Stanford physicist shares prize for influential theory of supergravity

A physicist with Stanford University ties will receive a share of the $3 million Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics this fall for his work on the 1976 theory of “supergravity,” the selection committee announced.

Daniel Z. Freedman, of Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will be honored along with fellow researchers Sergio Ferrara of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and Peter van Nieuwenhuizen of Stony Brook University in New York.