UCLA physicist Thomas Dumitrescu has been awarded a 2026 New Horizons in Physics Prize for “generalizing the notion of symmetry in various ways, and for exploring the consequences of these generalized symmetries, in quantum field theory, particle physics, condensed matter physics, string theory and quantum information theory.” He shares this prize with the University of Chicago’s Clay Córdova, Shu-Heng Shao of MIT and Yifan Wang of New York University.
Dumitrescu is a member of the Theoretical Elementary Particle Physics group and the Mani L. Bhaumik Institute for Theoretical Physics at UCLA and an associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy. He previously held the Mani L. Bhaumik Presidential Endowed Chair in Theoretical Physics.
“I broadly work on quantum field theory — the universal language of modern theoretical physics — and some of its many applications,” said Dumitrescu. “I am especially interested in strongly coupled theories, which lie beyond the reach of conventional techniques. Symmetries — both familiar and generalized — and closely related notions, such as anomalies, are powerful tools for analyzing the behavior of such systems.”
The New Horizons in Physics Prize of $100,000 is awarded to promising early-career researchers who have already produced important work. It is part of a larger set of prizes awarded annually in life sciences, fundamental physics and mathematics by the Breakthrough Prize Foundation and its founding sponsors Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Julia and Yuri Milner, and Anne Wojcicki.
“I feel honored and thrilled to receive this prize, and I would like to express my gratitude to my mentors as well as to my physics colleagues, collaborators, and friends,” Dumitrescu said.
