Class
| • | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | [X] |
| | 621 | Name: | Dr. Benjamin Widom | | | Institution: | Cornell University | | | Year Elected: | 1993 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1927 | | | | | | |
Chemist Benjamin Widom is known for his theoretical contributions to the thermodynamics and statistical mechanics of liquids (including complex liquids such as microemulsions and polymer solutions), of phase transitions and critical phenomena, and of interfaces. Currently Goldwin Smith Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at Cornell University, he received his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1953, after which time he joined the university faculty as an instructor in chemistry. He became a full professor in 1963 and chaired the chemistry department from 1978-81. Dr. Widom was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1974 and of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1979. In 1998 he was awarded the prestigious Boltzmann Medal "for his illuminating studies of the statistical mechanics of fluids and fluid mixtures and their interfacial properties, especially his clear and general formulation of scaling hypotheses for the equation of state and surface tensions of fluids near critical points." | |
| 622 | Name: | Dr. Theodor Wieland | | | Institution: | Max Planck Institute for Medical Research | | | Year Elected: | 1979 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1913 | | | Death Date: | 11/24/95 | | | | |
| 623 | Name: | Dr. Jerome B. Wiesner | | | Institution: | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | | | Year Elected: | 1969 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 103. Engineering | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1915 | | | Death Date: | 10/21/94 | | | | |
| 624 | Name: | Dr. Eugene P. Wigner | | | Institution: | Princeton University | | | Year Elected: | 1944 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 106. Physics | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1902 | | | Death Date: | 1/1/95 | | | | |
| 625 | Name: | Dr. Frank Wilczek | | | Institution: | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | | | Year Elected: | 2005 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 106. Physics | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1951 | | | | | | |
Frank Wilczek is considered one of the world's most original and productive theoretical physicists. At the age of 21, with David Gross, he developed the theoretical framework for what was to become Quantum Chromodynamics, the theory of the forces that bind quarks and gluons together to form particles such as the proton. It was for this work that he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in physics. In addition to his technical contributions he has frequently published articles for other physicists explaining the subtleties of complicated theories, as well as numerous articles for the lay person. Dr. Wilczek received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1974 and taught there until 1981 when he moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study from 1989-2000, and since 2000 he has served as the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2014 he was honored with the Award for Essays from the Gravity Research Foundation. | |
| 626 | Name: | Dr. J. Paul Wild | | | Institution: | CSIRO Australia | | | Year Elected: | 1962 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1923 | | | Death Date: | May 10, 2008 | | | | | | |
Australian radio astronomer J. Paul Wild was the first person to recognize the true nature of radio noise originating in solar disturbances. An ingenious experimentalist and excellent interpreter of observational data, he was affiliated with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization for over sixty years, serving as chairman (1978-85), chief of the division of radiophysics (1971-77) and chief research officer in charge of solar research (1961-71). He held an M.A. degree from Cambridge, was awarded the 1984 ANZAAS Medal and was a foreign member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The Paul Wild Observatory in Narrabri, New South Wales, Australia is named in his honor. Dr. Wild died on May 10, 2008, in Australia, at the age of 85. | |
| 627 | Name: | Samuel S. Wilks | | | Year Elected: | 1948 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1906 | | | Death Date: | 3/7/64 | | | | |
| 628 | Name: | Robert R. Williams | | | Year Elected: | 1942 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1886 | | | Death Date: | 10/2/65 | | | | |
| 629 | Name: | Harold A. Wilson | | | Year Elected: | 1914 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1874 | | | Death Date: | 10/13/64 | | | | |
| 630 | Name: | Dr. Edgar Bright Wilson | | | Institution: | Harvard University | | | Year Elected: | 1946 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1908 | | | Death Date: | 7/12/92 | | | | |
| 631 | Name: | Dr. Robert R. Wilson | | | Institution: | Cornell University | | | Year Elected: | 1969 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 106. Physics | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1914 | | | Death Date: | January 18, 2000 | | | | |
| 632 | Name: | Dr. J. Tuzo Wilson | | | Institution: | University of Toronto | | | Year Elected: | 1971 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 105. Physical Earth Sciences | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1908 | | | Death Date: | 4/15/93 | | | | |
| 633 | Name: | 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. | |
| 634 | Name: | Sir Robert Wilson | | | Institution: | University College of London | | | Year Elected: | 1996 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1938 | | | Death Date: | September 2, 2002 | | | | |
| 635 | Name: | Dr. Robert W. Wilson | | | Institution: | Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory | | | Year Elected: | 2009 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1936 | | | | | | |
Robert W. Wilson is a Senior Scientist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge Massachusetts. He is technical leader of the Sub-Millimeter Array, an 8 element synthesis radio telescope built by SAO in conjunction with ASIAA near the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii.
