Daniel Harlow
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2019 New Horizons in Physics Prize
For fundamental insights about quantum information, quantum field theory, and gravity.
Comments
I’ve been incredibly fortunate, both in the opportunities I was born into and the people I’ve encountered. In my early academic career this includes Jessica Grochocinski, Matt Lowry, Bob Fincutter, Thor Benson, Chuck Gress, Brian Greene, Frits Paerels, Andy Millis, Allan Blaer, and especially Amber Miller. In graduate school I wandered for some time before coming to the inevitable conclusion that Leonard Susskind was the ideal PhD advisor for me, and fortunately for me he was willing to take me. I owe all of my collaborators for catching my many mistakes, teaching me new things, and putting up with me. I am honored to share this prize with two of them, Daniel Jafferis and Aron Wall. I am exceptionally grateful to my parents, my grandparents, my brothers, and my wife, Xiaowei, and son, Alexander, for all the support they have given me over the years. It is quite remarkable to live in a time and place where it is possible to study the deepest mysteries of nature as a full-time occupation. Reading the news each day, one is constantly reminded that such things should not be taken for granted, and that the path from civilization back to barbarism always beckons.
