Research Areas:
Theoretical Particle Physics, Cosmology

Before joining HKUST as the Director of IAS between 2011 and 2016, Prof. Henry Tye was the Horace White Professor of Physics at Cornell University. He was an IAS Professor and Chair Professor of Physics until December 2019. Prof. Tye’s research interest is in theoretical particle physics and cosmology. He studies the structure of matter at the sub-atomic level and the fundamental forces in nature. In cosmology, he studies the origin of our universe as well as the properties of today’s universe. He applies superstring theory to link the smallest to the biggest. With the advance of modern science and technology, a number of predictions he made in cosmology may be tested via observation in the near future.

Prof. Tye was born in Shanghai and raised in Hong Kong. He graduated from California Institute of Technology in 1970 and received his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1974. He did research at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford University and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory before moving to Cornell in 1978, where he stayed until last year. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.