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Peter van Nieuwenhuizen

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In this Dutch name, the surname is Van Nieuwenhuizen, not Nieuwenhuizen.
Peter van Nieuwenhuizen
Born (1938-10-26) October 26, 1938 (age 86)
Utrecht, Netherlands
NationalityDutch
Alma materUniversity of Utrecht
Known forPure 4D N = 1 supergravity
AwardsDirac Prize (1993)
Dannie Heineman Prize (2006)
Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2019)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
InstitutionsStony Brook University
Doctoral advisorMartinus Veltman
Doctoral studentsHorațiu Năstase
Shoucheng Zhang

Peter van Nieuwenhuizen (Dutch: [ˈpeːtər vɑ ˈniu.ə(n)ˌɦœyzə(n)]; born October 26, 1938) is a Dutch theoretical physicist. He is a distinguished Professor at Stony Brook University in the United States.[1] Widely known for his contributions to String theory, Supersymmetry, Supergravity and Field theory.[2][3][4]

He is best known for his discovery of supergravity with Sergio Ferrara and Daniel Z. Freedman for which he along with his collaborators won the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2019.[5]

Life and career

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Peter van Nieuwenhuizen studied physics and mathematics at the University of Utrecht, where he obtained in 1971 his Ph.D. under the supervision of later Nobel laureate Martinus Veltman.[6]

After his studies in Utrecht he went to CERN (Geneva), the University of Paris in Orsay, and Brandeis University (Waltham). In 1975 he joined the Institute for Theoretical Physics, now named C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, of the Stony Brook University, where he succeeded Nobel laureate C. N. Yang as its director from 1999 till 2002.

Awards and honors

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For constructing supergravity, the first supersymmetric extension of Einstein's theory of general relativity, and for their central role in its subsequent development Peter van Nieuwenhuizen, Sergio Ferrara and Daniel Z. Freedman received in 1993 the Dirac medal from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste (Italy), in 2006 the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics of the American Physical Society and in 2016 the Ettore Majorana Medal from EMFCSC, Erice. In 2019 the three were awarded a special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics of $3 million[7] for the discovery.[8]

He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, and a corresponding member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1994,[9] and of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He was made a Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion in 2004, and Honorary professor of the Technical University of Vienna (Austria) in 2005.

References

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  1. ^ "Stony Brook Physics & Astronomy Faculty - Peter van Nieuwenhuizen". insti.physics.sunysb.edu. Retrieved 2023-11-16.
  2. ^ "Peter van Nieuwenhuizen in nLab". ncatlab.org. Retrieved 2023-11-16.
  3. ^ "INSPIRE". inspirehep.net. Retrieved 2023-11-16.
  4. ^ "P. van Nieuwenhuizen". research.com. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  5. ^ "Breakthrough Prize – Fundamental Physics Breakthrough Prize Laureates – Peter van Nieuwenhuizen". breakthroughprize.org. Retrieved 2023-11-16.
  6. ^ "Van Nieuwenhuizen, Peter". Niels Bohr Library & Archives. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
  7. ^ "Supergravity scientists share $3M US Breakthrough Prize". CBC News.
  8. ^ Ball, Philip (6 August 2019). "Supergravity Snags Super Award: $3-Million Special Breakthrough Prize". Scientific American. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
  9. ^ "Nieuwenhuizen, Prof. dr. P. van (Peter)". KNAW (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 20 May 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
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