Two SAS Professors Named Simons Fellows

Fellowships from the Simons Foundation will let two Penn professors pursue their research full time in the coming year—and in a happy coincidence, part of that research will be conducted together.

Fay R. and Eugene L. Langberg Professor of Physics Mirjam Cvetic and Professor of Mathematics Ron Donagi have been named 2013 Simons Fellows. The fellowship program of the Simons Foundation Division for Mathematics and the Physical Sciences provides awardees with funds for a research sabbatical. Cvetic will study non-perturbative string theory and gravity, while Donagi's research focuses on the geometric properties of supersymmetry, the theory that known particles such as protons and electrons have counterparts called super-partners with their own particular properties.

The professors have already co-authored several papers dealing with various aspects of string theory. Donagi will spend his fellowship year at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Cvetic will join him in the spring after spending this fall working at Penn with visiting scientists.

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