Thomas Appelquist

Thomas William Appelquist is a theoretical particle physicist who serves as the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics at Yale University. He earned his bachelor's degree from Illinois Benedictine College and his Ph.D. in 1968 from Cornell University, where he studied under Donald R. Yennie. After completing postdoctoral work at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, he joined Harvard University as faculty before moving to Yale in 1975, where he was appointed professor of physics in 1976.

Appelquist has held several significant leadership roles at Yale, including chair of the physics department from 1983 to 1989 and director of the division of physical sciences and engineering from 1990 to 1993. He was named Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics in 1991 and served as dean of Yale's graduate school until 1998. Beyond Yale, he has been a prominent figure in physics leadership, serving as President of the Aspen Center for Physics from 1993 to 1996 and Chair of its Board from 2001 to 2006. He also chaired the Science Council at the Jefferson National Laboratory from 2007 to 2017.

Appelquist has received numerous honors, including election as a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1984 and the J.J. Sakurai Prize in 1997 for his work on charmonium and heavy particle decoupling. He has contributed to various national science advisory committees and played key roles in initiatives like the Superconducting Supercollider project. His research focuses on elementary particle theory, particularly strong interactions and electroweak unification.