Anamaría Font is a Venezuelan

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experimen ...

, with most of her work focusing on

string theory In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and interac ...

Early life and education

She was born in

Anaco, Venezuela Anaco is a city in Anzoátegui State, Venezuela, the shire town of Anaco Municipality. It is an industrial town, connected to the natural gas and petroleum industries. Estimated population (as of 2005): 106,275 inhabitants. Transport The city is ...

. She obtained her Bachelor degree in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

, Cum Laude in 1980 from Simon Bolivar University, in Caracas, Venezuela. Her research has been focused on models about the primordial components of matter in the context of string theory.

Academic career

Font received a PhD from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in 1987, under the supervision of Austin Gleeson. Her PhD thesis was Four-Dimensional Supergravity Theories Arising from Superstrings. While pursuing her PhD, she received classes from Nobel Prize physicist

Steven Weinberg Steven Weinberg (; May 3, 1933 – July 23, 2021) was an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in physics for his contributions with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic interactio ...

. After completing her PhD she moved to France to work as a postdoctoral fellow in the Annecy-le-Vieux Particle Physics Laboratory (LAPP). Since 1989, she has been a physics professor at the

Universidad Central de Venezuela The Central University of Venezuela (Spanish: ''Universidad Central de Venezuela''; UCV) is a public university of Venezuela located in Caracas. It is widely held to be the highest ranking institution in the country, and it also ranks 18th in L ...

in Caracas, Venezuela. She was also a visiting professor at the Arnold Sommerfeld Center for theoretical physics in Munich, Germany. In 1998, she was awarded, jointly with

Fernando Quevedo Fernando Quevedo Rodríguez (born 12 May 1956) is a Guatemalan physicist. He was the director of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) between October 2009 and November 2019. Quevedo was born in 1956 in San José, C ...

, the

ICTP Prize The International Centre for Theoretical Physics Prize, ICTP Prize, worth 3000 Euros is awarded to a young (under 40) physicist or mathematician from a developing country to promote theoretical mathematics and physics research in the developing wor ...

in the field of

High Energy Physics Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) and b ...

(in honour of Chen Ning Yang). Her article titled Strong-weak coupling duality and non-perturbative effects in string theory had a big influence in the second revolution of string theory in 1995. It was in this article where the term S-duality was used. In 1991, Font was awarded the

Lorenzo Mendoza Fleury Science Prize The Lorenzo Mendoza Fleury Science Prize, also known as the "Premio Fundación Empresas Polar" is the most important award offered by the private sector to contemporary scientists from Venezuela who have shown outstanding talent, creativity and pro ...

. Given by the country's national private industry, the prize recognizes the work of Venezuelan scientists, and is the most important scientific prize in Venezuela. In 2013, Font was elected a fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) for the advancement of science in developing countries.

Other achievements

Font has been actively involved in projects related to education in physics and mathematics in Venezuela and other countries. In July 2018, ''

Physics Today ''Physics Today'' is the membership magazine of the American Institute of Physics. First published in May 1948, it is issued on a monthly schedule, and is provided to the members of ten physics societies, including the American Physical Society. I ...

'' magazine published an interview with Font about the status of science in Venezuela. The publication data base

INSPIRE-HEP INSPIRE-HEP is an open access digital library for the field of high energy physics (HEP). It is the successor of the Stanford Physics Information Retrieval System (SPIRES) database, the main literature database for high energy physics since the 1970 ...

included three of her notorious publications into their data base. She is a member of the

Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) is an international organisation that provides research training, career development and networking opportunities for women scientists throughout the developing world at diffe ...

(OWSD).

Selected publications

Font has more than 50 publications with over 6000 citations. Below is a list of some of her publications. * * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Font, Anamaria Living people Theoretical physicists Venezuelan women physicists University of Texas at Austin alumni 20th-century women physicists 21st-century women physicists People from Anzoátegui 21st-century physicists 20th-century physicists TWAS fellows Academic staff of the Central University of Venezuela Venezuelan expatriates in the United States 1959 births Venezuelan women educators 21st-century Venezuelan women scientists 21st-century Venezuelan scientists