Iliopoulos graduated fromNational Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in 1962 as a Mechanical-Electrical Engineer. He continued his studies in the field of Theoretical Physics inUniversity of Paris, and in 1963 he obtained the D.E.A, in 1965 the Doctorat 3e Cycle, and in 1968 the Doctorat d' Etat titles. Between the years 1966 and 1968 he was a scholar atCERN, Geneva. From 1969 till 1971 he was a Research Associate inHarvard University.[4] In 1971 he returned in Paris and began working atCNRS. He also held the director position of the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics of theÉcole normale supérieure between the years 1991-1995 and 1998-2002. In 2002, Iliopoulos was the first recipient of the Aristeio prize, which has been instituted to recognize Greeks who have made significant contributions towards furthering their chosen fields of science. Iliopoulos and Maiani were jointly awarded the 1987Sakurai Prize for theoretical particle physics.[5] In 2007 Iliopoulos and Maiani received theDirac Medal of the ICTP "(f)or their work on the physics of the charm quark, a major contribution to the birth of the Standard Model, the modern theory of Elementary Particles." And in 2011, Glashow, Iliopoulos, and Maiani received theHigh Energy and Particle Physics Prize, awarded by theEuropean Physical Society (EPS), "(f)or their crucial contribution to the theory of flavour, presently embedded in the Standard Theory of strong and electroweak interactions."[6]
Iliopoulos is a specialist in high energy theoretical physics and elementary particle physics. In 1970, in collaboration withSheldon Glashow andLuciano Maïani, he introduced the so-called "GIM mechanism" (named after the three authors) which is an essential element of the theory of fundamental interactions known as the "Standard Model ".[7] This mechanism postulates the existence of a new elementary particle, the "charmed"quark, a prediction that was confirmed by experiments. In 1972, in collaboration withClaude Bouchiat and Philippe Meyer,[8] he demonstrated that the mathematical coherence of the Standard Model requires symmetry between the elementary constituents of matter, namely quarks (which formhadrons such asproton andneutron) andleptons (such aselectron,muon andneutrinos). This symmetry is also verified experimentally.
Iliopoulos was one of the pioneers ofsupersymmetry, the hypothetical symmetry that linksfermions andbosons. He showed that it has remarkable convergence properties and, in collaboration with Pierre Fayet,[9] he proposed a mechanism that leads to its spontaneous breakage. He also studied some aspects of thequantum theory ofgravitation as well as the mathematical properties of invariantgauge theories formulated in a non-commutative geometric space.
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