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Sylvester James Gates

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Sylvester James Gates
Born (1950-12-15) December 15, 1950 (age 73)
NationalityUnited States
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Known forSupersymmetry, String Theory, Supergravity
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
InstitutionsUniversity of Maryland, College Park

Sylvester James Gates, Jr. (born December 15, 1950), known as S. James Gates, Jr, or Jim Gates, is an American theoretical physicist, known for work on supersymmetry, supergravity, and superstring theory. He is currently the John S. Toll Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland, College Park and serves on President Barack Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.[1]

Biography

Gates received BS (1973) and PhD (1977) degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His doctoral thesis was the first at MIT on supersymmetry. With M.T. Grisaru, M. Rocek, and W. Siegel, Gates co-authored Superspace (1984), the first comprehensive book on supersymmetry.[2]

Gates was nominated by the Department of Energy as one of the USA Science and Engineering Festival's "Nifty Fifty" Speakers to present his work and career to middle and high school students in October 2010.[3] He is on the board of trustees of Society for Science & the Public.

Gates was a Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Scholar at MIT (2010-11) and is a Residential Scholar at MIT's Simmons Hall. He is pursuing ongoing research into string theory, supersymmetry, and supergravity at the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics. His research focuses on Adinkra symbols as representations of supersymmetric algebras.

Media appearances

Gates has been featured extensively on NOVA PBS programs on physics, notably "The Elegant Universe" (2003). He completed a DVD series titled Superstring Theory: The DNA of Reality (2006) for The Teaching Company consisting of 24 half-hour lectures to make the complexities of unification theory comprehensible to laypeople.[4] During the 2008 World Science Festival, Gates narrated [5] a ballet "The Elegant Universe", where he gave a public presentation of the artistic forms[6] connected to his scientific research. Gates also appeared in the BBC Horizon documentary The Hunt for Higgs in 2012.

Book

  • L'arte della fisica - Stringhe, superstringhe, teoria unificata dei campi, 2006, Di Renzo Editore, ISBN 88-8323-155-4.

Notes

  1. ^ "UMD PCAST announcement". University of Maryland. Retrieved 2009-04-30. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ Gates, S. James (1983). "Superspace". American Institute of Physics. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ http://www.usasciencefestival.org/2010festival/niftyfifty
  4. ^ "Sylvester James Gates Jr. lecture". News@Concordia. Concordia University. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ "Sylvester James Gates Jr. Ballet narration". {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  6. ^ "Sylvester James Gates, art and science". {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

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