NOBEL PRIZE FOR PHYSICS

October 12, 1999
		Two Dutch physics professors, Gerardus 't Hooft and Martinus J.G.Veltman, were awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize for Physics for putting particle physics theories on a firmer mathematical foundation. -- Posted Tuesday, 5:20pm EDT

A Special Report on the 1999 Nobel Prizes Oct. 11, 1999: Dr. Günter Blobel wins the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Oct. 1, 1999: German author Günter Grass wins the Nobel Prize for Literature. Browse the NewsHour's coverage of Science and Health   The Nobel Foundation The Nobel Foundation's announcement of the 1999 Nobel Prize for Physics Gerard 't Hooft at the University of Utrecht Martinus Veltman at the University of Michigan

The research, which dates back to 1970, could lead the way to super-fast quantum computers which could do in days what would take thousands of years for modern computers. "This is the entire framework [particle physicists] use when calculating. We'll get finite answers. Earlier calculations only resulted in nonsense," said Lars Brink, a professor of Chalmers University of Technology Institute and a member of the academy. Veltman was a professor of physics at University of Utrecht and then at the University of Michigan before retiring. He is sharing the prize with 't Hooft, 53, who was his student for 30 years. The findings allow precise calculations of physical quantities, and were tested in accelerator laboratories in Europe and the U.S.. "We discovered a manual, a manual for making manuals," 't Hooft, told Reuters by telephone. Veltman and 't Hooft's research has raised some concern about the imminent ability for such advanced computers to break military codes. "To me, Nature is a big jigsaw puzzle, and I see it as my task to try to fit pieces of it together," 't Hooft writes on his University Web page. Both physicists remarked that their theory had little practical implications, despite the tremendous scientific implications. "The social benefit of my theory is absolutely nil -- you won't eat any more or less as a result," said Veltman. Veltman joked on Dutch television about the difficulty of explaining his work. "It is a difficult and abstract subject and something that I have never been able to explain to my wife and children," Veltman said. Nobel Prize Committee announced the award in Stockholm today "for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions in physics."