| Abstract: |
Edward Witten is the Charles Simonyi Professor of Mathematical Physics in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, and one of the world's leading theoretical physicisits (he appeared in the list of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of 2004). Witten is by far the most influential figure in String Theory, a theory that combines Einstein's theory of General Relativity with Quantum Mechanics, and that realizes the idea of unification of interactions. Witten is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Fields Medal (1990), MacArthur Fellowship (1982), the Dirac Medal (1985) and the National Medal of Science (2003). He is also a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) since 1988. Last year Witten was awarded the Harvey Prize for Science and Technology at the Technion. It was on this occasion that he was also hosted by the Institute for Theoretical Physics. His many contributions to theoretical physics include the dynamics of supersymmetric gauge theories, compactifications of superstring theories and superstring dualities. He is also the co-author of the classic two-volume book "superstring theory". Witten gave a math department colloquium and a physics seminar on the subject of the Geometric Langlands Program, and how it is connected with supersymmetric gauge field theories. He also gave the physics department colloquium on the relation between string theory and gauge theory, and how it might be used to understand the non-perturbative dynamics of QCD. |
