Alexander Borisovich Zamolodchikov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Бори́сович Замоло́дчиков; born September 18, 1952) is a Russian physicist, known for his contributions to conformal field theory, statistical mechanics, string theory and condensed matter physics.
He is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished theoretical physicists[1] for his profound contributions to fundamental physics and especially to Quantum Field Theories, for which he was awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics[1] in 2024. He is currently the C.N. Yang – Wei Deng Endowed Chair of Physics at Stony Brook University.[2]
Born in Novo-Ivankovo, now part of Dubna, Zamolodchikov earned a M.Sc. in nuclear engineering (1975) from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, a Ph.D. in physics from the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (1978). He joined the research staff of Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics (1978) where he got a Doctor of Sciences degree (1983).
He co-authored the famous BPZ paper "Infinite Conformal Symmetry in Two-Dimensional Quantum Field Theory",[3] with Alexander Polyakov and Alexander Belavin.[3][4]
He joined Rutgers University (1990) where he co-founded Rutgers New High Energy Theory Center, and was named Board of Governors Professor (2005).[5]
In 2016, he became the inaugural holder of the C. N. Yang/Wei Deng Chair in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics at Stony Brook University.[6]
He is the twin brother of the late Alexei Zamolodchikov (1952–2007), also a noted physicist.[7]