View source for Biography:Peter Woit

{{Infobox scientist
| name = Peter Woit
| image = PeterWoit.JPG
| image_size = 250px
| caption = Peter Woit at Harvard University
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1957|9|11}}
| birth_place =
| residence = New York
| nationality = {{wipe|United States}}
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| field = [[Physics:Theoretical physics|Theoretical physics]]
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| work_institution = [[Organization:Columbia University|Columbia University]]
| alma_mater = [[Organization:Harvard University|Harvard University]]<br>[[Organization:Princeton University|Princeton University]]
| doctoral_advisor = [[Biography:Curtis Callan|Curtis Callan]]<ref name="book">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pKKhVG5Bk5YC&pg=PA114|title=Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Continuing Challenge to Unify the Laws of Physics|last=Woit|first=Peter|year=2011|publisher=Random House|isbn=9781446443019|language=en|page=114}}</ref>
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| website = {{URL|math.columbia.edu/~woit/}}
| footnotes =
}}

'''Peter Woit''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|w|ɔɪ|t}}; born September 11, 1957) is an American theoretical physicist.  He is a Senior Lecturer in the Mathematics department at [[Organization:Columbia University|Columbia University]].  Woit is a critic of string theory has published a book ''Not Even Wrong'', and writes a blog of the same name.<ref name="bio">{{cite web|title=Department of Mathematics Faculty Bio: Peter Woit|url=http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/|publisher=Columbia University|accessdate=2 November 2013}}</ref>

==Career==
Woit graduated in 1979 from [[Organization:Harvard University|Harvard University]] with bachelor's and master's degrees in [[Physics:Physics|physics]]. He obtained his PhD in [[Physics:Particle physics|particle physics]] from [[Organization:Princeton University|Princeton University]] in 1985, followed by postdoctoral work in [[Physics:Theoretical physics|theoretical physics]] at State University of New York at Stony Brook and [[Mathematics|mathematics]] at the [[Organization:Mathematical Sciences Research Institute|Mathematical Sciences Research Institute]] (MSRI) in Berkeley.  He spent four years as an assistant professor at Columbia.  He now holds a permanent position in the mathematics department, as Senior Lecturer and as Departmental Computer Administrator.<ref name="bio"/><ref>{{cite web|last=Woit|first=Peter|title=Background Concerning the Weblog "Not Even Wrong" and Trackbacks to the ArXiv: Academic Background|url=http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/arxiv-trackbacks.html|publisher=Columbia University|accessdate=9 May 2012}}</ref>

Woit is a U.S. citizen and also has a Latvian passport. His father was born in [[Place:Riga|Riga]] and became exiled with his own parents at the beginning of the Soviet occupation of Latvia.<ref>Peter Woit, "[http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=45 International Institute of Mathematical Physics in Riga]" (June 27, 2004), ''Not Even Wrong''.</ref>

==Criticism of string theory==
He is critical of string theory on the grounds that it lacks testable predictions and is promoted with public money despite its failures so far<ref name="book"/>, and has authored both scientific papers and popular polemics on this topic. His writings claim that excessive media attention and funding of this one particular mainstream endeavour, which he considers speculative, risks undermining public faith in the freedom of scientific research. His moderated weblog on string theory and other topics is titled "Not Even Wrong", a  derogatory term for scientifically useless arguments invented by [[Biography:Wolfgang Pauli|Wolfgang Pauli]].

{{Quote| ''For the last eighteen years particle theory has been dominated by a single approach to the unification of the [[Physics:Standard Model|Standard Model]] interactions and [[Physics:Quantum gravity|quantum gravity]]. This line of thought has hardened into a new orthodoxy that postulates an unknown fundamental supersymmetric theory involving strings and other [[Chemistry:Degrees of freedom (physics and chemistry)|degrees of freedom]] with characteristic scale around the [[Planck length]]. […] It is a striking fact that there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever for this complex and unattractive conjectural theory. There is not even a serious proposal for what the dynamics of the fundamental '[[Physics:M-theory|M-theory]]' is supposed to be or any reason at all to believe that its dynamics would produce a [[Physics:Vacuum state|vacuum state]] with the desired properties. The sole argument generally given to justify this picture of the world is that [[Perturbation theory (quantum mechanics)|perturbative]] string theories have a massless spin two mode and thus could provide an explanation of gravity, if one ever managed to find an underlying theory for which perturbative string theory is the perturbative expansion.''<ref>Woit, Peter, 2002, "[https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0206135 Quantum Field Theory and Representation Theory: A Sketch.]"</ref> }}

