By George Foulsham

	Joseph Polchinski

The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, has awarded the 2008 Dirac Medal to Joseph Polchinski, a professor of physics at UC Santa Barbara and a permanent member of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics.

The medal is named for the British theoretical physicist Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, who made fundamental contributions to the early development of both quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics. It is given annually to scientists who have made significant contributions to the study of physics.

Polchinski is one of three scientists to share the 2008 award, which will be presented in Trieste in March 2009. Also receiving the Dirac Medal will be Juan M. Maldacena, of the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., and Cumrun Vafa, of Harvard University.

Polchinski, who was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2005, was stunned when he received news of the Dirac award. In fact, he wasn’t even aware that he had been nominated. “It’s completely unexpected,” he said during an interview in his office. “The more I learn about the award, the more I’m honored.”

Previous Dirac Medal winners include UCSB’s David Gross, who won the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics.