City College of the City University of New York

Physics Department


- Professor (2019-Present)

- Associate Professor (2014-2019)

Durham University

Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology

- Senior Lecturer, equivalent to Associate Professor, Tenured (2014)

- Lecturer, equivalent to Assistant Professor, Tenured (2011-2014)

Stanford University

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory - Theoretical Physics Group


Postdoctoral Research Associate (original appointment: 2011-2014)


Position held from January to August 2012 while on leave from Durham University.

Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics

University of California, Santa Barbara

Postdoctoral Research Associate (2008-2011)

Princeton University

Department of Physics


Postdoctoral Research Associate (2005-2008)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ph.D. in Physics, 2005.

• String Theory (PhD), The Graduate Center of the CUNY
• V1100: Analytical Dynamics (Masters)
• Physics 55100: Quantum Physics I
• Physics 35100: Mechanics
• Physics 207

Prof. Franco’s main research interests are in theoretical high energy physics. More concretely, he works on String Theory and Quantum Field Theory. His work spans a broad range of topics, ranging from formal aspects of String Theory to new scenarios for physics beyond the Standard Model. He has made seminal contributions in various areas, most notably: String Phenomenology (he introduced Intersecting Braneworlds, which have become one of the most successful and thoroughly studied scenarios connecting String Theory to particle physics), the AdS/CFT correspondence (he discovered the first infinite families of explicit AdS/CFT pairs, drastically changing the status quo of the correspondence), the connection between geometry and quantum field theory in String Theory and particle physics model building (mainly in the context of supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model).

At present, a great part of Prof. Franco's research is devoted to charting the vast space of quantum field theories, exploiting string theory tools to determine their dynamics and uncovering new dualities.