==="The String Wars"===
A discussion in 2006 took place between [[Organization:University of California, Santa Barbara|University of California, Santa Barbara]] physicists at the [[Organization:Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics|Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics]] and science journalist George Johnson regarding the controversy caused by [[Biography:Lee Smolin|Lee Smolin]] and Woit's books.<ref name="The String Wars">{{cite web|url=http://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/resident/johnson2/ |title=George Johnson, Science Journalist in Residence, KITP, The String Wars |publisher=Online.itp.ucsb.edu |date=2006-10-20 |accessdate=2011-12-10}}</ref>  The meeting was titled "The String Wars".<ref name="The String Wars"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/resident/johnson2/rm/qt.html |title=QuickTime: George Johnson, Science Journalist in Residence, KITP, The String Wars |publisher=Online.itp.ucsb.edu |date= |accessdate=2011-12-10}}</ref>

==Selected publications==
*1988, "Supersymmetric quantum mechanics, spinors and the standard model," ''Nuclear Physics'' B303: 329-42.{{doi|10.1016/0550-3213(88)90185-X}}
*1990, "Topological quantum theories and representation theory" in Ling-Lie Chau and [[Biography:Werner Nahm|Werner Nahm]], eds., ''Differential Geometric Methods in Theoretical Physics: Physics and Geometry, Proceedings of NATO Advanced Research Workshop''. Plenum Press: 533-45.{{doi|10.1007/978-1-4684-9148-7_54}}
*2006. [https://books.google.com/books/about/Not_Even_Wrong.html?id=pcJA3i0xKAUC ''Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory & the Continuing Challenge to Unify the Laws of Physics'']. {{ISBN|0-224-07605-1}} (Jonathan Cape), {{ISBN|0-465-09275-6}} (Basic Books)
* 2017 [https://books.google.com/books/about/Quantum_Theory_Groups_and_Representation.html?id=G248DwAAQBAJ ''Quantum Theory, Groups and Representations''] Springer International Publishing, Hardcover {{ISBN|978-3-319-64610-7}}, eBook {{ISBN|978-3-319-64612-1}}, {{doi|10.1007/978-3-319-64612-1}}

==See also==
* ''[[Physics:The Trouble with Physics|The Trouble with Physics]]''
* [[Biography:Lee Smolin|Lee Smolin]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* 2002, "[http://www.arxiv.org/abs/physics/0102051 String Theory: An Evaluation,]" ''American Scientist'' 90(2): .
* 2002, "[http://www.arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0206135 Quantum Field Theory and Representation Theory: A Sketch.]"
* [http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/ Peter Woit's Home Page.]
* [http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/blog/ Not Even Wrong], Woit's weblog.
* "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1226142,00.html The Unraveling of String Theory,]" by Michael Lemonick, ''{{wipe|Time (magazine)}}'', August 21, 2006.
*[[Biography:Joseph Polchinski|Joseph Polchinski]] (2007) "[http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/all-strung-out All Strung Out?]" a review of ''[[Physics:The Trouble with Physics|The Trouble with Physics]]'' and ''Not Even Wrong'', ''American Scientist'' 95(1):1. ([http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/12/07/guest-blogger-joe-polchinski-on-the-string-debates/#.W2c2XDOZO9Y re-post] at ''Cosmic Variance'')
**[https://web.archive.org/web/20070708142448/http://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/~joep/A%20dialog.html Smolin's comment and Polchinky's response.]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060928180318/http://www.twis.org/audio/2006/09/19/ Radio Interview] from This Week in Science September 19, 2006 Broadcast.
* [http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=a+peter+woit&FORMAT=WWW&SEQUENCE= SPIRES publications for Peter Woit.]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
*''The Times'' "[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article672464.ece Review]" of ''Not Even Wrong''.
* [http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/12950 Video of discussion/debate] with Peter Woit on [[Company:Bloggingheads.tv|Bloggingheads.tv]]


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[[Category:American physicists]]

{{Sourceattribution|Peter Woit|1}}