Peter West (physicist)

Peter West
FRS
Born4 December 1951
Bromley, Kent
NationalityBritish
EducationLiverpool College
Alma mater
Known for
AwardsChalmers 150th Anniversary Professor at the Chalmers Institute of Technology (1992) Fellow of the Royal Society (2006)
Scientific career
Fields
InstitutionsKing's College London
ThesisStudies in Supersymmetry (1976)
Doctoral advisorAbdus Salam[1]

Peter Christopher West FRS, born on 4 December 1951, is a British theoretical physicist at King's College, London and a fellow of the Royal Society.[2]

West was elected to the Royal Society in 2006; his citation read

Professor West is distinguished for the development of the theory of supersymmetry and its application to the construction of unified theories of all the fundamental particle interactions. His results have become cornerstones of the modern theory of superstrings and associated branes to which he continues to contribute actively.[3]

Together with his collaborators, West was one of the first to construct both type IIA and type IIB supergravity.[4][5] These theories combine supersymmetry with general relativity, and they encode many of the properties of strings and branes.

West created a research group working on supersymmetry and strings in the Mathematics Department at King's College London.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference mathgene was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Smith, Alexandra (19 May 2006). "BP chief appointed Royal Society fellow". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
  3. ^ "Peter West". The Royal Society. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
  4. ^ Campbell, I.C.G.; West, P.C. (1984). "N = 2, D = 10 non-chiral supergravity and its spontaneous". Nuclear Physics B. 243 (1): 112–124. doi:10.1016/0550-3213(84)90388-2.
  5. ^ Howe, P.S.; West, P.C. (1984). "The complete N =2, d = 10 supergravity". Nuclear Physics B. 238 (1): 181–220. Bibcode:1984NuPhB.238..181H. doi:10.1016/0550-3213(84)90472-3.