Class
| • | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | [X] |
| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Ben R. Mottelson | | | Institution: | The Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen | | | Year Elected: | 2011 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 106. Physics | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1926 | | | Death Date: | May 13, 2022 | | | | | | |
Ben Mottelson is one of the giants of theoretical nuclear physics. With Aage Bohr, he discovered the connection between collective and single particle motion in atomic nuclei, thus establishing the modern framework for understanding the rich experimental behavior of nuclei. For this discovery, he, Bohr, and Rainwater received the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physics. The two volume study, Nuclear Structure, is the standard in the field. With Pines and Bohr, he pioneered the application of BCS theory of superconductivity to nuclei. He has been a major international figure, a founder and first director of the European Center for Nuclear Theory, and proponent of international cooperation - recognized by election to many nations’ scientific academies. He remains quite scientifically active, focusing on two new areas: man-made finite quantal systems (e.g., metallic clusters, quantum dots, and ultracold atomic clouds), which, as he has shown, can be fruitfully viewed as "artificial" nuclei; and reinterpretation of the foundations of quantum mechanics, where the central issue he grapples with is the role of fortuitousness in the theory. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1950 and was awarded the John Wetherill Medal in 1974. He is a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters (1958 - foreign, 1974 - (Danish), the National Academy of Sciences (1973), and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1971). He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2011. | |
| 2 | Name: | Sir Roger Penrose | | | Institution: | University of Oxford | | | Year Elected: | 2011 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 104. Mathematics | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1931 | | | | | | |
Roger Penrose has been producing original and important scientific ideas for half a century, having earned his Ph.D. from St. Johns College, Cambridge in 1957. His work is characterized by exceptional geometrical and physical insight. He applied new mathematical techniques to Einstein’s general relativity and led the renaissance in gravitation theory in the 1960s. His novel ideas on space and time and his concept of "twistors" are increasingly influential. This remarkable mathematical theory combining algebraic and geometrical methods has been one of his major breakthroughs. Even his recreations have had intellectual impact: for instance, his studies of the "impossible figures" in Escher’s artwork, and the never-repeating patterns of "Penrose tiling." He has influenced and stimulated a wide public through his lectures and his best-selling and wide-ranging books, including: Techniques of Differential Topology in Relativity, 1972; (with W. Rindler) Spinors and Space-Time, Vol. 1, 1984, Vol. 2, 1986; The Emperor’s New Mind, 1989; Shadows of the Mind, 1996; Collected Works (six volumes), 2010. He has won a number of awards, including the W. H. Heinemann Prize (1971), the Science Book Prize (1990), Order of Merit (1994), the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, De Morgan Medal of the London Mathematical Society (2004) and the Copley Medal of the Royal Society (2008), and belongs to a number of academic societies, including the Royal Society, the Royal Irish Academy, the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences (1998). Roger Penrose won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2020. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2011. | |
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