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Frank Wilczek, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics, was awarded the 2022 Templeton Prize for his work in Pennsylvania that set forth “his vision of a universe that he thought embodies mathematical beauty on scales spectacularly large and unimaginably small.” The John Templeton Foundation announced Wednesday.
Wilczek, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the sixth Nobel laureate to receive the award since its inception in 1972. Designed as a trophy for research exploring the intersection of science and spirituality, the award comes with a $1.3 million prize.
Mr. Wilczek said in a statement, “The central miracle of physics for me is that by playing with equations, drawing diagrams, doing calculations, and working within the world of mental concepts and manipulations, you are actually describing the real world. If you want to try to understand what God is by understanding God’s work, that’s it.”
Heather Templeton Dill, head of the foundation, praised Mr. Wilczek’s ideas.
“By revealing a remarkable order in the natural world, Dr. Wilczek came to appreciate the different ways of thinking about reality and through his written work invited us all to join him in his quest for understanding. Dr. “When we come face to face with the beauty Wilczek describes, we can’t help wondering about humanity’s place and purpose in the universe.”
In the Templeton announcement, Mr. Wilczek’s most recent book, “Basics,” discloses “ten distilled insights from physics and aligned with artistic and philosophical sources to illuminate the properties of physical reality.”
Saying that he does not claim to be religious tradition, Mr. Wilczek writes in this book: “As we study how the world works, we study how God works and thus we learn what God is. In this spirit, we can interpret the quest for knowledge as a form of worship and our discoveries as revelation.”
Paul Davies, another theoretical physicist who received the Templeton Prize in 1995, praised Mr. Wilczek’s work in a letter to the foundation.
“By [Wilczek’s] “We began to see a kind of beauty and coherence worthy of an ultimate definition of physical reality,” Mr Davies wrote. “Wilczek sought to capture the beauty and pure creativity of nature, its mathematical foundations and its consequences on human meaning and purpose.”
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