Edward Witten

Edward Witten sits, for me, almost beyond ordinary celebrity. He is a theoretical physicist so formidable that he won the Fields Medal, mathematics' highest honor, despite working in physics. His proposal of M-theory reshaped how we think about string theory and the fabric of reality. A MacArthur 'genius' Fellow and Breakthrough Prize laureate, he holds court at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, the same intellectual sanctuary that once housed Einstein. I cannot read a line of his equations, yet I recognize a mind expanding the frontier of human knowledge largely on his own terms. Quiet giants like him command my unconditional respect.

Name (English)

Edward Witten

Name (Japanese)

エドワード・ウィッテン

Reading

えどわーど・うぃってん

Born

August 26, 1951 (age 74)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Virgo / Rabbit

Origin

Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Occupation

mathematician / physicist / university teacher / theoretical physicist / string theorist

University

Princeton University

Awards & achievements

• 1990 Fields medal
• 1982 MacArthur Fellows Program
• 2010 Isaac Newton Medal
• 2010 Lorentz Medal
• 2005 Harvey Prize
• 1998 Oskar Klein Medal
• 2006 Henri Poincaré Prize
• 2012 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

• Official sitehttps://www.ias.edu/sns/witten
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward%20Witten
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A8%E3%83%89%E3%83%AF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A3%E3%83%83%E3%83%86%E3%83%B3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q201513

Tags

• Maryland
• mathematician
• physicist
• university teacher

Last updated

2026-06-18

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.