Nima Arkani-Hamed is a leading Canadian American theoretical
physicistPhysics 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...
with interests in high-energy physics,
string theoryString theory is an active research framework in particle physics that attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity. It is a contender for a theory of everything , a manner of describing the known fundamental forces and matter in a mathematically complete system...
and
cosmologyCosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
.
Formerly a professor at Harvard, Arkani-Hamed is now on the faculty at the prestigious
Institute for Advanced StudyThe Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is an independent postgraduate center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It was founded in 1930 by Abraham Flexner...
in Princeton, New Jersey.
Academic career
Arkani-Hamed was born on April 5, 1972 in
Houston, TexasHouston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
and lived in
BostonBoston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. His parents were both physicists from
TabrizTabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
, Iran. His family briefly returned to Iran after the 1979
revolutionThe Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
, then left again and moved to
TorontoToronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. Arkani-Hamed eventually became a
CanadianCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
citizen.
Arkani-Hamed graduated from the
University of TorontoThe University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
with a Joint Honours degree in
MathematicsMathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
and
PhysicsPhysics 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...
, and went to the
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
for his graduate studies, where he worked under the supervision of Lawrence Hall. He completed his PhD in 1997 and went to SLAC at Stanford University for post-doctoral studies. During this time he worked with
Savas DimopoulosSavas Dimopoulos is a Greek particle physicist at Stanford University. He was born in Istanbul, Turkey and later moved to Athens due to ethnic tensions in Turkey during the 1950s and 1960s. Dimopoulos studied as an undergraduate at the University of Houston...
on
large extra dimensionIn particle physics, models with universal extra dimensions propose that there are one or more additional dimensions beyond the three spatial dimensions and one temporal dimension that are observed...
s.
In 1999 he joined the faculty of the
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
physics department. He took a leave of absence from Berkeley to visit
Harvard UniversityHarvard 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...
beginning January 2001. Shortly after arriving at Harvard he worked with
Howard GeorgiHoward Mason Georgi III, born January 6, 1947 in San Bernardino, California, is Harvard College Professor and Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics at Harvard University...
and Andrew Cohen on the idea of emergent extra dimensions, dubbed
dimensional deconstructionIn theoretical physics, dimensional deconstruction is a method to construct d-dimensional theories that behave as higher-dimensional theories in a certain range of energies...
. These ideas eventually led to the development of
little HiggsIn particle physics, little Higgs models are based on the idea that the Higgs boson is a pseudo-Goldstone boson arising from some global symmetry breaking at a TeV energy scale...
theories.
He officially joined Harvard's faculty in the fall of 2002. Arkani-Hamed has appeared on various television programs and newspapers talking about space, time and dimensions and the current state of theoretical physics. In 2003 he won the Gribov Medal of the
European Physical SocietyThe European Physical Society is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to promote physics and physicists in Europe. Formally established in 1968, its membership includes the national physical societies of 41 countries, and some 3200 individual members. The Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft,...
, and in the summer of 2005 while at Harvard he won the 'Phi Beta Kappa' award for teaching excellence.
Arkani-Hamed participated in the
Stock Exchange of VisionsThe Stock Exchange of Visions is a project initiated in 2006 by Fabrica, Benetton's research center. It gathers visionaries from diverse nationalities and cultures, who hail from a wide range of specialties, to provide insight into their vision for the future....
project in 2007.
In 2008 Arkani-Hamed won the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize given at
Tel Aviv UniversityTel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
to young scientists who have made outstanding and fundamental contributions in Physical Science.
He was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and SciencesThe American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
in 2009. In 2010 Arkani-Hamed gave the
Messenger lecturesThe Messenger Lectures are a prestigious series of talks given by leading scholars and public figures at Cornell University. They were founded in 1924 by a gift from Hiram Messenger and are regarded as one of the most important of Cornell's extracurricular activities.There were initially "twelve...
at Cornell University.
He was a Professor of Physics at Harvard University from 2002–2008, and is now a Faculty member of the
Institute for Advanced StudyThe Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is an independent postgraduate center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It was founded in 1930 by Abraham Flexner...
.
Selected works
- The paradigm of "large extra dimensions" (with Gia Dvali
Georgi Dvali is a professor of physics at LMU Munich and a director at the Max Planck Institute for Physics. He received his Ph.D. in high energy physics and cosmology from Tbilisi State University, Georgia in 1992...
and Savas DimopoulosSavas Dimopoulos is a Greek particle physicist at Stanford University. He was born in Istanbul, Turkey and later moved to Athens due to ethnic tensions in Turkey during the 1950s and 1960s. Dimopoulos studied as an undergraduate at the University of Houston...
):
-
- Deconstruction
In theoretical physics, dimensional deconstruction is a method to construct d-dimensional theories that behave as higher-dimensional theories in a certain range of energies...
(with Howard GeorgiHoward Mason Georgi III, born January 6, 1947 in San Bernardino, California, is Harvard College Professor and Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics at Harvard University...
and Andrew Cohen):
-
- Little Higgs
In particle physics, little Higgs models are based on the idea that the Higgs boson is a pseudo-Goldstone boson arising from some global symmetry breaking at a TeV energy scale...
theories:
-
-
- Split supersymmetry
In particle physics, split supersymmetry is a recent proposal for new physics beyond the Standard Model. It was proposed separately in three papers. The first by James Wells in June 2003 in a more modest form that mildly relaxed the assumption about naturalness in the Higgs potential...
(with Savas DimopoulosSavas Dimopoulos is a Greek particle physicist at Stanford University. He was born in Istanbul, Turkey and later moved to Athens due to ethnic tensions in Turkey during the 1950s and 1960s. Dimopoulos studied as an undergraduate at the University of Houston...
):
-
-
External links