From 1977 until 1994 Dr. Wilson was Head of the Wireless Technology Research Department (formerly Radio Physics Research Dept.) of Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, N.J. The Wireless Technology Research Department did applied research on wireless access: components and subsystems, new applications of simple inexpensive systems, and design and architectures which support higher levels of integration. In its former incarnation, the Radio Physics Research Department did research on microwave and millimeter-wave semiconductor devices and components as well as radio astronomy at those wavelengths.
Dr. Wilson received a B.A. "With Honors in Physics" from Rice University in 1957 and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1962. After a year at the Caltech Owens Valley Radio Observatory as a postdoctoral fellow, he joined Bell Laboratories as a member of technical staff.
His early work was in the fields of Galactic radio astronomy and precision measurement of radio source strengths. He is best known for his part in the discovery in 1964 of the 3~K cosmic black body background radiation, thought to have originated in the early stages of the expansion of the universe. In 1970 he and his co-workers extended radio spectroscopy of the interstellar medium to short millimeter wavelengths where they discovered a number of interstellar molecules including Carbon Monoxide. His work in the resulting field of molecular cloud astronomy has been concentrated on the structure of nearby molecular clouds with interpretations based on observations of several molecular species in each region. He has also applied astronomical techniques to the measurement of earth-space propagation for satellite communication at centimeter and infrared wavelengths and made infrared propagation measurements along a terrestrial path. His most recent work at Bell Labs was in wireless communications and optical networking and resulted in a number of patents.
He is a co-recipient of the Henry Draper Medal from the U.S. National Academy of Science and the Herschel Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society, London and the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics.
He is a member of the American Astronomical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Astronomical Union, the International Union of Radio Science, the American Physical Society, the National Academy of Sciences, The American Philosophical Society, and was a member of the 1990 Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee (Bahcall Committee). | |
| 636 | Name: | Dr. Shmuel Winograd | | | Institution: | IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center | | | Year Elected: | 1989 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 104. Mathematics | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1936 | | | Death Date: | March 25, 2019 | | | | | | |
One of the chief founders of the field of mathematics known as Computational Complexity, Shmuel Winograd joined IBM as a research staff member in 1961 and went on to direct the company's mathematical sciences department from 1970-74 and 1980-94. He was an IBM Fellow in the IBM Research Division of the Thomas J. Watson Research Center. Noted for his work on fast algorithms for arithmetic, particularly the Coppersmith-Winograd algorithm, he received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in electrical engineering from MIT in 1959 and his Ph.D. in mathematics from NYU in 1968. Dr. Winograd is credited with answering a fundamental question of computational theory: how many logical steps are required to add or multiply numbers. In an elegant and completely general solution, he answered these key questions for any method of representing numbers and for any kind of circuit design. This work gave computer designers their first analytical tool for determining the ultimate speed of a given technology and also showed, contrary to widely held beliefs, that multiplication could be performed faster than addition. Continuing this work, Dr. Winograd went on to obtain very good estimates on the smallest number of arithmetic operations needed to do certain very frequently used mathematical computations. Dr. Winograd was a fellow of the IEEE and ACM and a member of SIAM, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. | |
| 637 | Name: | Dr. Edward Witten | | | Institution: | Institute for Advanced Study | | | Year Elected: | 1993 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 106. Physics | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1951 | | | | | | |
Edward Witten received a Ph.D. at Princeton University in 1976. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University in 1977 and a Junior Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows, from 1977-80. He was professor of physics at Princeton University from 1980-87 before joining the Institute for Advanced Study as a professor in the School of Natural Sciences in 1987. He also served for two years as a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology. Edward Witten's recent research is at the interface of elementary particle physics and geometry. He has revolutionized the study of three and four dimensional spaces, using insights from quantum mechanics. Invariants of knots in three space, obtained from quantum field theory, is a noteworthy example. He made important contributions to the quantization of gauge theories and is a world leader in developing string theory. Understanding the geometric concepts in terms of which string theory should be formulated is his main goal. Dr. Witten is a brilliant lecturer and an inspiration to a new generation of mathematical physicists. He was a MacArthur Fellowship recipient in 1982 and has also been honored with the Einstein Medal of the Einstein Society of Bern, Switzerland (1985); the Dirac Medal of the International Center for Theoretical Physics (1986); the Alan T. Waterman Award of the National Science Foundation (1986); the Fields Medal of the International Union of Mathematicians (1990); the Klein Medal from Stockholm University (1998); the Dannie Heineman Prize from the American Institute of Physics (1998); the Nemmers Prize in Mathematics from Northwestern University (2000); the Clay Research Award (2001); The Isaac Newton Medal of the Institute of Physics (2010); the Lorentz Medal of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2010); the Solomon Lefschetz Medal by the Mathematical Society of Mexico (2011), the inaugural Fundamental Physics Prize established by Yuri Milner (2012), the Kyoto Prize (2014), and the Albert Einstein World Award of Science (2016). He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1993. | |
