Princeton University and they have two daughters Ilana and Daniela, and one son, Raphael (Rafi). His brother Matt Witten is a screenwriter and producer for several popular TV series including L.A. Law and House.
[edit] Awards and honors
Witten has been honored with numerous awards, including a MacArthur Grant (1982), a Fields Medal (1990), the National Medal of Science[8] (2002), Pythagoras Award[4] (Croton, 2005), and the Crafoord Prize (2008). Pope Benedict XVI also appointed Witten as a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (2006). He also appeared in the list of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people of 2004. In 2000, he was awarded the Nemmers Prize in Mathematics.
[edit] See also
- Gromov-Witten invariant
- Seiberg–Witten gauge theory
- Seiberg–Witten invariant
- Vafa-Witten theorem
- Weinberg-Witten theorem
- Wess-Zumino-Witten model
- Witten index
[edit] References
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]
- ^ http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v436/n7053/full/436900a.html
- ^ http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=401175§ioncode=26
- ^ "On the work of Edward Witten" (when being awarded the Field's medal)
- ^ Atiyah, Michael (2005). Michael Atiyah: Collected Works: Volume 6. Oxford Science Publications. pp. 209,212. ISBN 978-0198530992.
- ^ "Edward Witten", The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Edward Witten |
- Witten's web page at the Institute
- Publications on ArXiv
- Witten theme tree on arxiv.org
- Futurama episode information
- Edward Witten reference in the web comic Abstruse Goose
- O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Edward Witten", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
- Edward Witten at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
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