Alan Sokal

Alan Sokal
Sokal in 2011
Born	(1955-01-24) January 24, 1955 (age 70) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Education	Harvard University (BA) Princeton University (PhD)
Known for	Sokal Affair
Scientific career
Fields	Physics, mathematics, philosophy of science
Institutions	New York University National Autonomous University of Nicaragua University College London
Thesis	An Alternate Constructive Approach to the φ4 3 Quantum Field Theory, and a Possible Destructive Approach to φ4 4  (1981)
Doctoral advisor	Arthur Wightman

Alan David Sokal (/ˈsoʊkəl/ SOH-kəl; born January 24, 1955) is an American professor of mathematics at University College London and professor emeritus of physics at New York University. He works with statistical mechanics and combinatorics.

Sokal is a critic of postmodernism, and caused the Sokal affair in 1996 when his deliberately nonsensical paper was published by Duke University Press's Social Text. He also co-authored a paper criticizing the critical positivity ratio concept in positive psychology.