Professor Edward Witten

Edward Witten has made profound contributions to contemporary physics, including supersymmetric and topological quantum field theory, string theory, M-theory, quantum gravity and quantum information theory.
He is the only physicist to receive the Fields Medal, the mathematical equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
In 1998, Witten found a three-dimensional formulation of the knot polynomial of Sir Vaughan Jones from a three-dimensional quantum field theory, developing topological quantum field theories and solving a problem posed by Sir Michael Atiyah. This was presented at the Congress of Mathematical Physics held at Taliesin, Swansea, the morning after he had dinner with Atiyah and others at Annie’s Restaurant, where his ideas crystallised, and which has become folklore.
Witten is Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
His many awards include the Dirac Prize and Medal (1985), Fields Medal (1990), Crafoord Prize in Mathematics (2008), Institute of Physics Isaac Newton Medal (2010), Kyoto Prize (2014), Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1984), National Academy of Sciences (1988), Foreign Member of the Royal Society (1999), Academy of Sciences of Paris (2000), Pontifical Academy of Sciences (2006), Honorary Fellow Royal Society of Edinburgh (2016), Honorary Member London Mathematical Society (2019).