Professor
Robert Loren Jaffe
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Theoretical physicist; Educator; Academic and research institution administrator
Area
Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Specialty
Physics
Elected
2013
Jane and Otto Morningstar Professor of Science. Leading theoretical physicist with influential research contributions to quantum chromodynamics and to the theory of Vacuum fluctuation induced forces. Leading expert on the structure and properties of hadrons -those particles, such as the proton and neutron, which are made of quarks. At MIT, with collaborators invented the bag model, which became the standard model for calculating detailed properties of hadrons. Proposed that there are hadrons made of two quarks and two antiquarks, subsequently confirmed by experiment. Led the theoretical analysis of the spin substructure of protons and neutrons, stimulating many experimental programs. Advisor to several national laboratories and leading universities, including Chair of Brookhaven National Laboratory's Science and Technology Steering Committee, Chair of Princeton University's Physics Department's Advisory Council, and Chair of the Lahore University of Management Science School of Science and Engineering International Advisory Panel. Co-developer of Physics of Energy curriculum at MIT. Chair of the American Physical Society's Panel on Public Affairs (2014).
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