physics

Peter van Nieuwenhuizen

Peter van Nieuwenhuizen is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Peter van Nieuwenhuizen rather than just read about it. In short: Peter van Nieuwenhuizen (Dutch: [ˈpeːtər vɑ ˈniu.ə(n)ˌɦœyzə(n)]; born 26 October 1938) is a Dutch theoretical physicist. He is a distinguished Professor at Stony Brook University in the United States.

Key takeaways

Peter van Nieuwenhuizen belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Peter van Nieuwenhuizen to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Peter van Nieuwenhuizen from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Peter van Nieuwenhuizen (Dutch: [ˈpeːtər vɑ ˈniu.ə(n)ˌɦœyzə(n)]; born 26 October 1938) is a Dutch theoretical physicist. He is a distinguished Professor at Stony Brook University in the United States. Van Nieuwenhuizen is widely known for his contributions to string theory, supersymmetry, supergravity and field theory. He is best known for his discovery of supergravity with Sergio Ferrara and Daniel Z. Freedman, for which he along with his collaborators won the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2019.

Life and career Peter van Nieuwenhuizen studied physics and mathematics at the University of Utrecht, where he obtained in 1971 his Ph.D. under the supervision of later Nobel laureate Martinus Veltman. After his studies in Utrecht, Van Nieuwenhuizen went to CERN (Geneva), the University of Paris in Orsay, and Brandeis University (Waltham). In 1975 he joined the Institute for Theoretical Physics, now named C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, of the Stony Brook University, where he succeeded Nobel laureate C. N. Yang as its director from 1999 until 2002. He is married to Belgian physicist Marie de Crombrugghe.

Awards and honors For constructing supergravity, the first supersymmetric extension of Einstein's theory of general relativity, and for their central role in its subsequent development Peter van Nieuwenhuizen, Sergio Ferrara and Daniel Z. Freedman received in 1993 the Dirac medal from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste (Italy), in 2006 the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics of the American Physical Society and in 2016 the Ettore Majorana Medal from EMFCSC, Erice. In 2019, the three were awarded a special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics of $3 million for the discovery. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, and a corresponding member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1994, and of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He was made a Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion in 2004, and Honorary professor of the Technical University of Vienna (Austria) in 2005.

References

External links

"Peter van Nieuwenhuizen". Stony Brook Physics & Astronomy Faculty. Retrieved 14 December 2021.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Peter van Nieuwenhuizen

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Peter van Nieuwenhuizen claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Peter van Nieuwenhuizen before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Peter van Nieuwenhuizen ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Peter van Nieuwenhuizen

In research: Peter van Nieuwenhuizen appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Peter van Nieuwenhuizen in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Peter van Nieuwenhuizen is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1938 births, 20th-century Dutch physicists, Dutch theoretical physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Peter van Nieuwenhuizen outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Peter van Nieuwenhuizen” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Peter van Nieuwenhuizen in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Peter van Nieuwenhuizen means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Peter van Nieuwenhuizen out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Peter van Nieuwenhuizen in simple terms?

Why does Peter van Nieuwenhuizen matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Peter van Nieuwenhuizen?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Peter van Nieuwenhuizen.