| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Leo Esaki | | | Institution: | Tsukuba International Congress Center & University of Tsukuba | | | Year Elected: | 1991 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 106. Physics | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1925 | | | | | | |
Born in Osaka, Japan, physicist Leo Esaki has made many fundamental contributions pertaining to the physics of semiconductor materials. In his early work he demonstrated electron tunnelling in special semiconductor structures, which became known as tunnel or Esaki diodes. This work earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973. In 1960 Dr. Esaki joined the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, and became an IBM Fellow in 1967. More recently he helped establish the field of superlattice physics, creating a new class of artificial materials which display remarkable electronic properties. Known for his technical leadership and accomplishments, Dr. Esaki also possesses a strong interest in the interaction of science with societal issues on an international scale. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the National Academy of Science and the Japan Academy. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 1959 and has been awarded the Japanese Government Order of Culture and the American Physical Society's International Prize for New Material, among other honors. | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. Anthony J. Leggett | | | Institution: | University of Illinois | | | Year Elected: | 1991 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 106. Physics | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1938 | | | | | | |
Anthony J. Leggett is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor and Center for Advanced Study Professor of Physics. He has been a faculty member at the University of Illinois since 1983 and in 2020 donated his papers to the University of Illinois Archives. He is widely recognized as a world leader in the theory of low-temperature physics, and his pioneering work on superfluidity was recognized by the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the Russian Academy of Sciences (foreign member) and is a Fellow of the Royal Society (U.K.), the American Physical Society and the American Institute of Physics. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics (U.K.) and was knighted (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005 "for services to physics." Professor Leggett has shaped the theoretical understanding of normal and superfluid helium liquids and other strongly coupled superfluids. He set directions for research in the quantum physics of macroscopic dissipative systems and use of condensed systems to test the foundations of quantum mechanics. His research interests lie mainly within the fields of theoretical condensed matter physics and the foundations of quantum mechanics. He has been particularly interested in the possibility of using special condensed-matter systems, such as Josephson devices, to test the validity of the extrapolation of the quantum formalism to the macroscopic level; this interest has led to a considerable amount of technical work on the application of quantum mechanics to collective variables and in particular on ways of incorporating dissipation into the calculations. He is also interested in the theory of superfluid liquid 3He, especially under extreme nonequilibrium conditions, in high-temperature superconductivity, and in the newly realized system of Bose-condensed atomic gases. | |
| 3 | Name: | Dr. Philip W. Anderson | | | Institution: | Princeton University | | | Year Elected: | 1991 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 106. Physics | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1923 | | | Death Date: | March 29, 2020 | | | | | | |
One of the giants of the theory of condensed matter physics, Philip W. Anderson was born in Indiana in 1923. He went to Harvard University for his undergraduate and graduate work, where he studied under John Hausbrouck van Vleck. In 35 years as a physicist at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, Dr. Anderson worked on a wide variety of problems in condensed matter physics. He was awarded the 1977 Nobel Prize for his investigations into the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems, which allowed for the development of electronic switching and memory devices in computers. Dr. Anderson was a pioneer in the study of "Anderson localization" of electrons in disordered solids, the transitions between metallic and insulating states, and the concept of spin glasses. A theorist who always maintained close contact with experimentalists, he ranged from physics, through chemistry, to biology. Dr. Anderson was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1982. He served as Joseph Henry Professor of Physics at Princeton University. Philip W. Anderson died March 29, 2020 in Princeton, New Jersey at the age of 96. | |
| |