Frank Wilczek

Frank Wilczek

Frank Wilczek won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2004 for work that he did as a 21-year-old graduate student. He is known, among other things, for the discovery of asymptotic freedom, the development of quantum chromodynamics, axions and the discovery and exploitation of new forms of quantum statistics (anyons). Wilczek’s 1989 book, Longing for the Harmonies: Themes and Variations from Modern Physics, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and his other books include The Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether and the Unification of Forces. Wilczek’s work has been anthologized in Best American Science Writing and The Norton Anthology of Light Verse. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he is currently the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at MIT.