Ed Witten has been called “the most brilliant physicist of his generation.” Some, not content with this accolade, have compared him to Isaac Newton. Witten is a deeply original and committed theoretical physicist whose primary field of research is string theory, which proposes a “theory of everything” wherein the building blocks of the universe are curves, or “strings,” formed into loops. He has been one of the field’s foremost proponents and most prolific contributors, once telling an interviewer, “It was very clear that if I didn’t spend my life concentrating on string theory, I would simply be missing my life’s calling.”
Witten’s work has been especially distinguished in its use of advanced mathematics to achieve the kind of unified field theory of the universe that was Einstein’s dream.
An appreciation by John H. Schwarz, Harold Brown Professor of Theoretical Physics, Caltech
Edward Witten, an extraordinarily creative and dedicated scientist, has ...
