Dimitri Nanopoulos
Encyclopedia
Dimitri Nanopoulos is a Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 physicist
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

. He is one of the most regularly cited researchers in the world, cited more than 35,800 times over across a number of separate branches of science.http://www.tamu.edu/univrel/aggiedaily/news/stories/99/060499-6.html

Dimitri Nanopoulos was born and raised in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

. He studied Physics at the University of Athens and he graduated in 1971, continuing his studies at the University of Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....

 in England, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1973 in High Energy Physics. He has been a Research Fellow at the Center of European Nuclear Research (CERN
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory, which is situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border...

) in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, Switzerland and for many years has been a staff member and Research Fellow at the École Normale Supérieure
École Normale Supérieure
The École normale supérieure is one of the most prestigious French grandes écoles...

, in Paris, France and at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

, United States. In 1989, he was elected Professor at the Department of Physics, at the NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

-supported Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...

, where since 1992 he has been a Distinguished Professor of Physics, and since 2002 holder of the Mitchell/Heep Chair in High Energy Physics ; he is also a distinguished HARC fellow at the Houston Advanced Research Center in Houston, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. In 1997 he was appointed regular member of the Academy of Athens
Academy of Athens (modern)
The Academy of Athens is Greece's national academy, and the highest research establishment in the country. It was established in 1926, and operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Education...

, and in 2005 President of the Greek National Council for Research and Technology, Greek National Representative to the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, CERN
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory, which is situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border...

, and to the European Space Agency (ESA).

He has made several contributions to particle physics and cosmology, and works in string unified theories, fundamentals of quantum theory, astroparticle physics and quantum-inspired models of brain function. He has written over 588 original papers, including 13 books. He has over 35,800 citations, placing him as the fourth most cited High Energy Physicist of all time, according to the 2001 and 2004 census. Since 1988 he has been fellow of the American Physical Society, and since 1992 member of the Italian Physical Society. In 1996, he was made Commander of the Order of Honour of the Greek State.

He is one of the principal developers of the flipped SU(5)
Flipped SU(5)
The Flipped SU model is a Grand Unified Theory theory first contemplated by Stephen Barr in 1982, and by Dimitri Nanopoulos and others in 1984...

 model, first proposed by Stephen M. Barr
Modern Physics and Ancient Faith
Modern Physics and Ancient Faith is a book by Stephen M. Barr, a physicist from the University of Delaware and frequent contributor to First Things. This book is "an extended attack" on what Barr calls scientific materialism. National Review says of the book: "[A] lucid and engaging survey of...

 in a paper published in 1982. It was further described in a 1984 paper by Nanopoulos, J. P. Deredinger, and J.E Kim and a 1987 paper by Nanopoulos, I. Antoniadis, John Ellis
John Ellis (physicist)
Jonathan Richard Ellis FRS is a British theoretical physicist who is currently Clerk Maxwell Professor of Theoretical Physics at King's College London. After completing his secondary education at Highgate School, he attended Cambridge University, earning his Ph.D. in theoretical particle physics...

, and John Hagelin
John Hagelin
John Samuel Hagelin is an American particle physicist, three-time candidate of the Natural Law Party for President of the United States , and the director of the Transcendental Meditation movement for the US....

.

On 17 October 2006 he was awarded the Onassis International prize by the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation
Alexander S. Onassis Foundation
Wishing to honor the memory of his son Alexander, who died in 1973, in an airplane crash at the age of 25, Aristotle Onassis directed in his will that half of his estate should be transferred upon his own death to a foundation to be established in Alexander’s name...

. On 28 September 2009, he was awarded the 2009 Enrico Fermi Prize from the Italian Physical Society in recognition of his pioneering work in the field of string theory.

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