Ashtekar Receives Humboldt Award

20 December 2004—Abhay Ashtekar, Holder of the Eberly Family Chair in Physics and director of the Penn State Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry, has received the Humboldt Award for Senior U.S. Scientists from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bonn, Germany, in honor of his exceptional scientific achievements in theoretical physics.

Ashtekar's research focuses on quantum gravity and general relativity. He is recognized for his contributions both to Einstein's classical theory of gravitation, or general relativity, and to the ongoing effort to create a quantum theory of gravity. He has contributed substantially to the analysis of the gravitational fields of isolated gravitating systems at large distances from their sources. In 1986 he discovered new variables to describe the gravitational field, which enabled him and his collaborators to make major progress toward the development of a quantum theory of gravity. This work led, in particular, to a new mathematical description of the structure of spacetime as polymer-like at the smallest scale. The joint research that Ashtekar will conduct as a result of this award will focus on quantum gravity and the dynamics of black holes.

Ashtekar has been the founding director of the Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry since 1993. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Foreign Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in India, and an Honorary Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences. He has been chief editor for physics for the journal Advances in Mathematical and Theoretical Physics since 1997, and a managing editor for the International Journal of Modern Physics-D since 1992.

Ashtekar has served as president of the American chapter of the Indian Physics Association, as chair of the Topical Group in Gravitation of the American Physical Society, and as the chair of a Special Emphasis Panel of the National Science Foundation. He has authored or edited five scientific books and more than 170 scientific papers.

Prior to joining the faculty at Penn State, Ashtekar held positions as professor, distinguished professor, and the Erastus Franklin Holden Professor of Physics at Syracuse University from 1984 to 1993. Prior to that, he was professor and chair of gravitation at the University of Paris VI in France. He earned his doctoral degree in physics at the University of Chicago in 1974 and his bachelor’s degree with honors in physics and mathematics at the University of Bombay, India, in 1969.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation was established in Berlin, Germany, in 1860. The foundation presents up to 150 research awards annually to foreign scholars to pay tribute to academic accomplishments that have gained international recognition and to foster long-term cooperation between German and foreign researchers.

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