The Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics (BCTP) is a research center for theoretical

particle physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of Elementary particle, fundamental particles and fundamental interaction, forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the s ...

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

string theory In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and intera ...

and

quantum gravity Quantum gravity (QG) is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics. It deals with environments in which neither gravitational nor quantum effects can be ignored, such as in the v ...

at the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

About

The BCTP houses theoretical physics research at Berkeley and has close links to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). It is located in Old LeConte Hall on the Berkeley campus. Though the BCTP itself was founded at the turn of the 21st century, Berkeley has a rich history in the field of theoretical particle physics, with prominent former physicists including Manhattan project director

Robert Oppenheimer J. Robert Oppenheimer (born Julius Robert Oppenheimer ; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist who served as the director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II. He is often ...

; Nobel Laureates

Steven Weinberg Steven Weinberg (; May 3, 1933 – July 23, 2021) was an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in physics for his contributions with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic inter ...

Sheldon Glashow Sheldon Lee Glashow (, ; born December 5, 1932) is a Nobel Prize-winning American theoretical physicist. He is the Metcalf Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Boston University, and a Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics, emeritus, at Harv ...

, and

David Gross David Jonathan Gross (; born February 19, 1941) is an American theoretical physicist and string theorist. Along with Frank Wilczek and David Politzer, he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of asymptotic freedom. ...

; Breakthrough Prize winners John Schwarz,

Joseph Polchinski Joseph Gerard Polchinski Jr. (; May 16, 1954 – February 2, 2018) was an American theoretical physicist and string theorist. Biography Polchinski was born in White Plains, New York, the elder of two children to Joseph Gerard Polchinski Sr. (19 ...

, and

Nima Arkani-Hamed Nima Arkani-Hamed (; born April 5, 1972) is an Iranian-American-Canadian

; Sakurai Prize winners

Mary Gaillard Mary Katharine Gaillard (née Ralph; April 1, 1939 – May 23, 2025) was an American theoretical physicist, known for her work in particle physics. She was a professor of the graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, a member o ...

Leonard Susskind Leonard Susskind (; born June 16, 1940)his 60th birth anniversary was celebrated with a special symposium at Stanford University.in Geoffrey West's introduction, he gives Suskind's current age as 74 and says his birthday was recent. is an Americ ...

, and

Lisa Randall Lisa Randall (born June 18, 1962) is an American theoretical physicist and Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University. Her research includes the fundamental forces of nature and dimensions of space. She studies the Standa ...

; as well as Dirac Medal winners

Bruno Zumino Bruno Zumino (28 April 1923 − 21 June 2014) was an Italian theoretical physicist and faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley. He obtained his DSc degree from the University of Rome in 1945. He was renowned for his rigorous pro ...

and

Stanley Mandelstam Stanley Mandelstam (; 12 December 1928 – 23 June 2016) was a South African theoretical physicist. He introduced the relativistically invariant Mandelstam variables into particle physics in 1958 as a convenient coordinate system for formulatin ...

. The current senior members consist of 10 UC Berkeley faculty and 4 LBNL staff members.

References

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About

References

See also