ICTP is a hub for international science, attracting thousands of scientists each year, including some of the most prestigious physicists and mathematicians in the world. Hundreds of Nobel laureates, Fields medallists, and ICTP Dirac medallists have visited ICTP over the years, sharing their insights and perspectives with ICTP's international science community. ICTP is capturing some of these insights in its video series of "ICTP Conversations" and "Dirac Conversations". All were conducted by ICTP Director Atish Dabholkar, sometimes accompanied by members of the Centre's faculty.
The protagonist of the latest video in the series “Dirac conversation” is 1985 Dirac Medallist Edward Witten, professor emeritus in the school of natural sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.
He was interviewed by Director Atish Dabholkar in June 2023 while at ICTP for the Huddle on Entanglement, Black Holes and Spacetime, during which he gave a public talk entitled “What every physicist should know about string theory”.
In this conversation, Witten and Dabholkar discuss the evolution of string theory over the years, as well as Witten’s contributions to the theory and his relationship with mathematics.
Alongside Yakov Zeldovich (1914-1987), Edward Witten was the first to be awarded ICTP's Dirac Medal, which was launched in 1985. The award cited his "stimulating contributions to quantum field theory, particularly with regard to the implications of new kinds of anomalies”.