Leonard Susskind

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Leonard Susskind is the Felix Bloch professor of theoretical physics at Stanford University in the field of string theory and quantum field theory. Susskind is widely regarded as the father of string theory for his early contributions to the String Theory model of particle physics.^[1]

Contents 1 Background 2 Career 3 Contributions 4 See also 5 External links 6 References

[edit] Background

Susskind was born in New York City and now resides in Palo Alto, California. He began working as a plumber at the age of thirteen. Later, he enrolled in the City College of New York as an engineering student. He has been married twice, originally in 1960, ^[2] and has four children, including Yve Susskind, a Ph.D. and advocate of youth empowerment on Vashon Island, Washington. Susskind successfully graduated with a B.S. in Physics in 1962.^[3] He then went on to get his Ph.D. in 1965 from Cornell University under Peter A. Carruthers.

[edit] Career

Susskind has been Felix Bloch Professor of Physics at Stanford University since 1979. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was awarded the 1998 J.J. Sakurai Prize for theoretical physics.

Susskind is the author of the book, The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design.

He was one of at least three physicists who independently discovered during or around 1970 that the Veneziano dual resonance model of strong interactions could be described by a quantum mechanical model of strings. [2]

[edit] Contributions

Susskind's contributions to physics include:

• The independent discovery of the string theory model of particle physics.
• The theory of quark confinement
• The development of Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory
• The theory of scaling violations in deep inelastic electroproduction
• The theory of symmetry breaking sometimes known as "technicolor theory"
• The second, yet independent, theories of cosmological baryogenesis. (Sakharov's work was first, but was mostly unknown in the Western hemisphere)
• The string theory of black hole entropy
• The principle of "black hole complementarity"
• The holographic principle, the matrix description of M-theory
• The introduction of holographic entropy bounds in physical cosmology
• The idea of an anthropic string theory landscape.

[edit] See also

• Superstring theory
• String theory
• QCD
• M-theory
• Supersymmetry
• Quantum field theory
• Holographic principle

[edit] External links

• Stanford University Homepage
• The Edge:
  • "Interview with Leonard Susskind."
  • Susskind and Lee Smolin debate the Anthropic Principle.
• Radio Interview from This Week in Science March 14, 2006 Broadcast
• "Father of String Theory Muses on the Megaverse": Podcast.
• Leonard Susskind's page on the Internet Movie Database.

[edit] References

1. ^ NYAS Publication A Walk Across the Landscape
2. ^ [1]
3. ^ Edge.org Leonard Susskind - A Biography