What
prior research or whose prior work helped to start you on your way?
I think I learned a lot as a postdoc at Harvard in the late 1970s
from the professors there. I tried to learn from their approaches.
What
would you rate as your most difficult or trying professional moment?
Hard to say. Since about 1984, I've been mainly interested in
string theory. There have been times of rapid progress and times of
slow progress. When progress is slow, sometimes one cannot see the
end.
Which
of your professional achievements brings you the most satisfaction?
There were a lot of times I have had fun with physics, but I have
to say that the work I did with Nathan Seiberg in 1994 on the dynamics
of certain supersymmetric gauge theories was a lot of fun. One reason
it was fun was that it tied up with the interests in field theory
dynamics that I had had in the early part of my career as well as with
my interests in applying quantum field theory to geometry, and there
was at least a whiff of hope (later realized) that it would help
illuminate some of the problems in string theory.
What
impact might your work and research advances in your field have on the
general public?
I think the general public is curious about understanding the
universe better. When Einstein understood gravitation in terms of the
curvature of space and time, many people were very interested even if
they did not understand the mathematical details. Likewise I think
discoveries in particle physics can be of wide interest. For example,
experimental physicists are searching at accelerators for "supersymmetry"—a
new symmetry structure of space and time. I have a hunch that it will
ultimately be found, and if this occurs I am sure that many people
will be interested.
Did
you expect your work to become highly cited, or is this surprising to
you?
Sometimes I was surprised at the extent to which particular papers
became popular.
What
lessons would you draw from your work to pass on to the next
generation of researchers?
I think we are working on a big problem of trying to understand
space-time at a deeper level allowing for the quantum structure. In
fact, supersymmetry, which I mentioned earlier, would be part of this.
I am sure this won't all be done in the next few years—so there will
be lots for the next generation to do!
Dr. Edward Witten
Institute for Advanced Study
Princeton, NJ, USA
n this Special Topics interview, Dr. Edward Witten talks about his
highly cited career in physics. The Special Topics analysis of Brane
research ranks Dr. Witten among the top 5 researchers in this area
over the past decade, with 23 papers cited a total of 1,928 times. He
has also authored five papers on the list of top 25 papers in this
analysis. Dr. Witten’s work is well-represented in the 
Web product, with
papers in the fields of Physics and Mathematics. Dr. Witten is
currently a member of Physics faculty in the School of Natural
Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ.