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| Cumrun Wafa | |
| Born | 1960 Tehran |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Iranian-American |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | Harvard University |
| Alma mater | MIT, Princeton University |
| Doctoral advisor | Ed Witten |
| Notable awards | Dirac Medal, Eisenbud Prize |
Cumrun Wafa کامران وفا (pronounced [kɔːmˈrɔːn væˈfɔː] in Farsi; born 1960 in Tehran) is an Iranian-American leading string theorist from Harvard University where he started as a Harvard Junior Fellow. He is a recipient of the 2008 Dirac Medal.
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Birth and education
Cumrun Wafa was born in Tehran, Iran in 1960. He graduated from Alborz High School and came to the US in 1977. He got his undergraduate degree from MIT with double major in math and physics. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1985 under the supervision of Edward Witten. He then became a junior fellow at Harvard, where he later got a junior faculty position. In 1989 he was offered a senior faculty position, and he has been there ever since. Currently, he is the Donner Professor of Science at Harvard University.1
Research and achievements
Cumrun Wafa is a leading string theorist. His research area is theoretical particle physics and he does research on the nature of quantum gravity and the relation between geometry and quantum field theories. Superstring theory has emerged as a strong candidate for the unified field theory of fundamental forces. The recent discovery of duality symmetries in Superstring theory has led to a significant insight into non-perturbative dynamics of gravity and quantum field theories. The discovery of Strominger and Vafa that the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of a black hole can be accounted for by solitonic states of superstring theory and also the relation between geometry and field theories that arise through string dualities, a topic known as "geometric engineering of quantum field theories". In 1997, he developed F-theory.
He is also interested in understanding the underlying meaning of string dualities, as well as trying to apply superstring theory to some unsolved questions of elementary particle physics such as the hierarchy problem and the cosmological constant problem.
He has published numerous articles on topological string theories, and he is famous for his landmark paper with Andy Strominger about the microscopic origin of the black hole entropy.
He is also a trustee of Network of Iranians for Knowledge and Innovation (NIKI).
See also
References
External links
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Vafa, Cumrun |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Iranian-American Physicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1960 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tehran |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 28 November 2008, at 06:07.
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