David Simmons-Duffin Receives DOE Early Career Grant

David Simmons-Duffin, assistant professor of theoretical physics, has been selected to receive The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science's Early Career Research Program funding. Simmons-Duffin is among 84 scientists selected nationwide to receive grants of at least $150,000 per year.

Simmons-Duffin's award will fund a project titled "Precision Computations in Strongly Coupled Conformal Field Theories" in the field of high-energy physics. A graduate of Harvard University, Simmons-Duffin became an assistant professor at Caltech in 2017.

The Early Career Research Program was created to "bolster the nation's scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the crucial early career years, when many scientists do their most formative work," according to an announcement from the DOE. To be eligible for the award, a researcher must either be untenured, a tenure-track assistant or associate professor at a U.S. academic institution, or a full-time employee at a DOE national laboratory who received a PhD within the past 10 years.

The program is now in its ninth year. Previous awardees from Caltech include Clifford Cheung in 2013; Guillaume Blanquart, Julia Greer, Chris Hirata, and Ryan Patterson in 2011; and Victoria Orphan in 2010.