Leopoldo Pando Zayas

Leopoldo Avelino Pando Zayas grew up in Cuba.  In 1989, when he was a high school student, he won the Silver Medal in the International Physics Olympiad, which took place that year in Warsaw, Poland.[2]

Pando Zayas received his M.S. degree in physics in 1995, and his PhD in 1998, both from Moscow State University in Russia.[1]  He has held visiting appointments at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey;[3] the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara; and, as a staff associate, at the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy.[4] 

Pando Zayas specializes in string theory with a focus on quantum gravity.   He has published many articles on the gauge/gravity correspondence and has applied these techniques to the study of the dynamics of superconductors and strongly interacting fluids.[1][3][4]  His work has also elucidated the microscopic origin of the thermodynamics of black holes.[5]

Pando Zayas translated a two-volume textbook on applications and methods in modern geometry, by B.A. Dubrovin, A.T. Fomenko, and S.P. Nóvikov, from Russian into Spanish.  This book appeared as Geometría moderna: métodos y aplicationes (Moscow, 2000).[6]