Honorary Fellow awarded Breakthrough Prize
Professor John Cardy, Honorary Fellow, has been awarded a Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.
The prize, which he won jointly with Alexander Zamolodchikov (Stony Brook University), recognises his contribution of deep insights into quantum field theories and statistical physics.
The Breakthrough Prizes are a set of international awards bestowed in recognition of scientific advances. Founded in 2012 by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Anne Wojcicki, they are renowned as the ‘Oscars of Science’. Prizes are annually awarded in Mathematics, Fundamental Physics and Life Sciences, with each worth $3 million.
In their announcement of this year's winners, the Breakthrough Prize Foundation said that Professor Cardy had: "contributed a lifetime of deep insights into quantum field theories, which describe not only particle physics, but emergent phenomena from magnetism and superconducting materials to the information content of black holes, and have also become a rich field of study in mathematics."
Professor Cardy’s research focuses on statistical physics, particularly on critical phenomena and two-dimensional conformal field theory.
"I am delighted and humbled on receiving this recognition of my work," he said.
"Much of it was based on the solid foundation in Mathematics that I acquired at Cambridge and Downing College."
Professor Cardy was previously the recipient of the Boltzmann Medal in 2010 and the prestigious Dirac Medals of both the Institute of Physics (in 2000) and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in 2011. He became an Honorary Fellow of Downing College in 2012.
Full details about the Breakthrough Prize winners can be found on the awards website.
Published 19 September 2023