Anthony Zee

Zee was born in Kunming, China, in 1945, but his family fled to Hong Kong when he was four years old.Interview of Anthony Zee by David Zierler on December 15, 2020, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD USA, [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/45421 www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/45421]{{Cite web |title=DNB, Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek |url=https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?method=simpleSearch&cqlMode=true&query=nid=111982065 |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=portal.dnb.de}} His father was a self-taught businessman, and after a few years in Hong Kong, during a slump in business, decided to move the family again, this time to Brazil. The family settled in Sao Paulo, where Zee attended an American international high school before immigrating to the US in 1962 to attend Princeton University, where he worked with physicist John Archibald Wheeler.{{Cite web |date=2016-09-08 |title=Around the Globe: Tony Zee '66 |url=https://paw.princeton.edu/podcast/around-globe-tony-zee-66 |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=Princeton Alumni Weekly |language=en}} After graduating from Princeton, Zee obtained his PhD from Harvard University, where he focused on group theory in physics, supervised by Sidney Coleman. He graduated in 1970 and went on to complete a postdoc at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He would later return to the institute in 1977 and 1978 during a sabbatical year while on faculty at Princeton.

After completing his postdoctoral studies, Zee accepted an assistant professorship at Rockefeller University in New York in 1972. He only stayed a year before returning to Princeton as an assistant professor in 1973. In his first year back at Princeton, Zee had Ed Witten as his teaching assistant and grader. In 1978 Zee moved on to the University of Pennsylvania for two years. From there he went to the University of Washington before settling at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1985.{{Cite web |last=Zee |first=Anthony |date=8 June 2005 |title=Dr. Anthony Zee, KITP, Folding RNA |url=https://online.kitp.ucsb.edu/online/friends/zee/ |access-date=25 June 2024}} At UCSB, Zee teaches courses on both general relativity and quantum field theory.{{Cite web |title=Courses {{!}} KITP |url=https://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/zee/courses |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=www.kitp.ucsb.edu}} The culmination of his teaching is his highly regarded and widely praised "trilogy" of graduate level textbooks: Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell, Einstein Gravity in a Nutshell, and Group Theory in a Nutshell for Physicists. He is also the author of several books for general readers about physics and Chinese culture.

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Zee specializes in theoretical physics; research interests include high energy physics, field theory, cosmology, biophysics, condensed matter physics, and mathematical physics.{{Cite web |title=Research {{!}} KITP |url=https://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/zee/research |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=www.kitp.ucsb.edu}} He has authored or co-authored more than 200 scientific publications and several books on particle physics, condensed matter physics, anomalies in physics, random matrix theory, superconductivity, the quantum Hall effect, and other topics in theoretical physics and evolutionary biology, as well as their various interrelations.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

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In winter 2001, Johns Hopkins University Press published an article by Zee titled "On Fat Deposits around the Mammary Glands in the Females of Homo Sapiens" in the New Literary History.{{Cite web |title=Research {{!}} KITP |url=https://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/zee/research |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=www.kitp.ucsb.edu}} Zee describes the female breasts and reproductive system under an evolutionary psychology lens with quotes such as "The reproductive value of a woman at a given time is her fertility integrated from that time until the end of her reproductive life. While fertility typically peaks in the mid-twenties, reproductive value peaks in the teens." and "Like the mammary glands in the male, the female orgasm does not appear to serve any useful biological function. In most primates, female orgasm is either absent or inconspicuous".{{cite journal |vauthors=Zee A |date= 2001 |title= On Fat Deposits around the Mammary Glands in the Females of Homo Sapiens |url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/20057653 |journal= New Literary History |volume= 32|issue= 1 |publisher= Johns Hopkins University Press |pages= 201-216 |doi= |pmc= |pmid= |access-date=3 March 2025}} This article was published after Ralph Louis Cohen invited Zee to write an article of his choice in the literary magazine.{{cite journal |vauthors=Zee A |date= 2001 |title= On Fat Deposits around the Mammary Glands in the Females of Homo Sapiens |url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/20057653 |journal= New Literary History |volume= 32|issue= 1 |publisher= Johns Hopkins University Press |pages= 201-216 |doi= |pmc= |pmid= |access-date=3 March 2025}} This article has caused Zee to be dismissed from colloquium speeches at other research universities.

