Stephen Shenker
Born	1953[1]
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Harvard University (B.A.) Cornell University (Ph.D.)
Known for	string theory phase transitions
Awards	MacArthur Fellowship American Academy of Arts and Sciences Lars Onsager Prize(2010) National Academy of Sciences Dirac Medal(2023)
Scientific career
Fields	theoretical physics
Institutions	Stanford University Rutgers University University of Chicago
Doctoral advisor	John Kogut
Doctoral students	Joanne Cohn Matthew Kleban

Stephen Hart Shenker (born 1953) is an Americantheoretical physicist who works onstring theory. He is a professor atStanford University and former director of theStanford Institute for Theoretical Physics. His brotherScott Shenker is a computer scientist.

Shenker's contributions to physics include:

• Basic results on the phase structure of gauge theories (withEduardo Fradkin)
• Basic results on two dimensional conformal field theory and its relation to string theory (withDaniel Friedan,Emil Martinec,Zongan Qiu, and others)
• The nonperturbative formulation of matrix models of low-dimensional string theory, the first nonperturbative definitions of string theory (withMichael R. Douglas)
• The discovery of distinctively stringy nonperturbative effects in string theory, later understood to be caused byD-branes. These effects play a major role in string dynamics
• The discovery of Matrix Theory, the first nonperturbative definition of String/M theory in a physical number of dimensions. Matrix Theory (seematrix string theory) is an example of agauge/gravity duality and is now understood to be a special case of theAdS/CFT correspondence (withTom Banks,Willy Fischler andLeonard Susskind)
• Basic results on the connection between quantum gravity andquantum chaos (withDouglas Stanford,Juan Maldacena and others)

• Fidkowski, Lukasz;Hubeny, Veronika;Kleban, Matthew; Shenker, Stephen (6 February 2004). "The Black Hole Singularity in AdS/CFT".Journal of High Energy Physics.2004 (2): 014.arXiv:hep-th/0306170.Bibcode:2004JHEP...02..014F.doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2004/02/014.S2CID 119363210.

• home page of Stephen Shenker at Stanford
• home page of Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics
• [1]

• Living people
• 21st-century American physicists
• Stanford University Department of Physics faculty
• American string theorists
• MacArthur Fellows
• Fellows of the American Physical Society
• 1953 births
• Harvard University alumni
• Cornell University alumni

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles with hCards