Roberto Daniele Peccei is Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California Los Angeles, a position he has held since October, 2000. He is a particle theorist whose principal interests lie in the area of electroweak interactions and in the interface between particle physics

Particle physics

Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the existence and interactions of particles that are the constituents of what is usually referred to as matter or radiation. In current understanding, particles are excitations of quantum fields and interact following their dynamics...

 and physical cosmology

Physical cosmology

Physical cosmology, as a branch of astronomy, is the study of the largest-scale structures and dynamics of the universe and is concerned with fundamental questions about its formation and evolution. For most of human history, it was a branch of metaphysics and religion...

.

Peccei was born in 1942 in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, completed his secondary school in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, and came to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1958 to pursue his university studies in physics. He obtained a B.S. from MIT in 1962, and M.S. from New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

 (NYU) in 1964 and a Ph.D. from MIT in 1969. After a brief period of postdoctoral work at the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

, he joined the faculty of Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 in 1971, where (with Helen Quinn

Helen Quinn

Helen Rhoda Quinn is an Australian-born particle physicist. She went to school in Victoria, Australia and entered college at the University of Melbourne before moving to the USA and transferring to Stanford University. She received her Ph.D. from Stanford in 1967, at a time when less than 2% of...

) he originated Peccei-Quinn theory

Peccei-Quinn theory

In particle physics, the Peccei–Quinn theory is the best known proposal for the resolution of the strong CP problem. The theory proposes that the QCD Lagrangian be extended with a CP-violating term known as the θ parameter...

, still the most famous proposed solution to the strong CP problem. In 1978, he returned to Europe as a staff member of the Max Planck Institute in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. He joined the Deutsches Elektron Synchrotron (DESY

DESY

The DESY is the biggest German research center for particle physics, with sites in Hamburg and Zeuthen....

) Laboratory in Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

, Germany, as the Head of the Theoretical Group in 1984. He returned to the United States in 1989, joining the faculty of the Department of Physics at UCLA. Soon thereafter, he became Chair of the Department, a position he held until becoming Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences of the College of Letters and Sciences in November, 1993.

Peccei is currently on the Editorial Board of Nuclear Physics B Supplement, and the Journal of Physics G. He is a member of the Club of Rome

Club of Rome

The Club of Rome is a global think tank that deals with a variety of international political issues. Founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, Italy, the CoR describes itself as "a group of world citizens, sharing a common concern for the future of humanity." It consists of current and...

 and President of the Fondazione Aurelio Peccei and is a Fellow of both the American Physical Society

American Physical Society

The American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...

 and the Institute of Physics

Institute of Physics

The Institute of Physics is a scientific charity devoted to increasing the practice, understanding and application of physics. It has a worldwide membership of around 40,000....

 in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. In the last 15 years, he has served on numerous advisory boards both in Europe and in the U.S. He currently chairs both the Scientific Advisory Board for the Laboratory for Nuclear Science at Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 and the Visiting Committee for the Laboratory of Nuclear Science at MIT. He is also a member of the Visiting Committee for the Department of Physics at MIT and is the Convener of the Vice Chancellor for Research Council in the University of California.

Roberto D. Peccei is the son of the Founder of the Club of Rome, Aurelio Peccei

Aurelio Peccei

Aurelio Peccei was an Italian scholar and industrialist, best known as the founder and first president of the Club of Rome.- Early life :...

.