| 638 | Name: | Dr. M. Gordon Wolman | | | Institution: | Johns Hopkins University | | | Year Elected: | 1999 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 105. Physical Earth Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1924 | | | Death Date: | February 24, 2010 | | | | | | |
M. Gordon Wolman is the B. Howell Griswold, Jr. Professor of Geography and International Affairs at The Johns Hopkins University. A native of Baltimore, Dr. Wolman was educated at Johns Hopkins (B.A., 1949) and Harvard University (Ph.D., 1953) and has taught at Johns Hopkins since 1962, prior to which he worked for the U.S. Geological Survey. Dr. Wolman's research has focused on human activities and their interactions with the natural processes impacting the earth's surface, specifically, the control of quantity and quality of streamflow and the behavior of rivers. His studies of environmental processes have involved him in work on environmental policies dealing with water, land and energy resources. Dr. Wolman's work has been recognized with many awards including the Cullman Geography Medal of the American Geography Society, the Rachel Carson Award, the Ian Campbell Medal of the American Geological Institute, the Penrose Medal of the Geological Society of America and the Horton Medal of the American Geophysical Union. A past president of the Geological Society of America, Dr. Wolman was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1988 and the National Academy of Engineering in 2002. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1999. | |
| 639 | Name: | Dr. Peter Guy Wolynes | | | Institution: | Rice University | | | Year Elected: | 2006 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1953 | | | | | | |
Peter G. Wolynes was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1953. He completed his undergraduate studies at Indiana University, receiving an A.B. degree in 1971. He then took up the study of statistical mechanics at Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. in chemical physics in 1976. After a brief postdoctoral study with John Deutch at MIT, Dr. Wolynes returned to Harvard as an assistant professor in 1976. During the next four years at Harvard, Dr. Wolynes worked on the dynamical theory of electrolyte solutions, as well as on the then-nascent theoretical study of molecular dynamics of proteins. His early work on the theory of chemical reaction rates in condensed phases paved the way for the explosion of theoretical developments in this area throughout the 1980s. In 1980 Dr. Wolynes moved to the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he progressed to be the Eiszner Professor of Chemistry and a Center for Advanced Study Professor of Chemistry, Physics and Biophysics. During the years he spent at Illinois, Dr. Wolynes worked on a wide range of theoretical problems in chemical physics, including the theory of the glass transition and the development of new techniques for studying quantum dynamics in condensed phases. He developed, in 1981, the quantum mechanical version of Kramers' celebrated 1940 theory of chemical reaction rates in solution. In addition, Dr. Wolynes provided a new picture of how energy flows quantum mechanically in moderate-sized molecules. Dr. Wolynes' interest in applying statistical mechanics to biology grew while he was at Illinois. He introduced energy landscape ideas to the field of protein folding, providing a statistical mechanical framework to understand how a one-dimensional sequence of amino acids folds to its native structure on a biologically relevant time-scale. These ideas have led to what has been termed the "New View" of protein folding kinetics. Energy landscapes have also proved useful in developing algorithms to predict protein structure from sequence. Dr. Wolynes' scientific contributions have been acknowledged in many ways. He received the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry in 1986, the Fresenius Award in 1988, the Peter Debye Award for Physical Chemistry in 2000 and the Biological Physics Prize of the American Physical Society in 2004. Among other external appointments, he was the Hinshelwood lecturer at Oxford in 1997 and Fogarty Scholar-in-Residence at the National Institutes of Health starting in 1994. He was elected in 1991 to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and in 2003 was elected a Fellow of the Biophysical Society. In 2000 Dr. Wolynes moved to University of California, San Diego, where he held the Francis Crick Chair in the Physical Sciences. In addition to continuing his work on many body chemical physics and protein folding he is now studying stochastic aspects of cell biology. In 2011, Dr. Wolynes moved to Rice University in Texas where he is the D.R. Bullard-Welch Foundation Professor of Science. | |
| 640 | Name: | Robert B. Woodward | | | Year Elected: | 1962 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1917 | | | Death Date: | 7/8/79 | | | | |
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