Sergio Ferrara was born on 2 May 1945 in Rome, Italy. He graduated from the University of Rome, obtaining in 1968 the Laurea Degree (the highest Degree that was awarded in Italy at the time). Since then he has worked as a CNEN and INFN researcher at the Frascati National Laboratories; as a CNRS Visiting Scientist at the Laboratoire de Physique Théorique, École Normale Supérieure, Paris, and at the Theory Division at CERN, Geneva. In 1980 he was nominated Full Professor of theoretical physics in Italy. He became a staff member of the Theory Division at CERN in 1981. In 1985, he became a Professor of Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Since 1986 he has been a senior staff member of the Physics Department at CERN. During the years 2010-2014 he has been a guest professor at CERN as Principal Investigator of the European Research Council Advanced Grant SUPERFIELDS.[3] He is currently a senior staff member, emeritus, at CERN.
In 1974, with Bruno Zumino, he formulated supersymmetric gauge theories, which opened the way to building supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics and exploring their consequences. This result was obtained independently by Abdus Salam and James Strathdee.
In 1976, Sergio Ferrara, Daniel Z. Freedman, and Peter van Nieuwenhuizen discovered supergravity at Stony Brook UniversityinNew York, specifically by describing pure 4D N = 1 supergravity. It was initially proposed as a four-dimensional theory. The theory of supergravity generalizes Einstein's general theory of relativity by incorporating the principles of supersymmetry. In 1982 Sergio together with E. Cremmer, L. Girardello, and A. Van Proeyen were the first to derived the full action of 4D N = 1 supergravity.[5][6]In 2019 the three were awarded a special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics of $3 million[7] for the discovery.
In 1995, with Renata Kallosh and Andrew Strominger, he formulated the theory of Black Hole attractors, a dynamical mechanism which determines the Bekenstein–Hawking entropy for extremal black holes in terms of their charges.[citation needed]
"For their discovery of supergravity theory in 1976 and their major contributions in the subsequent developments of the theory. Their discovery led to an explosion of interest in quantum gravity and it transformed the subject, playing a significant role in very important developments in string theory as well as Kaluza-Klein theory"
Honorary Laurea in Physics, 2005, from the University of Rome "Tor Vergata".
"For constructing supergravity, the first supersymmetric extension of Einstein's theory of general relativity, and for their central role in its subsequent development."
"He honoured Italian physics with his discoveries, substantially contributing to the discoveries leading to the development of modern gravity theories. For his contribution to the discovery of supergravity theory."
Amaldi medal, 2008, SIGRAV (Italian Society for General Relativity and Gravitational Physics),
"For his relevant contributions to supergravity models, their matter couplings and their implications for black hole physics, such as the attractor mechanism"
Avogadro Medal (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, February 2008)
Miller visiting professorship award (U.C. Berkeley, Fall 2008)
ERC Advanced Grant Award ”Superfields”, n.226455 (2008 call)
"For his contribution to fundamental aspects of supersymmetry that has been a very important achievement for our understanding of modern supergravity theories"
^Ferrara, S.; Zumino, B. (1974). "Supergauge invariant Yang-Mills theories". Nuclear Physics B. 79 (3): 413–421. doi:10.1016/0550-3213(74)90559-8.
^Freedman, Daniel Z.; van Nieuwenhuizen, P.; Ferrara, S. (1976-06-15). "Progress toward a theory of supergravity". Physical Review D. 13 (12): 3214–3218. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.13.3214. ISSN0556-2821.
