Stephen Shenker

Who is Stephen Shenker?

Stephen Hart Shenker is an American theoretical physicist who works on string theory. He is a professor at Stanford University and former director of the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics. His brother Scott Shenker is a computer scientist. His contributions to physics include:

Basic results on the phase structure of gauge theories

Basic results on two dimensional conformal field theory and its relation to string theory

The nonperturbative formulation of matrix models of low-dimensional string theory, the first nonperturbative definitions of string theory

The discovery of distinctively stringy nonperturbative effects in string theory, later understood to be caused by D-branes. These effects play a major role in string dynamics

The discovery of Matrix Theory, the first nonperturbative definition of String/M theory in a physical number of dimensions. Matrix Theory is an example of a gauge/gravity duality and is now understood to be a special case of the AdS/CFT correspondence

The discovery of the first distinct signature of the black hole singularity in AdS/CFT