2023 Dirac Medal and Prize Award Ceremony

ICTP awarded its 2023 Dirac Medal and Prize to three distinguished physicists "for their pioneering contributions to perturbative and non-perturbative string theory and quantum gravity, in particular, to the aspects related to anomalies, duality, black holes and holography". The 2023 Dirac Medallists are: Jeffrey Harvey, University of Chicago, USA Igor Klebanov, Princeton University, USA Stephen Shenker, Stanford University, USA Leonard Susskind, Stanford University, USA The 2023 Dirac Medal and Award Ceremony will take place at ICTP in person on Wednesday 24 April 2024 at 14.00 hrs CET. During the ceremony, the Dirac Medallists will give scientific talks. Talk by Prof. Jeffrey Harvey on "Simple questions with complicated answers". Abstract: Sometimes simple questions lead down a rabbit hole full of complications and surprises. I will discuss a few examples of this involving string theory and duality and comment on how Dirac's work has influenced some of these results. Talk by Prof. Igor Klebanov on "Gauge/String Duality, Confinement, and Dimensional Transmutation". Abstract: Around 50 years ago, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) emerged as the precise theory of the strong nuclear force. A quarter century later it was understood that certain gauge theories akin to QCD, and string theories in curved backgrounds, are different descriptions of the same physics. I will review these relations between gauge theories and strings, which follow from studying stacks of Dirichlet branes. The gauge/string duality has provided a wealth of information about strongly coupled conformal field theories. It also leads to a nice geometrical picture of confinement and dimensional transmutation. Talk by Prof. Stephen Shenker on "Quantum gravity and quantum chaos". Abstract: I will discuss some of the connections that have been uncovered in recent years between the quantum gravitational dynamics of black holes and quantum chaos. Talk by Prof. Leonard Susskind on "Black Holes and the Foundations of Mathematics" (tentative title). Abstract: In the first half of the 20th century mathematics took a turn toward foundational questions of computation, and provability, with names like Turing, Church and Godel revolutionizing the subject, and at the same time creating modern computer science. The new mathematics of complexity has surprisingly turned up in the theory of black holes. I will explain the connections between these concepts. Assitional information on the 2023 Awardees is available at: www.ictp.it/ne...