Stephen Hart Shenker (born 1953) is an American

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 experime ...

who works on string theory. He is a professor at Stanford University and former director of the

Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics The Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics (SITP) is a research institute within the Physics Department at Stanford University. Led by 16 physics faculty members, the institute conducts research in High Energy and Condensed Matter theoretica ...

. His brother

Scott Shenker Scott J. Shenker (born January 24, 1956 in Alexandria, Virginia) is an American computer scientist, and professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the leader of the Extensible Internet Group at the Intern ...

is a computer scientist.

Work

Shenker's contributions to physics include: * Basic results on the phase structure of gauge theories (with

Eduardo Fradkin Eduardo Hector Fradkin (born February 21, 1950) is an Argentinian-American theoretical physicist known for working in various areas of condensed matter physics, primarily using quantum field theoretical approaches. He is a Donald Biggar Willett Pr ...

) * Basic results on two dimensional conformal field theory and its relation to string theory (with

Daniel Friedan Daniel Harry Friedan (born October 3, 1948) is an American theoretical physicist and one of three children of the feminist author and activist Betty Friedan. He is a professor at Rutgers University. Biography Education and career Friedan earned h ...

, Emil Martinec, Zongan Qiu, and others) * The nonperturbative formulation of matrix models of low-dimensional string theory, the first nonperturbative definitions of string theory (with Michael R. Douglas) * The discovery of distinctively stringy nonperturbative effects in string theory, later understood to be caused by D-branes. These effects play a major role in string dynamics * The discovery of Matrix Theory, the first nonperturbative definition of String/M theory in a physical number of dimensions. Matrix Theory (see Matrix string theory) is an example of a gauge/gravity duality and is now understood to be a special case of the AdS/CFT correspondence (with Tom Banks, Willy Fischler and

Leonard Susskind Leonard Susskind (; born June 16, 1940)his 60th birthday was celebrated with a special symposium at Stanford University.in Geoffrey West's introduction, he gives Suskind's current age as 74 and says his birthday was recent. is an American physicis ...

) *Basic results on the connection between quantum gravity and

quantum chaos Quantum chaos is a branch of physics which studies how chaotic classical dynamical systems can be described in terms of quantum theory. The primary question that quantum chaos seeks to answer is: "What is the relationship between quantum mech ...

(with

Douglas Stanford Douglas Stanford is an American theoretical physicist. He is an associate professor of physics at Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics of Stanford University. His research interests include quantum gravity, quantum field theory and string ...

Juan Maldacena Juan Martín Maldacena (born September 10, 1968) is an Argentine theoretical physicist and the Carl P. Feinberg Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. He has made significant contributions to t ...

and others)

Selected works

References

External links

home page of Stephen Shenker at Stanford

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shenker, Stephen Living people 21st-century American physicists Stanford University Department of Physics faculty American string theorists MacArthur Fellows Fellows of the American Physical Society 1953 births Harvard University alumni Cornell University alumni