Edward Witten Awarded 2023 Benjamin Lee Professorship

Edward Witten, Professor Emeritus in the School of Natural Sciences, has been awarded a Benjamin Lee Professorship by the Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics (APCTP). The professorship was named for South Korea's foremost theoretical physicist, Benjamin Whisoh Lee, in honor of his achievements in the field of particle physics. During his distinguished career, Lee was a frequent Member in the Institute's School of Natural Sciences (1961–62, 1964–65, 1976).

Benjamin Lee Professorships are awarded to "theoretical physicists of international prominence" and offer honorees the opportunity to visit South Korea for an extended period. Witten, who is lauded by APCTP as having made "seminal contributions to string theory and M-theory," delivered a lecture series entitled "A Background Independent Algebra in Quantum Gravity" during his stay. He also gave the plenary talk at the Korean Physical Society's Fall meeting on the subject of "Black Hole Thermodynamics: Then and Now."

In accepting this Professorship, Witten becomes the third scholar with an IAS affiliation to do so in the last three years. In 2021 and 2022 respectively, the Professorship was awarded to Hirosi Ooguri, Member (1988–89) and Visiting Professor (2015) in the School of Natural Sciences, and Xiao-Gang Wen, Member (1990–91, 2022–23) in the same School.

Read more at APCTP.