The Albert Einstein Society has selected Stanley Deser, the Ancell Professor of Physics, Emeritus, along with Charles Misner of the University of Maryland, to receive the prestigious Einstein Medal for their work on Einstein’s theory of general relativity, according to a Jan. 14 BrandeisNOW press release. 

The awards ceremony is set to take place in Bern, Switzerland in May. The medal is awarded to “deserving individuals for outstanding scientific findings, works, or publications related to Albert Einstein,” according to the Einstein House and Albert Einstein Society website. 

Deser collaborated with Misner and the late Richard Arnowitt on a model of thinking about general relativity shortly after he joined Brandeis in 1958. Deser taught at the University for 50 years. 

The ADM (Arnowitt, Deser, Misner) Formalism, which they published in 1959, paved the way for much of the modern study of general relativity, reconciling it with field theory and providing a framework for later computer models that would contribute to the study of Einstein’s theory, according to the press release. 

“It is a particular honor to receive this prize on the centennial of general relativity,” Deser told BrandeisNOW. “Scientists have an ambivalent relationship towards prizes, but I must admit to being gratified about this one.”

Other Einstein Medal recipients include Stephen Hawking (the first honoree), Edward Witten ’71, and several Nobel laureates.

—Tate Herbert