Edward Witten Colloquium 7 June

ICTP is pleased to announce a colloquium by theoretical physicist Edward Witten on "What Every Physicist Should Know About String Theory". The talk will take place on 7 June at 14:00 CET in ICTP's Budinich Lecture Hall, and will be livestreamed as well at ictp.it/livestream.

Witten will explain, in nontechnical language, how string theory generalizes quantum field theory while eliminating the ultraviolet divergences and the ability to adjust coupling constants in an arbitrary fashion.

Edward Witten is Professor Emeritus in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He is a researcher in string theory, quantum gravity, supersymmetric quantum field theories, and other areas of mathematical physics. Witten's work has also significantly impacted pure mathematics. In 1990, he became the first physicist to be awarded a Fields Medal by the International Mathematical Union, for his mathematical insights in physics, such as his 1981 proof of the positive energy theorem in general relativity, and his interpretation of the Jones invariants of knots as Feynman integrals. He is considered the practical founder of M-theory.

He was awarded the ICTP Dirac Medal in 1985 for stimulating contributions to quantum field theory, particularly with regard to the implications of new kinds of anomalies.