The Second Kind of Impossible: The Quixotic Search for Natural Quasicrystals

Paul J. Steinhardt is the Albert Einstein Professor in Science at Princeton University, where he is on the faculty of both the departments of Physics and of Astrophysical Sciences.  Steinhardt's research spans problems in particle physics, astrophysics, cosmology, condensed matter physics and geoscience.  He is one of the original architects of the inflationary model of the universe and, more recently, co-developer of the “cyclic model” of the universe. Steinhardt is also known for his work introducing ``quintessence'' models of dark energy and self-interacting dark matter (SIDM). In condensed matter physics, Steinhardt invented the theoretical concept of quasicrystals with his student Dov Levine, and has subsequently worked to illuminate many of their unique physical and mathematical properties.   Steinhardt later organized a team that discovered the first natural quasicrystal and led a geological expedition to far northeastern Russia.  

Steinhardt is a Fellow in the US National Academy of Sciences and the American Physical Society.  He received the P.A.M. Dirac Medal from the ICPT in 2002 for his work on inflationary cosmology.  He is also the recipient of the 2010 Oliver E. Buckley Prize of the American Physical Society; the 2012 John Scott Award; and the 2018 Aspen Italia Award for his work on quasicrystals.   In 2014, he was named a Caltech Distinguished Alumnus.   He has a B.S. in Physics from Caltech (1974), and an M.A. (1975) and Ph.D. (1978) in Physics from Harvard University.