Stephen Shenker

Infobox Scientist
name = Stephen Shenker
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caption = Stephen Shenker
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nationality = American
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field = theoretical physics
work_institutions = Stanford University Rutgers University University of Chicago
alma_mater = Cornell University
doctoral_advisor = Kenneth Wilson
doctoral_students = Jaume Gomis Matthew Kleban
known_for = string theory phase transitions
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prizes = MacArthur Fellowship
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Stephen Shenker is an American theoretical physicist who works on string theory. He is currently a professor at Stanford University and director of the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics. His contributions to physics include:
* Basic results on the phase structure of gauge theories (with Eduardo Fradkin)
* Basic results on two dimensional conformal field theory and its relation to string theory (with Daniel Friedan, Emil Martinec and others)
* The nonperturbative formulation of matrix models of low dimensional string theory, the first nonperturbative definitions of string theory (with Michael R. Douglas)
* The discovery of distinctively stringy nonperturbative effects in string theory, later understood to be caused by D-branes. These effects play a major role in string dynamics
* The discovery of Matrix Theory, the first nonperturbative definition of String/M theory in a physical number of dimensions. Matrix Theory (see Matrix string theory ) is now understood to be a special case of the celebrated (subsequently discovered) AdS/CFT correspondence (with Tom Banks, Willy Fischler and Leonard Susskind)
*The discovery of the first distinct signature of the black hole singularity in AdS/CFT (with Lukasz Fidkowski, Veronika Hubeny and Matthew Kleban)Stephen Shenker's brother, Scott Shenker, is a computer scientist.

External links

* [http://www.stanford.edu/dept/physics/people/faculty/shenker_stephen.html home page of Stephen Shenker at Stanford]
* [http://www.stanford.edu/group/sitp/ home page of Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics ]