Hirosi Ooguri Receives Inaugural Simons Investigator Award
(Originally published by the Kavli IPMU)
July 25, 2012
The Simons Foundation announced on July 24, 2012 that Hirosi Ooguri, the Fred Kavli Professor of California Institute of Technology and a Principal Investigator of the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU), the Todai Institutes for Advanced Study, the University of Tokyo, has been selected to receive the Simons Investigator Award in the inaugural year of the award. Ooguri will receive more than $1.3 million over the next ten years for his research.
According to the Simons Foundation, the goal of the new program is “to provide a stable base of support for outstanding scientists in their most productive years, enabling them to undertake long-term study of fundamental questions.” Nine theoretical physicists, seven mathematicians, and five computer scientists were appointed as Simons Investigators. Each recipient will be granted funds to be applied to their individual research, their department, and their institution for an initial period of five years, beginning in August. The foundation anticipates renewing the grants for an additional five years in 2017.
Hirosi Ooguri was recognized in his award citation as a “mathematical physicist and string theorist of exceptional creativity and breadth.” He was chosen as an investigator for his “innovations in the use of topological string theory to compute Feynman diagrams in superstring models,” as well as for his cutting-edge work on the relationship of supersymmetric gauge theories to string theory and to gravity.
“Theoretical physicists are like travelers without maps—to bring back wonderful things from far places, we need to take a long view and take risks,” says Ooguri. “The stable and unrestricted support from the Simons Investigator program will enable us to make such long journeys. I am excited about the opportunity and will try my best to live up to the expectation.”
“This is wonderful!” says Hitoshi Murayama, Director of the Kavli IPMU. “Hirosi has been a world leader at the interface of physics and mathematics, as recognized by the Eisenbud Prize from American Mathematical Society and being a professor both in physics and mathematics at Caltech. His expertise has been indispensable in designing and kick-starting the Kavli IPMU aimed at combining physics and mathematics to address great mysteries of the Universe.” Murayama congratulates Ooguri on this honor. “Hirosi is clearly the person who deserves this award than anybody else in the world, and the Foundation saw it that way, too. Congratulations, Hirosi!”
The Simons Foundation is a private foundation based in New York City, incorporated in 1994 by Jim and Marilyn Simons. Foundation’s mission is to advance the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences. It sponsors a range of programs that aim to promote a deeper understanding of our world.