Susskind, Leonard 1940(?)–

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Susskind, Leonard 1940(?)–

PERSONAL: Born c. 1940, in the Bronx, NY. Education: City College of New York, B.S., 1962; Cornell University, Ph.D., 1965.

ADDRESSES: Home—Palo Alto, CA. Office—Stanford University, Rm. 332, Varian Physics Bldg., 382 Via Pueblo Mall, Stanford, CA 94305-4060.

CAREER: Belfer Graduate School of Science, Yeshiva University, New York, NY, assistant professor, 1966–68, associate professor, 1968–70, professor of physics, 1970–79; University of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel, professor of physics, 1971–72; Harvard University, Loeb Lecturer, 1976; Stanford University, Stanford, CA, Felix Bloch professor of theoretical physics, 1979–.

MEMBER: National Academy of Science, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

AWARDS, HONORS: National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, 1965–66; Pregel Award, New York Academy of Science, 1975; J. Sakurai Prize in Theoretical Particle Physics, 1997; Science writing prize, American Institute of Physics, for Scientific American article on black holes.

WRITINGS:

(With James Lindesay) An Introduction to Black Holes, Information, and the String Theory Revolution: The Holographic Universe, World Scientific Publishing (New York, NY), 2004.

The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design, Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to various periodicals, including Scientific American, New Scientist, and Physics World.

SIDELIGHTS: Leonard Susskind is a professor of theoretical physics. Educated in New York, first at City College, where he took his first physics courses, and then at Cornell University, he spent several years teaching at the Belfer Graduate School of Science at Yeshiva University before moving on to Stanford University. He also spent a year as a professor of physics at the University of Tel Aviv. Susskind has made many contributions to the field of physics, including the discovery of string theory, the theory of quark confinement, the development of Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory, and the theory of symmetry breaking, sometimes known as Technicolor theory. His research interests include quantum statistical mechanics, baryon production in the universe, model for fermion masses, gravity in lower dimensions and quantum cosmology. Susskind is the author of various academic articles and books, including The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design. The book seeks to explain in layman's terms just how the laws of physics are balanced, and how the universe works as a result, to the best of mankind's knowledge. Garrett Eastman, in a review for Library Journal, called Susskind's book "an excellent overview of string theory and its potential for uniting 'gravity with quantum mechanics.'" Reviewing for Booklist, Gilbert Taylor declared that the book "ushers us to the mind-bending edge of a possible paradigm shift."