Iain Stewart

Iain Stewart is a Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), School of Science, Department of Physics, specializing in theoretical particle physics with significant contributions to quantum chromodynamics and collider physics.

His research focuses on the strong nuclear force interactions of quarks and gluons, where he co-invented soft collinear effective field theory (SCET)—a foundational framework for analyzing jet production in high-energy collisions at facilities like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Stewart established critical factorization theorems enabling precise interpretation of collision data, directly impacting Higgs boson discovery efforts, CP violation studies in B-meson decays, and searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. His methodologies bridge theoretical advancements with experimental particle physics.

Funded by the Simons Foundation's Mathematics and Physical Sciences program, Stewart's work exemplifies interdisciplinary collaboration between theoretical innovation and experimental validation in fundamental physics research.