Bojowald Awarded Xanthopoulos Prize
Martin Bojowald, a Penn State assistant professor of physics, has been awarded the 2007 Vasilis Xanthopoulos Prize by the Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH), one of Greece's largest research centers, and by the International Society for Gravitation. The prize, which was established in memory of the late physicist Vasilis Xanthopoulos, is given every three years to a researcher under age 40 who has made outstanding contributions to gravitational physics. Bojowald received the award jointly with Thomas Thiemann of the Max Planck Institute for his contributions to loop quantum gravity. The award is accompanied by a prize of approximately $10,000.
Bojowald's research is focused on quantum gravity and cosmology using the loop-quantization approach developed primarily at Penn State. His work has revealed several candidates for observations of the indirect effects of quantum gravity. He is interested particularly in developing detailed calculational tools for comparing predictions with collected data, such as those anticipated from the Planck satellite that is expected to be launched in 2008 by the European Space Agency. "Cosmological models give insights into our understanding of the nature of space-time on small scales," said Bojowald. "And loop quantum cosmology allows us to develop well-defined models of the emergence of our universe." Bojowald also is interested in areas of mathematical physics, such as the theory of effective equations, dynamical coherent states for quantum systems, field theory, and Poisson geometry and its applications in gravity.
Prior to winning the Xanthopoulos Prize, Bojowald received the first-place prize in the Gravity Research Foundation's essay competition in 2003. In addition to his published scientific papers, he has presented invited talks at universities and institutions in Austria, France, Germany, India, Mexico, The Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He has served on the editorial board for the journal General Relativity and Gravitation since January 2006 and was a member of the board for the gravity section of the German Physical Society from 2004 to 2006. Bojowald was on the local organization committee for the Annual International Meeting on Non-Perturbative/Background-Independent Quantum Gravity in Potsdam, Germany in 2005 and was the co-organizer of a workshop at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California at Santa Barbara in January 2007.
CONTACTS:
Martin Bojowald: (+1) 814-865-3502, mob6@psu.edu
Barbara Kennedy (PIO): (+1) 814-863-4682, science@psu.edu