Departmental homepageDr Peter Goddard obtained his PhD from Trinity College, Cambridge, followed by a Research Fellowship at CERN, Geneva, and two years as a lecturer at the University of Durham. Returning to Cambridge in 1975, he joined the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and became a Fellow and Lecturer of St John's College, serving as a Tutor and Senior Tutor in the 1980s. He was the first Deputy Director of the Newton Institute and played a leading role in the creation of the Centre for Mathematical Sciences. He stepped down from his Professorship of Theoretical Physics in 1994 to become Master of the College for the next ten years. From 2002 to 2003, he was President of the London Mathematical Society. From 2004 to 2012, he served as Director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, of which he is now an emeritus professor.
Dr Goddard taught Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics in the College from 1975 to 2003.
Dr Goddard’s research has been mainly concerned with string theory and quantum field theory, particularly conformal field theory. With collaborators, he established the 'no ghost' theorem of string theory, the quantisation of the relativistic string, quantisation conditions for generalised magnetic monopoles and the coset construction in conformal field theory. Currently he is working on a book, An Introduction to Conformal Field Theory, with Matthias Gaberdiel.
