Uppsala University, Sweden, awards prestigious honorary doctorate to Dr. Nikita Nekrasov, a world-leading expert in theoretical and mathematical physics and one of the world’s top researchers in modern quantum field theory and string theory. Nekrasov’s research covers both physical and mathematical aspects.
Founded in 1477, Uppsala University is the oldest university in Northern Europe. The tradition of conferring honorary degrees goes back to the same time yet a different place (Oxford University). This year’s recipients of honorary doctorates received their tokens of honour at the Winter Conferment Ceremony on 26 January 2024. Nekrasov also provided a lecture titled Natural language: geometry and physics during the ceremony.
As stated on Uppsala University’s website, “Nikita Nekrasov is a world-leading expert in theoretical and mathematical physics and professor at Simons Center, USA. He is one of the world’s foremost researchers in modern quantum field theory and string theory. His work encompasses both physical and mathematical aspects. Nekrasov has made groundbreaking discoveries of very elegant applications of powerful mathematical techniques to extract exact results for quantum field theories and to shed light on integrable systems and non-commutative geometry. Nekrasov’s partition function, which he introduced in 2002, relates in an intricate way the instantons in gauge theory and string theory, integrable systems and representation theory of infinite-dimensional algebras. It led to a proof of the Seiberg-Witten solution of Donaldson theory, which had been one of the major unsolved problems in theoretical quantum field theory since 1994.”
Nekrasov’s connection to Uppsala University began thirty years ago with his first visit abroad as an exchange student during his undergraduate studies at Uppsala University.
“It is a tremendous honor to join a long line of scholars linking the centers of knowledge mining and knowledge transfer throughout the globe. In the volatile present, with the world being torn apart by differences in moral philosophy, a hope for a path to a peaceful future is in the natural philosophy.” -Nikita Nekrasov
For more information about this year’s honorary doctorates: https://www.uu.se/nyheter/arkiv/2024-01-15-nya-hedersdoktorer-vid-universitetet