Permanent Member, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics
Visiting Professor of Physics, UCSB
KITP, 2323 Kohn Hall
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Phone: (805) 893-6350
Shamit Kachru
Career History:
A.B., Harvard University, 1990
Ph.D., Princeton University, 1994
Junior Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows, 1994-96
Research Associate, Rutgers University, 1996-97
Assistant Professor, U.C. Berkeley, 1997-99
Member, Institute for Advanced Study, 1999
Associate, Full Professor, Stanford University & SLAC, 1999-2009 (on leave, 2009-10)
Permanent Member, KITP & Visiting Professor, UCSB, 2009-
Honors and Awards:
Phi Beta Kappa, 1990
NSF Graduate Fellow, 1990-93
D.O.E. Outstanding Junior Investigator, 1997
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow, 1998
Bergmann Memorial Award, 1999
David & Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering, 2000
ACIPA Outstanding Young Physicist Prize, co-recipient, 2008
PhD Students:
Michael Schulz (PhD 2002; to Caltech as postdoc; now faculty at Bryn Mawr)
John McGreevy (PhD 2002; to Princeton as postdoc; now faculty at MIT)
Liam McAllister (PhD 2005; to Princeton as postdoc; now faculty at Cornell)
Xiao Liu (PhD 2006; to Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics as postdoc)
Alexander Giryavets (PhD 2007; to UBS Investment Bank)
Michael Mulligan (PhD 2009; to MIT as postdoc)
Dusan Simic (current)
Selected Other Scientific Service Activities:
General Member, Aspen Center for Physics
Editor, JHEP
Organizer & lecturer, ICTP Spring School on String Theory and Related Topics, 2007, 08, 09
Organizer & lecturer, Theoretical Advanced Study Institute (TASI) 1999, 2005, 2007
Organizer, KITP programs: Avatars of M-theory (2001) and String Phenomenology (2006)
Lecturer, ``Prospects in Theoretical Physics,” Institute for Advanced Study, 2006, 2008
Research Interests:
I am interested in string theory and quantum field theory, and their potential applications in particle
physics, cosmology, and condensed matter physics. At different periods in the past, my work
has focused on space-time topology change in string theory; duality and exact results in
supersymmetric string compactifications; generalizations of the AdS/CFT correspondence
to more realistic field theories; moduli stabilization and generation of hierarchies of scales
in compactifications with flux; modeling dark energy in string theory; describing
realistic models of early-universe cosmology in the general framework of string theory; and general
theoretical possibilities for the fluctuation spectrum in single-field inflationary theories. My current
research is focused on applying gauge/gravity duality to toy models of strongly coupled
condensed matter systems, and on exploring new classes of strongly coupled supersymmetric
models of particle physics, either by using field theory dualities or gauge/gravity duality.
