Carl M. Bender

Carl M. Bender is Professor of Physics at Washington University in St. Louis. He received his A.B. in 1964 from Cornell University, where he graduated summa cum laude and with Distinction in All Subjects. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D in physics from Harvard University in 1965 and 1969, respectively.

Bender specializes in quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, black holes, global warming and theoretical physics. He also enjoys debunking scientific myths and the physics of the Star Wars series. Today he is considered to be the world's foremost expert on lower dimensional quantum field theories. He won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 for his work in lower dimensional quantum field theory.

In 1978 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He is an Ulam Fellow, and he received the Fulbright Fellowship in 1995.

Bender also co-authored with Steven Orszag the text "Advanced Mathematical Methods for Scientists and Engineers: Asymptotic Methods and Perturbation Theory", which is considered to be a foremost text on mathematical methods for scientists.