Frank Wilczek

Frank Anthony Wilczek ( or ; born May 15, 1951) is an American theoretical physicist, mathematician and Nobel laureate.

He is the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Founding Director of T. D. Lee Institute and Chief Scientist at the Wilczek Quantum Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), distinguished professor at Arizona State University (ASU) and full professor at Stockholm University.

Wilczek was a finalist in 1967 and ultimately won fourth place, based on a mathematical project involving group theory.

He received his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and membership in Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Chicago in 1970.

During his last year as a math major at Chicago, he attended a course taught by Peter Freund on group theory in physics, which Wilczek later described as being "basically particle physics", and very influential:

"Peter Freund played a big role in my life, though, because he taught this course on group theory, or symmetry in physics that—he was so enthusiastic, and he really gushed—and it's beautiful material. Still to this day I think the quantum theory of angular momentum is one of the absolute pinnacles of human achievement. Just beautiful."

Wilczek went to Princeton as a mathematics graduate student.

After a year and a half, he transferred from mathematics to physics, with David Gross as his thesis advisor.

He earned a Master of Arts in Mathematics in 1972 and a Ph.D. in physics in 1974, both from Princeton University.

Wilczek met Betsy Devine at Princeton, when both watched the televised 1972 Fisher-Spassky chess matches.

They married in 1973, and together they have two daughters.

His favorite physicist is James Clerk Maxwell.

Wilczek was raised Catholic but later "lost faith in conventional religion" although he told Scientific American that religion "had meant a lot to me as a teenager".

In 1982, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.

Wilczek was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1990, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993, and the American Philosophical Society in 2005.

Wilczek became a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000.

He was awarded the Lorentz Medal in 2002.

Wilczek won the Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society in 2003.

In the same year he was awarded the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics Commemorative Medal from Charles University in Prague.

He was the co-recipient of the 2003 High Energy and Particle Physics Prize of the European Physical Society.

Wilczek, along with David Gross and H. David Politzer, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2004 "for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction".

In May 2022, he was awarded the Templeton Prize for his investigations into the fundamental laws of nature, that have transformed our understanding of the forces that govern our universe and revealed an inspiring vision of a world that embodies mathematical beauty.

Born in Mineola, New York, Wilczek is of Polish and Italian origin.

His grandparents were immigrants who "really did work with their hands", according to Wilczek, but Frank's father took night school classes to educate himself, working as a repairman to support his family.

Wilczek's father became a "self-taught engineer", whose interests in technology and science inspired his son.

Wilczek was educated in the public schools of Queens, attending Martin Van Buren High School.

It was around this time Wilczek's parents realized that he was exceptional—in part as a result of Frank Wilczek having been administered an IQ test.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2004 was awarded jointly to David J. Gross, H. David Politzer and Frank Wilczek "for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction".

Wilczek was also the co-recipient of the 2005 King Faisal International Prize for Science.

In that same year, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

After skipping two grades, Wilczek started high school in the 10th grade, when he was 13 years old.

He was particularly inspired by two of his high school physics teachers, one of whom taught a course that helped students with the national Westinghouse Science Talent Search.

He has been described as an agnostic but tweeted in 2013 that "pantheist" is "closer to the mark".

Wilczek said that "the world embodies beautiful ideas" but "although this may inspire a spiritual interpretation, it does not require one".

Wilczek is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Future of Life Institute, an organization that works to mitigate existential risks facing humanity, particularly existential risk from advanced artificial intelligence.

In 2014, Wilczek penned a letter, along with Stephen Hawking and two other scholars, warning that "Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks."

Wilczek is also a supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organization which advocates for democratic reform in the United Nations, and the creation of a more accountable international political system.

Wilczek is on the board for Society for Science & the Public.

He is a co-founding member of the Kosciuszko Foundation of the Collegium of Eminent Scientists of Polish Origin and Ancestry.

Wilczek has appeared on an episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, where Penn referred to him as "the smartest person [they have] ever had on the show".