Edward Witten has the highest -index among physicists. In this sense, he is the best physicist in the world now. What really surprises me is that he did not major in physics as an undergraduate student. He majored in history. While working as a physicist, he received the highest honor in mathematics, the Fields Medal.

Birth and education

Edward Witten was born in Baltimore, Maryland to a Jewish family, the son of Lorraine W. Witten and Louis Witten, a physicist specializing in gravitation and general relativity. He received his bachelor’s degree in history (with a minor in linguistics) from Brandeis University. Witten planned to become a political journalist, and published articles in The New Republic and The Nation. He worked briefly for George McGovern’s presidential campaign. Then, he attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for one semester as an economics graduate student before dropping out. He then returned to academia, enrolling in applied mathematics at Princeton University before shifting departments and receiving a Ph.D. in physics in 1976 under David Gross, the Nobel laureate in Physics in 2004.

— Wikipedia

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Figure 4.1: Witten’s career path

(This figure is made and copyrighted by me. Copy it as you like.)

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Even the best people in the world need such a long time to find their true love career.

How about you?

What is your true love?

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1 As of 2007
2 The Fields Medal is the “Nobel prize” in Mathematics.

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2008.07.19 Saturday