Photo: Sleepy Geek / CC BY-SA 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Paul Steinhardt is the kind of mind that makes me feel small in the best way. To work at the frontier of both cosmology and condensed-matter physics, holding the Einstein professorship at Princeton, is already rare; what truly captivates me is his dogged hunt for quasicrystals, a forbidden form of matter he pursued all the way to a meteorite. That is not just intelligence but courage, the willingness to chase an answer nobody believed existed. The shelf of prizes is impressive, yet I am moved less by the awards than by the stubborn, almost childlike curiosity behind them. He embodies the scientist who refuses to accept that something cannot be.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Paul Steinhardt
- Name (Japanese)
- ポール・スタインハート
- Reading
- ぽーる・すたいんはーと
- Born
- December 25, 1952 (age 73)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Capricorn / Dragon
- Origin
- Washington, D.C., United States
- Occupation
- physicist / non-fiction writer / university teacher / astronomer
2. Background
- High school
- Coral Gables Senior High School
- University
- Harvard University
Awards & achievements
- Guggenheim Fellowship
- 2010 Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize
- Fellow of the American Physical Society
- 2002 ICTP Dirac Medal
- 2006 Clarivate Citation Laureates
- 2012 John Scott Award
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Frequently asked questions
When was Paul Steinhardt born?
Born December 25, 1952 (age 73).
Where is Paul Steinhardt from?
Paul Steinhardt is from Washington, D.C., United States.
What does Paul Steinhardt do?
Paul Steinhardt works as physicist, non-fiction writer, university teacher, astronomer.
Physicist — see all → · Non-fiction writer — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- 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.