Juan Martín Maldacena

Juan Maldacena is the rare name on this list where I genuinely feel out of my depth, and I mean that admiringly. An Argentine theoretical physicist working on string theory and quantum gravity, now the Carl P. Feinberg Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, he sits at the deepest end of modern physics. The awards tell the story to me, a MacArthur Fellowship, the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, the Lorentz Medal. What I find striking is that he started at the University of Buenos Aires before reaching that rarefied tier. He is a reminder that celebrity in the truest sense can mean reshaping how we understand reality.

Name (English)

Juan Martín Maldacena

Name (Japanese)

フアン・マルダセナ

Reading

ふあん・まるだせな

Born

September 10, 1968 (age 57)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Virgo / Monkey

Origin

Caballito, Argentina

Occupation

physicist / theoretical physicist / university teacher

University

University of Buenos Aires

Awards & achievements

• MacArthur Fellows Program
• 2012 Oskar Klein Medal
• 2012 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics
• 2018 Lorentz Medal
• 2013 diamond Konex award
• 2012 Pomeranchuk Prize
• 2007 Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%82%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9E%E3%83%AB%E3%83%80%E3%82%BB%E3%83%8A

Tags

• physicist
• theoretical physicist
• university teacher

Last updated

2026-06-02

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.