Paul Kingsley Townsend
FRS (; born 3 March 1951) is a British physicist, currently a Professor of Theoretical Physics in
Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...
's
Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
.
He is notable for his work on
string theory.
Education
He received his PhD from
Brandeis University
, mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts"
, established =
, type = Private research university
, accreditation = NECHE
, president = Ronald D. Liebowitz
, ...
in 1976
for his dissertation ''The 1/N expansion of scalar field theories'' . Since then he has over 140 publications.
Work
In 1987, , and Paul Townsend showed that there are no superstrings in eleven dimensions (the largest number of dimensions consistent with a single graviton in
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 ...
theories), but
supermembranes.
Awards and honours
He was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...
in May 2000.
References
External links
*
* (lecture by Paul Townsend)
* (Workshop: Octonions and the Standard Model, Perimeter Institute, 2021)
* (Workshop: Octonions and the Standard Model, Perimeter Institute, 2021)
1951 births
Living people
Brandeis University alumni
Cambridge mathematicians
British string theorists
Fellows of the Royal Society
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