Sakura Schafer-Nameki is a German

mathematical physicist Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the developmen ...

working in

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 ...

and

supersymmetric gauge theory In theoretical physics, there are many theories with supersymmetry (SUSY) which also have internal gauge symmetry, gauge symmetries. Supersymmetric gauge theory generalizes this notion. Gauge theory A gauge theory is a mathematical framework fo ...

. She works at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

as a Professor of Mathematical Physics in the

Mathematical Institute The Mathematical Institute is the mathematics department at the University of Oxford in England. It is one of the nine departments of the university's Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division. The institute includes both pure and appl ...

and as a senior research fellow of

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

Early life and education

Although partly of Japanese descent, Schafer-Nameki is originally from

Swabia Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...

in Germany. She studied both physics and mathematics at the

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart (german: Universität Stuttgart) is a leading research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany wit ...

from 1995 to 1998. After coming to the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

for the

Mathematical Tripos The Mathematical Tripos is the mathematics course that is taught in the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. It is the oldest Tripos examined at the University. Origin In its classical nineteenth-century form, the tripos was a ...

, which she passed with distinction in 1999, she remained at Cambridge for doctoral studies. She completed her

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

. in 2003; her dissertation, ''D-Branes in Boundary Field Theory'', was supervised by Peter Goddard.

Career

After completing her doctorate, Schafer-Nameki became a postdoctoral researcher at the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...

, a Postdoctoral Prize Fellow at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

, and a senior postdoctoral fellow at the

Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) is a research institute of the University of California, Santa Barbara. KITP is one of the most renowned institutes for theoretical physics in the world, and brings theorists in physics and rela ...

. She took a position as a lecturer at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

in 2010, and was promoted to reader in 2014. In 2016 she moved to Oxford as Professor of Mathematical Physics and Tutorial Fellow of Wadham College, becoming a senior research fellow at the college in 2020. Her research combines

and geometry. She was the principal investigator for the five-year

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

project "Higgs bundles: Supersymmetric Gauge Theories and Geometry" which began in 2016. In 2020 she joined the Simons Collaboration on Special Holonomy in Geometry, Analysis, and Physics as one of its Principal Investigators.

References

External links

Home page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schafer-Nameki, Sakura Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century German mathematicians 21st-century German physicists German women mathematicians German women physicists Mathematical physicists German people of Japanese descent University of Stuttgart alumni Academics of King's College London Fellows of Wadham College, Oxford 20th-century German women scientists