Gabriele Veneziano

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Gabriele Veneziano
(2007)
Born	1942 Florence, Italy
Fields	Theoretical physics
Institutions	College of France
Known for	String theory

Gabriele Veneziano (born 1942, Florence, Italy) is an Italian theoretical physicist and a founder of string theory. Between 1968 and 1972 he worked at MIT and CERN. In 1972 he became Amos de Shalit Professor of Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science and in 1976 he was offered a position in the Theory Division at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland where he worked for more then 30 years. He currently holds the chair of Elementary Particles, Gravitation and Cosmology at the College of France in Paris, France.

String theory was discovered in 1968, when the young Gabriele Veneziano could describe the interaction of strongly interacting particles. Veneziano discovered that the Euler Beta function, interpreted as a scattering amplitude, has many of the features needed to explain the physical properties of strongly interacting particles. This amplitude, known as the Veneziano amplitude, is now interpreted as the scattering amplitude for four open string tachyons.

Veneziano's work led to intense research to try to explain the strong force by a field theory of strings about one fermi in length. The rise of quantum chromodynamics, a rival explanation of the strong force, led to a temporary loss of interest in string theories until the 1980s when interest was revived.

Recently, Veneziano has been working on string cosmology.

[edit] Society Memberships

• National Academy of Sciences of Turin (1994);
• Lincei National Academy (1996);
• French Academy of Sciences (2002).

[edit] Awards

• I. Ya. Pomeranchuk Prize, Moscow, 1999
• Gold medal della Repubblica Italiana come Benemerito della Cultura, 2000
• Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics, from the American Physical Society, 2004
• Enrico Fermi Prize from the Italian Physical Society, 2005
• Albert Einstein Medal, Albert Einstein Institute, Bern, Switzerland, 2006
• Oskar Klein Medal, 2007
• Commendatore al merito della Repubblica Italiana, 2007
• James Joyce Award, University College Dublin, 2009
• Felice Pietro Chisesi and Caterina Tomassoni Prize, 2009