File:Edward_Witten.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
OverviewAI-generated
Edward Witten is an American mathematician, physicist, and university teacher specializing in physics, mathematical physics, and string theory. Born in Baltimore, he holds citizenship in the United States and resides in Princeton. His academic career includes positions at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, where he has also served as a doctoral advisor to researchers such as Shamit Kachru, Cumrun Vafa, Dror Bar-Natan, and Xiao-Gang Wen. He received his education at Brandeis University, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Princeton University, with David Gross serving as his doctoral advisor.
Witten’s notable work includes M-theory, and he has authored texts such as Superstring Theory: Volume 1 and Superstring Theory: Volume 2. He has been recognized with the Fields Medal, the MacArthur Fellows Program, the Isaac Newton Medal, and the Lorentz Medal. Additionally, he is a member of the French Academy of Sciences, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Synthesized by Vinony from 35 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, Crossref, Open Library, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Edward
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Baltimore
- Child
- Daniela Witten
- Father
- Louis Witten
- Employer
- Institute for Advanced Study
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Notable work
- M-theory
- Doctoral advisor
- David Gross
- Field of work
- string theory
- Official website
- www.ias.edu/sns/witten
- Image
- Edward Witten.jpg
- Residence
- Princeton
Show 7 more facts
- member of
- American Mathematical Society
- Commons category
- Edward Witten
- date of birth
- 1951-01-01
- Erdős number
- 3
- Commons gallery
- Edward Witten
- name in native language
- Edward Witten
- maintained by WikiProject
- WikiProject Mathematics
Sources (12)
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Encyclopedic overview
Edward Witten (born August 26, 1951) is an American theoretical physicist known for his contributions to string theory, topological quantum field theory, and various areas of mathematics. He is a professor emeritus in the school of natural sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Witten is a researcher in string theory, quantum gravity, supersymmetric quantum field theories, and other areas of mathematical physics. Witten's work has also significantly impacted pure mathematics. In 1990, he became the first physicist to be awarded a Fields Medal by the International Mathematical Union, for his mathematical insights in physics, such as his 1981 proof of the positive energy theorem in general relativity, and his interpretation of the Jones invariants of knots as Feynman integrals. He is considered the practical founder of M-theory.
Early life and education
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Edward Witten” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.