Curtis Callan (original) (raw)

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American physicist

Curtis Callan
(photo: 1986)
Born October 11, 1942 (1942-10-11) (age 82)North Adams, Massachusetts, U.S.
Nationality American
Alma mater Haverford CollegePrinceton University
Known for Callan–Rubakov effectCallan–Symanzik equationCGHS modelCallan–Treiman relationContributions to instanton physicsTheta vacuum
Scientific career
Institutions Princeton University
Doctoral advisor Sam Treiman
Doctoral students Philip ArgyresPeter WoitIgor KlebanovJuan MaldacenaWilliam E. CaswellVijay BalasubramanianSekazi Mtingwa

Curtis Gove Callan Jr. (born October 11, 1942) is an American theoretical physicist and the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Physics at Princeton University. He has conducted research in gauge theory, string theory, instantons, black holes, strong interactions, and many other topics. He was awarded the Sakurai Prize in 2000 ("For his classic formulation of the renormalization group, his contributions to instanton physics and to the theory of monopoles and strings"[1]) and the Dirac Medal in 2004.

Callan received his B.S. in physics from Haverford College. He then pursued graduate studies in physics at Princeton University, where he was a student under Sam Treiman. He received his Ph.D. in physics in 1964 after completing a doctoral dissertation titled "Spherically symmetric cosmological models."[2]

His Ph.D. students include Vijay Balasubramanian, William E. Caswell, Peter Woit, Igor Klebanov and Juan Maldacena.[_citation needed_]

Callan is best known for his work on broken scale invariance (Callan–Symanzik equation) and has also made leading contributions to quantum field theory and string theory in the areas of dyon-fermion dynamics, string solitons and black holes.

Callan has been a member of the JASON defense advisory group since 1968, and was chair of the group from 1990 to 1995. He served as president of the American Physical Society (APS) in 2010.[3] He was elected a Fellow of the APS in 1971.[4]

Callan was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1987 and as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1989.[5][6]

  1. ^ APS Physics, "2000 J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics Recipient" (accessed 22 July 2009).
  2. ^ Callan, Curtis G. (1964). Spherically symmetric cosmological models.
  3. ^ "Curtis Callan". American Institute of Physics. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02.
  4. ^ "APS Fellow Archive".
  5. ^ "Curtis G. Callan". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
  6. ^ "Curtis Callan". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2020-06-15.