François Englert, Ph.D. is a Belgian theoretical physicist. He is currently affiliated with the Institute for Quantum Studies at Chapman University in California. He was awarded the 2010 J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics (with Gerry Guralnik, C. R. Hagen, Tom Kibble, Peter Higgs, and Robert Brout), the ;Wolf Prize in Physics in 2004 (with Brout and Higgs) and the High Energy and Particle Prize of the European Physical Society (with Brout and Higgs) in 1997 for the mechanism which unifies short and long range interactions by generating massive gauge vector bosons. He has made contributions in statistical physics, quantum field theory, cosmology, string theory and supergravity.
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Academic Status
- Assistant at the U.L.B. - 1956-1959
- Research Associate at Cornell University (Ithaca) USA, 1959-1960
- Assistant Professor at Cornell University (Ithaca) USA, 1960-1961
- Charge de cours at the U.L.B., 1961-1964
- Professeur at the U.L.B., since 1964
- Directeur (with Robert Brout) of the Theoretical Physics Group at the U.L.B. (1980-1998)
- Professeur emerite at the U.L.B., since 1998
Scientific Awards
- 1978 First Prize in the International Gravity Contest (with R. Brout and E. Gunzig), awarded by the Gravity Research Foundation for the essay "The Causal Universe".
- 1982 Francqui Prize, awarded by the Francqui Foundation once every four years in exact sciences "For his contribution to the theoretical understanding of spontaneous symmetry breaking in the physics of fundamental interactions, where, with Robert Brout, he was the first to show that spontaneous symmetry breaking in gauge theories gives mass to the gauge particles, for his extensive contributions in other domains, such as solid state physics, statistical mechanics, quantum field theory, general relativity and cosmology, for the originality and the fundamental importance of these achievements.
- 1997 High energy and particle physics Prize (with R. Brout and P.W. Higgs), awarded by the European Physical Society "For formulating for the first time a self-consistent theory of charged massive vector bosons which became the foundation of the electroweak theory of elementary particles".[11]
- 2004 Wolf Prize in Physics (with R. Brout and P.W. Higgs), awarded by the Wolf Foundation "For pioneering work that has led to the insight of mass generation, whenever a local gauge symmetry is realized asymmetrically in the world of sub-atomic particles".
- 2010 J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics (with Guralnik, Hagen, Kibble, Higgs, and Brout) awarded by The American Physical Society "For elucidation of the properties of spontaneous symmetry breaking in four-dimensional relativistic gauge theory and of the mechanism for the consistent generation of vector boson masses".
