Juan Maldacena Awarded The Dannie Heineman Prize For Mathematical Physics By American Physical Society

Juan Maldacena, Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, has been awarded the 2007 Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics by the American Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society.

The award acknowledges Professor Maldacena's "profound developments in Mathematical Physics that have illuminated interconnections and launched major research areas in Quantum Field Theory, String Theory and Gravity." He will share the award with Joseph G. Polchinski, a professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Professor Maldacena received his Ph.D. from Princeton University and taught at Harvard University before joining the Institute Faculty in 2001. He is a past Sloan Foundation Fellow and MacArthur Foundation Fellow. In 2000, he received both the UNESCO Husein Prize for Young Scientists and the Sackler Prize in Physics. The following year, he was awarded the Xanthopoulos Prize in General Relativity. In 2004, the American Physical Society presented him with the Edward A. Bouchet Award.

His work focuses on quantum gravity, string theory and quantum field theory. Professor Maldacena has recently proposed a relationship between quantum gravity and quantum field theories, which 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. He is also exploring the connection between string theory and cosmology.

The Heineman prize is presented annually to recognize outstanding publications in the field of mathematical physics. It was established in 1959 by the Heineman Foundation for Research, Educational, Charitable, and Scientific Purposes, Inc., and is administered jointly by the American Physical Society and the American Institute of Physics.

Past recipients of the Heineman Prize include Institute Faculty members Nathan Seiberg (1998), Thomas Spencer (1991), and Edward Witten (1998), and Institute Professor Emeritus Freeman Dyson (1965). Former Faculty member Tullio Regge received the award in 1964 and former Institute Director Marvin L. Goldberger in 1961.