John Cardy

``In 1992, John Cardy, a physicist at the University of Oxford, used this insight to achieve one of percolation theory’s big goals: a precise formula that calculates the crossing probabilities of the scaling limits of two-dimensional lattices near the critical point. The only problem was that although his physical arguments were persuasive, neither he nor anyone else could turn that physical intuition into a mathematical proof.''

Taken from the Fields Medal work profile of Stanislav Smirnov.

I met John at UCSB, when he was a postdoc to my advisor Robert L. Sugar, in the mid 70s. I knew I had met somebody really smart.

New Scientist piece on the Fields, here.