Initially pursuing economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he left the program after one semester. Drawn increasingly toward mathematical physics, he enrolled at Princeton University in 1973 to study applied mathematics. He earned his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton in 1976 under the supervision of David Gross, marking the beginning of his illustrious academic career.

Academic and Research Career

Following the completion of his doctorate, Witten held a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University from 1976 to 1977. He then spent time at Oxford University and continued his association with Harvard toward the end of the 1970s. His affiliations with various prestigious institutions helped him build a reputation as one of the leading theoretical physicists of his generation.

In 1981, Witten made a significant breakthrough by contributing to a mathematical proof of the positive energy theorem in general relativity, a landmark result that confirmed the stability of spacetime in Einstein's theory. His later work in the late 1980s introduced the concept of topological quantum field theory, providing new methodologies to examine both physical phenomena and mathematical structures such as knot theory and 3-manifolds.