2008 Dirac Medal

[ICTP Info Point]

*2008 Dirac Medal*

 

On the occasion of the birthday of P.A.M. Dirac

we take pleasure in announcing that

the 2008 Dirac Medal and Prize

will be awarded to**

 

*Professor J.M. Maldacena*

*(Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton)*

* *

*Professor J. Polchinski*

*(KITP, UC Santa Barbara)*

* *

*Professor C. Vafa*

*(Harvard University)*

* *

 

Professors J.M. Maldacena (Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton), J. 
Polchinski (KITP, UC Santa Barbara) and C. Vafa (Harvard University) are 
being honored for their fundamental contributions to superstring theory. 
Their studies range from early work on orbifold compactifications, 
physics and mathematics of mirror symmetry, D-branes and black hole 
physics, as well as gauge theory-gravity correspondence. Their 
contributions in uncovering the strong-weak dualities between seemingly 
different string theories have enabled us to learn about regimes of 
quantum field theory which are not accessible to perturbative analysis. 
These profound achievements have helped us to address outstanding 
questions like confinement of quarks and QCD mass spectrum from a new 
perspective and have found applications in practical calculations in the 
fluid dynamics of quark gluon plasma.

 

The dualities have also led string theorists to conjecture that the five 
different superstring theories in ten space-time dimensions are 
manifestations of one underlying theory, yet undiscovered, which has 
been named the M-theory.

 

 

 

                                                                                  
8 August 2008

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