Physicist Edward Witten To Speak At Institute For Advanced Study

Edward Witten, who is Charles Simonyi Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, will speak on "Cosmic Acceleration and Particle Physics" on November 3 at 4:30 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the campus of the Institute for Advanced Study. A reception will follow in the Common Room of Fuld Hall.

Witten, a mathematical physicist, states, "One of the most surprising discoveries in astronomy in recent years is that the expansion of the universe appears to be accelerating." In his talk, he will describe the puzzles that this acceleration poses for theories of fundamental physics.

Witten was one of the 2003 winners of the National Medal of Science, and may be best known as the world leader in string theory, an attempt by physicists to describe in a unified way all the known forces of nature. Among his numerous honors and awards are a MacArthur Fellowship, the Fields Medal of the International Union of Mathematicians, and the Dannie Heineman Prize of the American Institute of Physics.

Author of 250 scientific papers, as well as coauthor of Superstring Theory, he is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Physical Society, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.

Witten has been a member of the Institute faculty since 1987, and has held the Simonyi Professorship since 1997. He was previously Professor of Physics at Princeton University. He received his B.A. from Brandeis University and his Ph.D. from Princeton University; he holds honorary degrees from Brandeis University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Columbia University, and the University of Southern California.

The lecture is free and open to the public; for further information, call 609-734-8202.