Fernando Quevedo Rodríguez (born 12 May 1956 in San José,

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

) is a

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and obtained his early education in Guatemala. He was the director of the Abdus Salam

International Centre for Theoretical Physics The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) is a research center for physical and mathematical sciences, located in Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The center operates under a tripartite agreement between the Gov ...

(ICTP) between October 2009 and November 2019. With Anamaría Font, Luis E. Ibáñez, and Dieter Lüst, he proposed a weak-strong duality conjecture which introduced the concept of S-duality in 1990.

Education

He obtained his BSc in physics from the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala in 1979, and his Ph.D. from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

in 1986 under the supervision of Nobel laurate

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 ...

Career

Following a string of research appointments at

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...

, Switzerland,

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

in Canada, Institut de Physique in Neuchatel, Switzerland, and the

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development Laboratory, laboratories of the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, United States Department of Energy ...

, USA, as well as a brief term as professor of physics at the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public university, public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countri ...

(UNAM). Dr. Quevedo later joined the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, UK, in 1998, where he has been Professor of Theoretical Physics and Fellow of Gonville and Caius College. He has taught courses on the

Standard Model The Standard Model of particle physics is the Scientific theory, theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions – excluding gravity) in the unive ...

, differential equations, complex methods,

supersymmetry Supersymmetry is a Theory, theoretical framework in physics that suggests the existence of a symmetry between Particle physics, particles with integer Spin (physics), spin (''bosons'') and particles with half-integer spin (''fermions''). It propo ...

and extra dimensions. He has discussed the importance of international research institutions for science diplomacy. He has authored more than 100 papers.

Honors and awards

He has been awarded the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, Doctorate Honoris Causa from

Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala The Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC, ''University of San Carlos of Guatemala'') is the largest and oldest university of Guatemala; it is also the fourth founded in the Americas. Established in the Kingdom of Guatemala during the Spa ...

and Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, John Solomon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and, alongside Anamaría Font, won the 1998

ICTP Prize The International Centre for Theoretical Physics Prize (ICTP Prize) is an annual award given by the ICTP Scientific Council since 1982. It is given to outstanding and original contributions in physics by young scientists from, and working in, devel ...

. He has been a fellow of

the World Academy of Sciences The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS) is a North–south research partnerships, merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting more than 1,400 scientists in some 1 ...

since 2010. * 1998: John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship * 1998:

in High Energy Physics, Trieste, Italy * 2000: Doctorate Honoris Causa,

* 2003: Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award,

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, UK * 2006: Doctorate Honoris Causa, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala * 2010: Distinguished Guatemalan award, Guatemala City Mayor * 2010: Fellow,

The World Academy of Sciences The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS) is a North–south research partnerships, merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting more than 1,400 scientists in some 1 ...

* 2013: Doctorate Honoris Causa, Universidad de Chiapas, Mexico * 2017: Salvador Allende Award, Chile Embassy in Italy * 2018: Abdus Salam Medal, The World Academy of Sciences * 2019: Spirit of Abdus Salam Award * 2020–2026: Distinguished Visiting Research Chair, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Canada * 2021: John Wheatley Prize,

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quevedo, Fernando Guatemalan physicists People associated with CERN Living people Cambridge mathematicians Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge 1956 births Academic staff of the National Autonomous University of Mexico