Ulf Lindström (born 12 November 1947) is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

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 ...

working in the fields of

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 ...

supersymmetry In a supersymmetric theory the equations for force and the equations for matter are identical. In theoretical and mathematical physics, any theory with this property has the principle of supersymmetry (SUSY). Dozens of supersymmetric theories e ...

, and

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...

. He earned his fil. kand. university degree at

Stockholm University Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, so ...

in 1972 and continued under the supervision of Bertel Laurent with doctoral studies. The title of his PhD thesis was "Extensions of general relativity: scalar tensor theory, topology of space-time and supergravity." He spent the year 1978-1979 at

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , pro ...

as a post-doc working with

Stanley Deser Stanley Deser (born 1931) is an American physicist known for his contributions to general relativity. Currently, he is emeritus Ancell Professor of Physics at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts and a senior research associate at Califo ...

, and after getting his doctoral degree, became a docent in Stockholm. During 1986-1987, he spent time as a research fellow at

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...

. In 2002 he moved from Stockholm University to Uppsala University where he is now the chairman of the theoretical physics department. His most well-known contributions to theoretical physics are in the field of supersymmetry where he was one of the first people to discuss the hyper-Kähler quotient construction which was later generalized and discussed in full detail by Hitchin, Karlhede, Lindström and Roček. Also, together with Martin Roček, he has developed the notion of "

projective superspace In supersymmetry, a theory of particle physics, projective superspace is one way of dealing with \mathcal=2 supersymmetric theories, i.e. with 8 real SUSY generators, in a manifestly covariant manner. See also * Superspace Superspace is the ...

". Another important result was the construction (together with Paul Howe) of an eight-loop counterterm in N=8

supergravity In theoretical physics, supergravity (supergravity theory; SUGRA for short) is a modern field theory that combines the principles of supersymmetry and general relativity; this is in contrast to non-gravitational supersymmetric theories such as ...

which became part of the motivation to consider string theory as the major candidate for a finite quantum theory of gravity. He was also among the first to discuss the zero-tension limit of string theory and has lately been involved in developing the notion (introduced by

Nigel Hitchin Nigel James Hitchin FRS (born 2 August 1946) is a British mathematician working in the fields of differential geometry, gauge theory, algebraic geometry, and mathematical physics. He is a Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the University of O ...

) of generalized complex geometry. He has for many years been the chairman of the

Oskar Klein Memorial Lecture The Oskar Klein Memorial Lecture at Stockholm University, dedicated to the memory of the Swedish physicist Oskar Klein (1894-1977), is held annually since 1988 by a prominent physicist, who also receives the Oskar Klein Medal. The lecture is spons ...

committee. A conference was held in honor of his 60th birthday in November 2007.

References

* Hitchin, N., Karlhede, A., Lindström, U. and Roček, M., ''Hyperkahler Metrics and Supersymmetry,'' Communications in Mathematical Physics 108 (1987) 535. * Howe, P. S. and Lindstrom, U., ''Higher Order Invariants In Extended Supergravity,'' Nuclear Physics B 181 (1981) 487. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lindstrom, Ulf 1947 births Living people String theorists Swedish physicists Theoretical physicists