Top Theoretical Physicists

[warhammer]

TL;DR Summary

In current times, who are some of the most influential physicists working in Theoretical Physics and doing groundbreaking research?

In respect to the above question, I also have a follow up question. Is progress in Theoretical Physics somewhat slow currently as compared to Experimental Physics?

 

[davenn]

Summary: In current times, who are some of the most influential physicists working in Theoretical Physics and doing groundbreaking research?

In respect to the above question, I also have a follow up question. Is progress in Theoretical Physics somewhat slow currently as compared to Experimental Physics?

Considering you have labelled this with an "A" tag = post-graduate level,
you must used to doing research by now, what have you done so far to
try and find answers for yourse3lf ?

 

[warhammer]

Considering you have labelled this with an "A" tag = post-graduate level,
you must used to doing research by now, what have you done so far to
try and find answers for yourse3lf ?

Oh I really apologise. I thought that the tag here was used to indicate the range of the question. I'm an undergraduate (first year) myself. Must I delete this post and make a new one with the correct tag to receive responses? Please let me know

 

[mfb]

I changed the tag to (I) but it is still a valid question. What did you figure out so far?

 

[kay bei]

Summary:: In current times, who are some of the most influential physicists working in Theoretical Physics and doing groundbreaking research?

In respect to the above question, I also have a follow up question. Is progress in Theoretical Physics somewhat slow currently as compared to Experimental Physics?

Warhammer,

I am sure you will find some of the top theoretical physicists in the list of ISI highly cited researchers. Of course this may not include younger physicists but it will give you a list of more established physicists whose research has made impact. I haven't gone through it but you can have fun reading all of their profiles.

https://recognition.webofsciencegroup.com/awards/highly-cited/2019/

Another option for you to find the up and comers/young generation of physicists is to find the names of the young scientists invited to attend the Lindau Nobel laureate Meetings. These young scientists are some of the worlds top talent and you will certainly be looking at a next generation leader in theoretical physics here,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindau_Nobel_Laureate_Meetings

For example, Sabrina Gonzalez Paterski is considered a leading theoretical physicist despite being only 27 years old right now. She was invited to the Lindau Meeting in 2012 which would have made her 19 yrs old at the time. Here is her profile,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabrina_Gonzalez_Pasterski

If your feeling ambitious, here is one of her papers on so called Electromagnetic Memory. By the way this paper was cited by Steven Hawking the next year found here. She is citation number 52 in hawking's paper. Leonard Susskind, another famous physicist, is citation number 53. Her co-author and supervisor is Andrew Strominger who is a prize-winning physicist having won the Dirac Medal and Breakthrough Prize for his research into quantum gravity. Interestingly another one of Strominger's doctoral students did very well. His name is Xi Yin and has won the New Horizons in Physics Prize, which is awarded to junior researchers with a prize amount of 100 000$.

I can name many more places you can look. Take a look at the graduate student list for the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. In fact any Ivy League in the US, the Max Planck Institute for theoretical physics, Cambridge University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the IOFFE institute, Weizmann institute, the perimeter institute. You will find top researches all over the world.

Good luck with your search and please let us know of any theoretical physicists that you find! :)