Ian Affleck has made many important contributions to theoretical and mathematical physics. He began his career in high energy theory (HEP), and has successfully applied many techniques from HEP to condensed matter. In particular, he has applied conformal field theory techniques to low dimensional magnetism, Kondo effects and quantum impurity problems. In doing so, he enjoys finding "mathematically elegant solutions" to problems. He is also a member of the CIFAR's Superconductivity Program and the Cosmology and Gravity Program.