Technical:

• 1982. Unity of Forces in the Universe. Singapore: World Scientific.
• 2010. Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell. 2nd ed. Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|978-0691140346}}{{cite journal|doi=10.1088/0264-9381/28/8/089003|title=Review of Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell (2nd edn)|year=2011|last1=Peskin|first1=Michael E.|author-link=Michael Peskin|journal=Classical and Quantum Gravity|volume=28|issue=8|page=089003|s2cid=250860979 }}
• 2013. Einstein Gravity in a Nutshell. Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|978-0691145587}}
• 2016. Group Theory in a Nutshell for Physicists. Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|978-0691162690}}
• 2020. {{cite book| url=https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691182544/fly-by-night-physics| title=Fly by Night Physics: How Physicists Use the Backs of Envelopes |publisher= Princeton University Press| year=2020| isbn= 9780691182544}}

General readers:

• 1989. An Old Man's Toy, Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-02-633440-2}}
• 1990. Swallowing Clouds, University of Washington Press. {{ISBN|978-0-671-74724-4}}
• 2007. Fearful Symmetry: The Search for Beauty in Modern Physics, 2nd ed. Princeton University Press. Foreword by Roger Penrose. {{ISBN|978-0-691-00946-9}}. 1986 1st ed. published by Macmillan; 2016 paperback edition published by Princeton University Press {{isbn|978-0-691-17326-9}}{{cite web|author=Bultheel, Adhemar|author-link=Adhemar Bultheel|title=Review of Fearful Symmetry: The Search for Beauty in Modern Physics|date=2 December 2016|website=European Mathematical Society|url=https://euro-math-soc.eu/review/fearful-symmetry-search-beauty-modern-physics}}
• 2018. {{cite book| url=https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11235.html| title=On Gravity: A Brief Tour of a Weighty Subject |publisher= Princeton University Press| year=2018| isbn= 9780691174389 }}
• 2023. {{cite book| url=https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691174297/quantum-field-theory-as-simply-as-possible| title=Quantum Field Theory As Simply As Possible|publisher=Princeton University Press| year=2023| isbn= 9780691174297 }}

• Institute for Advanced Study Dyson Distinguished Visiting Professor{{Cite web |author=Indy Staff |date=2011-04-25 |title=UCSB Physics Professor Receives International Award |url=https://www.independent.com/2011/04/25/ucsb-physics-professor-receives-international-award/ |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=The Santa Barbara Independent |language=en-US}}
• Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship – 1973{{Cite web |title=Fellows Database {{!}} Alfred P. Sloan Foundation |url=https://sloan.org/fellows-database |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=sloan.org |language=en}}
• Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship – 2006-2007{{Cite web |title=Anthony Zee |url=https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/people/anthony-zee |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University |language=en}}
• Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation Humboldt Research Award – 2011
• Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences – 2014{{Cite web |date=2014-04-23 |title=Two UCSB Faculty Members Named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences |url=https://news.ucsb.edu/2014/014110/two-ucsb-faculty-members-named-american-academy-arts-and-sciences |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=The Current |language=en}}
• Fellow of American Physical Society (APS) - 2014{{Cite web |date=2014-12-17 |title=Five From UCSB Named APS Fellows |url=https://news.ucsb.edu/2014/014666/five-ucsb-named-aps-fellows |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=The Current |language=en}}

{{reflist}}

{{wikiquote}}

• [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/45421 Interview of Anthony Zee by David Zierler on 2020 December 15,Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics,College Park, MD USA]
• [https://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/zee/ Anthony Zee's Personal Web Page]
• [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=6JE3GOYAAAAJ&hl=en Anthony Zee on Google Scholar]
• {{cite web|title=Quantum Field Theory, Anthony Zee {{!}} Lecture 1 of 4|date=7 December 2013|publisher=aoflex|website=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AZdvtf6hPU}} (lectures given in 2004)
• {{cite web|title=Quantum Field Theory, Anthony Zee {{!}} Lecture 2 of 4|date=7 December 2013|publisher=aoflex|website=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aypGTsLN0ck}}
• {{cite web|title=Quantum Field Theory, Anthony Zee {{!}} Lecture 3 of 4|date=7 December 2013|publisher=aoflex|website=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GGnM_lERcg}}
• {{cite web|title=Quantum Field Theory, Anthony Zee {{!}} Lecture 4 of 4|date=7 December 2013|publisher=aoflex|website=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9KrFwvWyR8}}
• {{cite web|title=A Brief Introduction to General Relativity - with Anthony Zee|date=27 August 2020|publisher=The Royal Institution|website=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_z5hGspgTM |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/v_z5hGspgTM |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}
• {{cite web|author=Zee, Anthony|title=Quantum Theory in a Nutshell|publisher=CUPS - Cambridge University Physics Society|date=14 October 2020|website=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT1pM0aQ4AY |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/jT1pM0aQ4AY |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}

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Category:Living people

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:University of California, Santa Barbara faculty

Category:21st-century American physicists

Category:American particle physicists

Category:1945 births

Category:Princeton University alumni

Category:Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars

Category:American people of Chinese descent

Category:People from Kunming

Category:Scientists from Yunnan

Category:Sloan Research Fellows

Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society

Category:American scientists of Asian descent