Frank Wilczek

Frank Wilczek is a US-based physicist of Polish-Italian origins. He was born in Mineola (New York) and educated in public schools of the borough of Queens. He received his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics at the University of Chicago in 1970, a Master of Arts in Mathematics at Princeton University in 1972 and a PhD in Physics at Princeton University in 1974. He holds the Herman Feshbach Professorship of Physics at the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics and is an Adjunct Professor in the Centro de Estudios Científicos (Centre for Scientific Studies) of Valdivia, Chile. He has worked in the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara, California. Together with David Gross and David Politzer he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2004 for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of strong interaction. Asymptotic freedom, which was independently discovered almost at the same time by David Politzer, was important for the discovery of quantum chromodynamics. Frank Wilczek has contributed towards knowledge and development of anions, axions, asymptotic freedom and other aspects of the field of quantum theory in general. He has carried out research in condensed matter physics, astrophysics and particle physics. He was awarded the Lorentz Medal in 2002.