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Steven Gubser

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Steven Gubser
Born
Steven Scott Gubser

(1972-05-04)May 4, 1972
DiedAugust 3, 2019(2019-08-03) (aged 47)
Chamonix, France[1]
EducationPrinceton University 1994, 1998
Alma materPrinceton University (B.Sc, Ph.D.)
Cambridge University
Known forAdS/CFT correspondence
AdS/QCD correspondence
AdS/CMT correspondence
SpouseLaura Landweber[1]
Children3[1]
Awards
Scientific career
Institutions
Doctoral advisorIgor Klebanov

Steven Scott Gubser (May 4, 1972 – August 3, 2019) was a professor of physics at Princeton University.[2] His research focused on theoretical particle physics, especially string theory, and the AdS/CFT correspondence. He was a widely cited scholar in these and other related areas.[3]

Gubser did foundational work in the AdS/CFT correspondence as a graduate student. In particular, his 1998 paper Gauge Theory Correlators from Non-Critical String Theory with his advisor Igor Klebanov and another Princeton physics professor Alexander Markovich Polyakov, made a precise statement of the AdS/CFT duality. It is one of the all-time top cited papers in theoretical high-energy physics, and is commonly known, along with Edward Witten's 1998 work Anti De Sitter Space And Holography, as the GKPW dictionary. After receiving a Ph.D. in 1998 from Princeton, Gubser became a junior fellow at Harvard University before taking a position as an assistant professor at Princeton. In 2001, he moved to the California Institute of Technology but returned to Princeton in 2002.[4] Gubser's later works concern various aspects of the AdS/CFT correspondence, including its applications in quantum chromodynamics and condensed matter physics. In 2016 he and collaborators proposed a p-adic version of AdS/CFT correspondence whose bulk geometry is a tree graph.

As a high school student in 1989, Gubser was the first American to be grand winner (ranked first among all gold medalists) of the International Physics Olympiad.[5][6] He graduated from Cherry Creek High School in Greenwood Village, Colorado.

He graduated as the valedictorian of the class of 1994 from Princeton University. For his senior thesis he was awarded the LeRoy Apker Award of the American Physical Society, the highest distinction for undergraduate research.

Climbing Accident

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Gubser died in a rock climbing accident in Chamonix, France, on August 3, 2019.[7][8][1] Grubser was climbing Aiguille du Peigne "Comb Needle" on the Mont Blanc massif, when a rope broke and he fell to his death.[9]

Awards

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Personal life

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Gubser was married to Laura Landweber, and they had three daughters.[1][14]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e McClain, Dylan Loeb (September 6, 2019). "Steven Gubser, a Bright Star in the Physics Universe, Dies at 47". The New York Times. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
  2. ^ "Steven Gubser – Department of Physics". Princeton University. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
  3. ^ "Google Scholar publications by Steven S. Gubser and related citations". Google Scholar. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
  4. ^ a b c "2009 Fellow – Profile". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Archived from the original on June 11, 2009.
  5. ^ Hayes, Mary Eshbaugh (February 18, 2006). "Hall of Fame". Aspen Weekly. Archived from the original on February 23, 2012.
  6. ^ "American Student Is Tops in Physics". The New York Times. August 15, 1989.
  7. ^ "Chamonix: un grimpeur fait une chute de 100m sur l'aiguille du Peigne". Le Messager (in French). August 5, 2019.
  8. ^ The Department of Physics (August 6, 2019). "Princeton theoretical physicist Steven Gubser, outstanding scholar of string theory and black holes, dies in France". Princeton University.
  9. ^ McClain, Dylan Loeb (September 6, 2019). "Steven Gubser, a Bright Star in the Physics Universe, Dies at 47". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
  10. ^ "1994 LeRoy Apker Award". American Physical Society. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
  11. ^ "Promising Researchers Honored With Second Annual New York Academy Of Sciences Blavatnik Awards For Young Scientists". Medical News Today. November 19, 2008.
  12. ^ Jeffries, Abigail (2008). "Ingenious, Innovative, and Interdisciplinary!". The New York Academy of Sciences Magazine. No. 2, Autumn 2008. pp. 11–18. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
  13. ^ "2017 Simons Investigators Awardees". Simons Foundation. July 10, 2018. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
  14. ^ Jeffries, Abigail (2008). "Ingenious, Innovative, and Interdisciplinary!". The New York Academy of Sciences Magazine. No. 2, Autumn 2008. pp. 11–18. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
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