Linde, Andrei

Andrei is Professor of Physics at Stanford University. He is one of the authors of "inflationary cosmology," the startling explanation of how the universe began and the global structure of the universe (which has become the standard paradigm of modern cosmology). Andrei’s theory of “eternal chaotic inflation,” which suggests that our universe is one of many inflationary universes that sprout from an eternal cosmic tree, would generate a self-reproducing inflationary universe. In 1983 he proposed the chaotic inflationary universe scenario, and in 1986, the theory of a self-reproducing inflationary universe. The model of hybrid inflation which he developed in 1991-1994 became one of the most popular inflationary models in the context of supergravity and string cosmology. In 2003 he together with Kachru, Kallosh and Trivedi developed the first mechanism of vacuum stabilization in string theory. It serves as a basis for all recent attempts to construct realistic models of elementary particle physics, inflationary cosmology and the theory of dark energy based on string theory. At present he continues his work on inflation, creation of matter in the universe, the theory of dark energy, and cosmological consequences of string theory. He is an author of more than 220 papers on particle physics, phase transitions and cosmology and his work continues to focus on inflation and quantum cosmology and various implications of inflationary cosmology for elementary particle theory and for the theory of the large-scale structure of the universe. Developed initially while he was still in Russia, inflation is one of the most remarkable theories in the history of science, dramatically expanding our sense of reality beyond all comprehension. Andrei has been awarded many prizes for his work.