Edward Witten

Born on August 26, 1951, in Baltimore, Maryland, Edward Witten was destined to become a mathematician. His father was a theoretical physicist who spent a lot of time educating Edward on gravitation as well as many other subjects. Edward attended the Park School of Baltimore, which is a private school. He continued to attend this school until 1968, which is when he graduated and went to Brandeis University.

Witten’s Later Educational Years

At the university, Witten majored in history and his minor was in linguistics. He excelled in school and in 1971, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree. After graduating college, Witten was able to publish a few articles in various magazines and newspapers. He also worked for the presidential campaign for George McGovern, but this was only temporary.

After McGovern lost the election, Witten decided to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but he ended up only staying for one semester before he dropped out. After this, he decided to study applied mathematics at Princeton University under his professor David Gross. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton and then went on to get a fellowship at Harvard until 1977.

Witten’s Career Years

Witten soon started to work on the first string theory revolution in 1984, which dealt with the problem of gravitational anomaly. He worked with Philip Candelas, Andrew Strominger, and Gary Horowitz to create the string theory and they soon held a conference about it at the University of Southern California. A few years later, in 1997, Witten worked on supersymmetry and Morse theory.

Witten has been able to do a lot of research over his life and has won numerous awards because of that. He is also regarded as one of the greatest theoretical physicists in the world. His most famous research accomplishments include: quantum gravity, m-theory, string theory, supersymmetry and quantum field theory.

Witten’s Awards and Recognitions

Throughout his life, Witten has been awarded with some top honors from various sources. Some of the most notable awards include the Albert Einstein Award in 1985, which is awarded to theoretical physicists and is just as prestigious as the Nobel Prize. In 2002, he won the National Medal of Science, an award that is given by the President of the United States to individuals who have made significant and important findings that contribute to the understanding of science and related subjects.

Other awards that Witten has received include the Harvey Prize in 2005 for individuals who make contributions to science and related subjects. In 2010, he won the Isaac Newton Medal and two years later, he won the Fundamental Physics Prize, which is also known as the Russian Nobel Prize because it was created by Yuri Milner, a Russian physicist.

Edward Witten Today

Witten is married to a professor of physics at Princeton University, Chiara Nappi, and together they have two daughters. He is also on the board of directors for Americans for Peace Now. He is also working as a professor for the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, which is where he lives.