Steven Scott Gubser (May 4, 1972 – August 3, 2019) was a professor of

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. His research focused on theoretical particle physics, especially

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 the

AdS/CFT correspondence In theoretical physics, the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory correspondence (frequently abbreviated as AdS/CFT) is a conjectured relationship between two kinds of physical theories. On one side are anti-de Sitter spaces (AdS) that are used ...

. He was a widely cited scholar in these and other related areas. Gubser did foundational work in the

as a graduate student. In particular, his 1998 paper ''Gauge Theory Correlators from Non-Critical String Theory'' with his advisor Igor Klebanov and another Princeton physics professor Alexander Markovich Polyakov, made a precise statement of the AdS/CFT duality. It is one of the all-time top cited papers in theoretical high-energy physics, and is commonly known, along with

Edward Witten Edward Witten (born August 26, 1951) is an American theoretical physics, theoretical physicist known for his contributions to string theory, topological quantum field theory, and various areas of mathematics. He is a professor emeritus in the sc ...

's 1998 work ''Anti De Sitter Space And Holography'', as the GKPW dictionary. After receiving a Ph.D. in 1998 from Princeton, Gubser became a junior fellow at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

before taking a position as an assistant professor at Princeton. In 2001, he moved to the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

but returned to Princeton in 2002. Gubser's later works concern various aspects of the

, including its applications in

quantum chromodynamics In theoretical physics, quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is the study of the strong interaction between quarks mediated by gluons. Quarks are fundamental particles that make up composite hadrons such as the proton, neutron and pion. QCD is a type of ...

and

condensed matter physics Condensed matter physics is the field of physics that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter, especially the solid and liquid State of matter, phases, that arise from electromagnetic forces between atoms and elec ...

. In 2016 he and collaborators proposed a p-adic version of

whose bulk geometry is a tree graph. As a high school student in 1989, Gubser was the first American to be grand winner (ranked first among all gold medalists) of the International Physics Olympiad. He graduated from Cherry Creek High School in

Greenwood Village, Colorado The City of Greenwood Village is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, Arapahoe County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 15,691 at the 2020 Unit ...

. He graduated as the

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the class rank, highest-performing student of a graduation, graduating class of an academic institution in the United States. The valedictorian is generally determined by an academic institution's grade poin ...

of the class of 1994 from Princeton University. For his senior thesis he was awarded the LeRoy Apker Award of the American Physical Society, the highest distinction for undergraduate research.

Climbing Accident

Gubser died in a rock climbing accident in

Chamonix Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (; ; (no longer in use)), more commonly known simply as Chamonix (), is a communes of France, commune in the departments of France, department in the regions of France, region in Southeastern France. It was the site of the f ...

, France, on August 3, 2019. Gubser was climbing Aiguille du Peigne "Comb Needle" on the Mont Blanc massif, when a rope broke and he fell to his death.

Awards

* 1994 LeRoy Apker Award for outstanding undergraduate achievement from the

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 ...

* 2008 Blavatnik Award of the New York Academy of Sciences * 2009

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

* 2011 Gribov Medal of the European Physical Society * 2017

Simons Investigator The Simons Foundation is an American private foundation established in 1994 by Marilyn and James Harris Simons, Jim Simons with offices in New York City. As one of the largest charitable organizations in the United States with assets of over $5 ...

Personal life

Gubser was married to Laura Landweber, and they had three daughters.

References

External links

Gubser's web page at Princeton
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gubser, Steven 1972 births 2019 deaths 21st-century American physicists California Institute of Technology faculty Mountaineering deaths Princeton University alumni Princeton University faculty Simons Investigator Sport deaths in France American string theorists Cherry Creek High School alumni Deaths on Mont Blanc