2021 Medal Winners | francais

PRESS RELEASE / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The 2021 CAP Herzberg Medal

is awarded to

Simon Caron-Huot

"I feel greatly honored to receive the CAP Herzberg medal and particularly humbled to join previous recipients whom I admire. Theoretical physics is a collaborative effort and I thank every student, postdoc, colleague and collaborator I have had the privilege to work with." winner quote

The Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) is pleased to announce that the 2021 CAP Herzberg Medal is awarded to Simon Caron-Huot, McGill University, in recognition of to recognize his creation and development of nonperturbative techniques in conformal field theory, thereby opening the way to broad-ranging applications from particle physics to condensed matter physics. announcement

Caron-Huot is a leading expert in quantum field theory, where he has pioneered analytic techniques which circumvent the traditional perturbative approach based on Feynman diagrams. His recent discovery of a Lorentzian inversion formula has revolutionized the study of conformal field theory. His research aims to answer fundamental questions about the way elementary particles interact at the shortest of distances. His methods emphasize the role of universal principles from relativity and quantum mechanics which underpin quantum field theory, which he applies to the Standard Model and to diverse theoretical models that include conformal field theories. These capture scale-invariant phenomena in many settings, including quantum fluctuations in particle physics, statistical fluctuations near second-order phase transitions, and the celebrated AdS/CFT correspondence which equates a conformal field theory with a theory of quantum gravity in a higher dimensional spacetime. The success of this approach illuminates the power and unity of the principles underlying modern physics, just as it further tests them.

Caron-Huot has held research positions at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen and joined the physics department of McGill University as an assistant professor and Canada Research Chair in 2016. He has received many awards and honors, including the 2017 Gribov Medal by the European Physical Society, the 2018 Hermann Weyl prize, and the 2020 New Horizon in Physics Breakthrough prize. Most recently, he was awarded a 2020 Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship. nominator citation

ABOUT the Medal

The CAP Herzberg medal recognizes significant achievement in any field of research by an early-career Canadian physicist (i.e. successfully defended their doctoral thesis within the 12 years prior to the award). The annual CAP Herzberg Medal was introduced in 1970. Prior to 2011, the medal was awarded for outstanding achievement by a Canadian physicist under the age of 40.

A series of virtual plenary medal talks will be organized to honour the 2021 medal recipients. The talk schedule will be posted on the CAP's website and notification of each talk will be issued once arranged. The medal will be forwarded to Simon Caron-Huot with the congratulations of the community. medal description

ABOUT the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP)

The Canadian Association of Physicists, founded in 1945, is a professional association representing over 1600 individual physicists and physics students in Canada, the U.S. and overseas, as well as a number of Corporate, Institutional, and Departmental Members. In addition to its learned activities, the CAP, through its charitable arm - the CAP Foundation, also undertakes a number of activities intended to encourage students to pursue a career in physics. cap description

joint description

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For more information, please contact:

Mrs. Francine Ford, Executive Director
Canadian Association of Physicists
Tel: 613-562-5614
E-mail: execdir@cap.ca
www.cap.cacap contact and joint contact