American Philosophical Society
Member History

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Residency
Resident (1)
Subdivision
106. Physics (1)
1Name:  Dr. Kenneth G. Wilson
 Institution:  Ohio State University
 Year Elected:  1984
 Class:  1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences
 Subdivision:  106. Physics
 Residency:  Resident
 Living? :   Deceased
 Birth Date:  1936
 Death Date:  June 15, 2013
   
 
Kenneth Wilson was born in 1936 in Waltham, Massachusetts, the son of a very distinguished chemist who taught at Harvard University throughout his career. Dr. Wilson was an undergraduate at Harvard College and obtained his doctorate in 1961 from the California Institute of Technology, where he was a student of Murray Gell-Mann. He was then a Junior Fellow in Harvard's Society of Fellows before joining Cornell University's Department of Physics in 1963. He held a professorship there beginning in 1970 and became the James A. Weeks Chair in Physical Sciences in 1974. Dr. Wilson became the Director of the Center for Theory and Simulation in Science and Engineering (Cornell Theory Center) - one of five national supercomputer centers created by the National Science Foundation - in 1985. In 1988 he moved to The Ohio State University's Department of Physics, where he became the Hazel C. Youngberg Trustees Distinguished Professor. From 1991-96 he was co-principal investigator on Ohio's Project Discovery, one of the National Science Foundation's Statewide Systemic Initiatives. Dr. Wilson co-directed Learning by Redesign. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1975. In 1980 he shared Israel's Wolf Prize in Physics with Michael Fisher and Leo Kadanoff. The ultimate recognition of his achievements in physics came with his 1982 award of the Nobel Prize in Physics, presented for discoveries he made in understanding how bulk matter undergoes "phase transition", i.e. sudden and profound structural changes resulting from variations in environmental conditions. Dr. Wilson's background prior to educational reform ranged from elementary particle theory and condensed matter physics (critical phenomena and the Kondo problem) to quantum chemistry and computer science. He also helped to popularize C++ among theoretical physicists. He became emeritus from Ohio State University in 2006 and moved to Gray, Maine. He died June 15, 2013, at the age of 77.
 
Election Year
1984 (1)