The son of renowned linguists and professors Braj and Yamuna Kachru, Dr. Shamit Kachru is a theoretical physicist and the Wells Family Director of the Stanford Institute of Theoretical Physics, as well as the Stanford Physics Department Chair. A member of the Uni High Class of 1987, he earned a B.A. in Physics from Harvard University in 1990 and a Ph.D. in Physics from Princeton University in 1994. During his time at Uni, he was highly involved in extracurricular activities and took several mathematics classes at the University of Illinois, including Combinatorics and Abstract Algebra. He attended the prestigious Research Science Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the summer before his senior year at Uni.
His research has explored a broad range of topics in the fields of string theory and quantum field theory, and he is best known for his work on the string duality and AdS/CFT correspondence, as well as the KKLT mechanism, flux compactifications, and cosmic inflation. Highlights of his past research also include, but are not limited to, the first computation of the non-Gaussianity in general single field notation, the framework behind holography for non-relativistic field theories, tractable/simple models of non-Fermi liquids, and more recently, studies of “adaptive trade-offs” in evolutionary dynamics of organisms exposed to a varying environment.
Dr. Kachru has received several awards and honors. In 2017, he was named a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows, and he has served on many boards and currently sits on the Editorial Board of the Research in Mathematical Sciences and the Scientific Advisory Committee of Kavli Institute for Theoretical Science (KITS) in Beijing, China.
Beyond his many accomplishments and awards, Dr. Kachru loves physics because of the combination of the beauty of math, its practical applications, as well as the ability to mentor and teach aspiring researchers and students.
Sources:
“Shamit Kachru.” Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics.
“Shamit Kachru.” Shamit Kachru's Profile | Stanford Profiles.
“Shamit Kachru.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 13 June 2021.