TWAS Newsletter: Bringing Light into the Darkness

Theoretical physicists frequently serve as the stewards of impossible-seeming ideas, trying to reconcile the inconceivably enormous with the inconceivably small. Similarly, scientists from the developing world can be caught between their desire to practice on the edge of their field and the realities of paltry science budgets or even authoritarianism. Scientists who manage to reconcile this conflict leave an impact like few others.

The 2013 TWAS-Lenovo Science Prize, one of the most prestigious prizes given to scientists in the developing world, was awarded to such a reconciler: Chilean theoretical physicist Claudio Bunster Weitzman. The prize, the most important given by TWAS, was awarded for his contributions to understanding gravity and the quirky physics of tiny, fundamental particles of matter. It was presented to Bunster on 1 October at a special ceremony during the 2013 TWAS General Meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and he joyfully thrust the prize into the air as applause from the crowd washed over him.

Read more here.

Claudio Bunster Weitzman was instumental in the development of the Millennium Science Initiative (MSI), which in turn lead to the founding of the Science Initiative Group (SIG) to serve as its strategic and administrative body.