Jakob Yngvason (born 23 November 1945) is an Icelandic/Austrian physicist and emeritus professor of

mathematical physics Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The '' Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the developm ...

at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hi ...

. He has made important contributions to local quantum field theory,

thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws ...

, and the quantum theory of many-body systems, in particular cold atomic gases and

Bose–Einstein condensation Bose–Einstein may refer to: * Bose–Einstein condensate ** Bose–Einstein condensation (network theory) * Bose–Einstein correlations * Bose–Einstein statistics In quantum statistics, Bose–Einstein statistics (B–E statistics) describe ...

. He is co-author, together with Elliott H. Lieb, Jan Philip Solovej and Robert Seiringer, of a monograph on Bose gases.

Career

After graduating from high school in 1964 in

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

, Yngvason studied physics at

Göttingen University Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

, obtaining his

Diploma A diploma is a document awarded by an educational institution (such as a college or university) testifying the recipient has graduated by successfully completing their courses of studies. Historically, it has also referred to a charter or offici ...

in physics in 1969, and a doctorate (''dr.rer.nat'') in 1973. His thesis advisor was Hans-Jürgen Borchers. Yngvason was assistant professor at the University of Göttingen, 1973–1978, 1978–1985 research scientist at the Science Institute of the

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( is, Háskóli Íslands ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servant ...

, and during 1985–1996 professor of theoretical physics at the University of Iceland. In 1996, he became professor of mathematical physics at the University of Vienna, where he has been emeritus professor since October 2014. He was president of the Erwin Schrödinger Institute for Mathematical Physics (ESI) in Vienna, 1998-2003, and scientific director of the institute 2004–2011. He was vice-president of the

International Association of Mathematical Physics The International Association of Mathematical Physics (IAMP) was founded in 1976 to promote research in mathematical physics. It brings together research mathematicians and theoretical physicists, including students. The association's ordinary me ...

, 2000–2005, and editor-in-chief of ''Reviews in Mathematical Physics'', 2006-2010. He is a member of the Societas Scientiarum Islandica and corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen and the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters, Copenhagen. For their theoretical work in thermodynamics, Yngvason and Lieb received the

Levi Conant Levi Leonard Conant (March 3, 1857, Littleton, Massachusetts – October 11, 1916, Worcester, Massachusetts) was an American mathematician specializing in trigonometry. Education and career He attended Phillips Academy, Andover and Dartmouth Colle ...

Prize of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meeting ...

in 2002, for a paper on the mathematical explanation of the

second law of thermodynamics The second law of thermodynamics is a physical law based on universal experience concerning heat and energy interconversions. One simple statement of the law is that heat always moves from hotter objects to colder objects (or "downhill"), unle ...

.''2002 Conant Prize'', Notices of the AMS, 49, 481–482 (2002), https://www.ams.org/notices/200204/comm-conantprz.pdf In 2004,he received the

Erwin Schrödinger Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger (, ; ; 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as or , was a Nobel Prize-winning Austrian physicist with Irish citizenship who developed a number of fundamental results in quantum theo ...

Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Personal life

Yngvason is married to Guðrún Kvaran, professor of lexicography at the University of Iceland; they have two children.

References

External links

Home page
at Vienna University * https://web.archive.org/web/20120306040442/http://www.oeaw.ac.at/shared/news/2004/press_inf_20041011.html * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yngvason, Jakob 1945 births Living people Austrian physicists Academics of the University of Vienna Icelandic physicists