Frank Wilczek, Nobel physics laureate, wins Templeton Prize

Frank Wilczek, the Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist and author renowned for his boundary-pushing investigations into the fundamental laws of nature, has been honoured with this year’s prestigious Templeton Prize.

The prize is awarded to individuals whose life’s work embodies a fusion of science and spirituality.

In a statement on Wednesday, the John Templeton Foundation praised the 70-year-old Wilczek for transforming “our understanding of the forces that govern our universe,” while also applying “the insights of his field to the great questions of meaning and purpose pondered by generations of religious thinkers.”

Distinguished achievements

Established in 1972 by the late philanthropist Sir John Templeton, the prize is one of the world’s most lucrative individual awards, currently more than $1.3 million. 

Past winners include Jane Goodall, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

“It’s a company I’m very glad to join," Wilczek told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of the announcement.

“It’s encouragement in a direction that I’ve really only taken up in a big way quite recently, although I’ve been building up to it for many years,” he said, “which is thinking about not just what the world is and how it came to be this way but what we should do about it.”

Over a long career, Wilczek has recorded many distinguished achievements. That includes the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics, along with David J Gross, and H David Politzer, for their 1973 breakthrough explaining the unusual properties of the strong force, which binds fundamental particles known as quarks into protons and neutrons.

Wilczek has continued “to pioneer new concepts in physics, naming and developing the theories of anyons, time crystals, and axions, each of which now defines major fields of inquiry,” the Templeton statement said.

He has also authored several books that are informed by science but delve into the spiritual and philosophical. 

They include “ A Beautiful Question,” in which he asks, “Does the universe embody beautiful ideas?”; “ The Lightness of Being,” an examination of what humans are made of; and “ Fundamentals,” an exploration of radical life extension, the longing for immortality, the limits of science and other topics.

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