Edward Witten, born August 26, 1951, is an American theoretical physicist renowned for his contributions to string theory, quantum gravity, supersymmetric quantum field theories, and various areas of mathematics. He obtained his B.A. from Brandeis University in 1971 and a Ph.D. in Physics from Princeton University in 1976. Witten is considered a leading figure in modern theoretical physics and the practical founder of M-theory, which unites the five different 10-dimensional superstring theories into one framework.
Witten is currently a professor emeritus in the school of natural sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He has made significant contributions to areas such as Morse theory, supersymmetry, knot theory, and the relationship between quantum field theory and the differential topology of manifolds. In 1990, Witten became the first physicist to receive the Fields Medal from the International Mathematical Union. He was awarded the Hamburg Prize for Theoretical Physics in 2023 for his groundbreaking contributions to a unified mathematical description of the fundamental forces of nature. In 2024, Witten received the Basic Science Lifetime Award at the International Congress of Basic Science in Beijing.