American Philosophical Society
Member History

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Residency
Resident (1)
Subdivision
106. Physics (1)
1Name:  Dr. Leo P. Kadanoff
 Institution:  University of Chicago
 Year Elected:  1997
 Class:  1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences
 Subdivision:  106. Physics
 Residency:  Resident
 Living? :   Deceased
 Birth Date:  1937
 Death Date:  October 26, 2015
   
 
Leo Kadanoff received a Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1960. He was a resident Fellow at the Bohr Institute of Theoretical Studies in Copenhagen from 1960-62. He was a professor of physics at the University of Illinois for seven years, then moved to Brown University as University Professor of Physics and professor of engineering. In 1978 he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago where he served as director of the University of Chicago Materials Research Laboratory for six years. He was the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Physics and Mathematics. Leo Kadanoff was the major figure in developing the scaling theory of thermodynamic phase transitions, following from M. E. Fisher's analysis of experimental data and foreshadowing K. G. Wilson's explicit mathematical expression of the scaling idea. Dr. Kadanoff in his early work was also one of the originators of the application of quantum field theory to many-body theory, and he had been the national leader in the study of complex non-linear systems, specializing in turbulence and in simulation studies of complex dynamic systems. He was among the world's most widely respected condensed matter physicists. He is the author of Electricity Magnetism and Heat, 1967, and co-author of Quantum Statistical Mechanics, 1963. Among his many honors, he has received the Buckley Prize and Onsager Prize from the American Physical Society, the Boltzmann Medal from the International Union of Pure & Applied Physics, the Wolf Foundation Award, the Grande Madaille d'Or from the Académie des Sciences de l'Institut de France, and in 2000 he received the National Medal of Science. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1997. Leo Kadanoff died October 26, 2015, at age 78, in Chicago, Illinois.
 
Election Year
1997 (1)