mathematics

Samson Shatashvili

Samson Shatashvili is a mathematics 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 Samson Shatashvili rather than just read about it. In short: Samson Lulievich Shatashvili (Georgian: სამსონ შათაშვილი; Russian: Самсон Лулиевич Шаташвили, born February 1960) is a theoretical and mathematical physicist who has been working at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, since 2002. He holds the Trinity College Dublin Chair of Natural Philosophy and is the director of the Hamilton Mathematics Institute.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Samson Lulievich Shatashvili (Georgian: სამსონ შათაშვილი; Russian: Самсон Лулиевич Шаташвили, born February 1960) is a theoretical and mathematical physicist who has been working at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, since 2002. He holds the Trinity College Dublin Chair of Natural Philosophy and is the director of the Hamilton Mathematics Institute. He is also affiliated with the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS), where he held the Louis Michel Chair from 2003 to 2013 and the Israel Gelfand Chair from 2014 to 2019. Shatashvili was a visiting faculty member at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics (SCGP) from 2014 to 2024. Prior to moving to Trinity College, he was a professor of physics at Yale University from 1994.

Background Shatashvili received his PhD in 1984 at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics in Saint Petersburg under the supervision of Ludwig Faddeev (and Vladimir Korepin). The topic of his thesis was on gauge theories and had the title "Modern Problems in Gauge Theories". In 1989 he received D.S. degree (doctor of science, 2nd degree in Russia) also at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics in Saint Petersburg.

Contributions and awards Shatashvili has made several discoveries in the fields of theoretical and mathematical physics. He is mostly known for his work with Ludwig Faddeev on quantum anomalies, with Anton Alekseev on geometric methods in two-dimensional conformal field theories, for his work on background independent open string field theory, with Cumrun Vafa on superstrings and manifolds of exceptional holonomy, with Anton Gerasimov on tachyon condensation, with Andrei Losev, Nikita Nekrasov and Greg Moore on instantons and supersymmetric gauge theories, as well as for his work with Nikita Nekrasov on quantum integrable systems. In particular, Shatashvili and Nikita Nekrasov discovered the gauge/Bethe correspondence. In 1995 he received an Outstanding Junior Investigator Award of the Department of Energy (DOE) and a NSF Career Award and from 1996 to 2000 he was a Sloan Fellow. Shatashvili is a fellow of Trinity College Dublin, a member of the Royal Irish Academy and the recipient of the 2010 Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal as well as the Ivane Javakhishvili State Medal, Georgia. In 2009 he was a plenary speaker at the International Congress on Mathematical Physics in Prague and in 2014 was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Seoul (speaking on "Gauge theory angle at quantum integrability"). In 2025, he won the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics for "clever use of various techniques in studying symmetry in quantum field theory".

References

External links Videos of Samson Shatashvili in the AV-Portal of the German National Library of Science and Technology

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Samson Shatashvili

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Samson Shatashvili claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, 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 Samson Shatashvili 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 Samson Shatashvili 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 Samson Shatashvili

In research: Samson Shatashvili appears in mathematics 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 Samson Shatashvili 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: Samson Shatashvili is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1960 births, 21st-century Irish mathematicians, 21st-century mathematicians from Georgia (country), so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Samson Shatashvili 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.

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How to study Samson Shatashvili in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Samson Shatashvili 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 Samson Shatashvili out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Samson Shatashvili in simple terms?

Why does Samson Shatashvili matter?

Because it connects several mathematics 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 Samson Shatashvili?

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 Samson Shatashvili.