Distinguished Professor George Sterman Awarded Honorary Doctorate at ETH Zurich

Stony Brook University SUNY Distinguished Professor George Sterman, director of the C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, has been awarded an honorary doctorate at the ETH (University) Zurich in Switzerland.

ETH Zurich awards honorary doctorates to individuals in recognition of their outstanding scientific work and to honor their significant achievements in science, teaching and practice or in the synthesis of research and practical work.

Sterman was selected “for his groundbreaking theoretical research in particle physics, in particular the discovery of concepts and structures in quantum chromodynamics that serve as the basis for the theoretical interpretation of collision experiments and enable precise tests of the fundamental laws of nature in high-energy physics.”

Sterman joined the Institute for Theoretical Physics (now the C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics) at Stony Brook in 1979 as an assistant professor, and succeeded Peter van Nieuwenhuizen as director of the Institute, serving in this role since 2001. He was named SUNY Distinguished Professor in 2004.

Over the years, his work in quantum field theory played an influential role in the confirmation of quantum chromodynamics as the theory of the strong interactions, in the development of quantum field-theoretic tools for the interpretation of events at high-energy colliders, and for their use in the search for new physics. His contributions to the concepts of infrared safety, factorization and resummation were recognized by a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Physical Society Fellowship and the J.J. Sakurai Prize in Theoretical Particle Physics (shared with Alfred H. Mueller).

Sterman has lectured widely in advanced summer schools, including the Theoretical Advanced Study Institute and the Coordinated Theoretical-Experimental Project on QCD series, including several held at the Center for Frontiers in Nuclear Science here at Stony  Brook. He is the author of the influential textbook, An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory.

“It is my tremendous pleasure to hear the news that Professor George Sterman was awarded an honorary doctoral degree from ETH Zurich, an institution with a rich history in physics,” said Chang Kee Jung, distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. “As an honorary degree recognizes not only the honoree’s contributions to the field of the degree but also to the institution, an honorary degree from ETH Zurich is special even for highly accomplished physicists. As a fellow particle physicist, albeit an experimental one, who had worked on collider experiments, I have deep appreciation of George’s foundational work on Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). We are also indebted to George’s almost a quarter century of exceptional stewardship of the C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics as the director, continuing the legacy of C.N. Yang.”

“This is an honor for the tradition of theoretical physics at Stony Brook, which was founded by C.N. Yang,” Sterman said.

Sterman received his bachelor’s in physics from the University of Chicago and doctorate from the University of Maryland, College Park. He held postdoctoral positions at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Stony Brook and the Institute for Advanced Study.