Sylvester James Gates

Sylvester James " Jim " Gates Jr., S. James Gates frequently cited (* 15 December 1950 in Tampa, Florida) is an American theoretical physicist who deals with supersymmetry, quantum field theory, supergravity and string theory.

Gates studied physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelor 's degree in 1973, both in mathematics and in physics and the PhD in 1977 on supersymmetry ( Symmetry principles in selected problems of field theory ) JE Young. After that, he was until 1980 a Junior Fellow at Harvard University, 1980-1982 at Caltech and 1982-1984 Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics at MIT. In 1984 he became Associate Professor and he is since 1988 professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is there Regents Professor, John S. Toll Professor of Physics and Director of the Center for String and Particle Theory. He also conducts research at MIT.

1991 to 1993 he was also a professor at Howard University.

He is co-author of an early monograph on supersymmetry. He introduced around 2005 graphical methods in the supersymmetric representation theory, which he named after the West African Asante Adinkra symbols of Use.

He appeared in several television shows on superstrings and related issues, so at PBS Nova ( The Elegant Universe, 2003).

He received the National Medal of Science for the year 2011. Gates an honorary doctorate from Georgetown University ( 2001), Loyola University Chicago ( 2005) and the University of Western Australia (2010) and since 2011 a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the Scientific Advisory Board by President Barack Obama.

Writings

• With Marcus T. Grisaru, Martin Rocek, Warren Siegel: Superspace, or One thousand and one lessons in supersymmetry. Benjamin - Cummings, 1983, Online

The Teaching Company, he published in 2006 24/2 hour lectures on superstring theory on DVD.