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Robert Betts Laughlin (born November 1, 1950) is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of
Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...
and
Applied Physics Applied physics is the application of physics to solve scientific or engineering problems. It is usually considered to be a bridge or a connection between physics and engineering. "Applied" is distinguished from "pure" by a subtle combination ...
at
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...
. Along with Horst L. Störmer of
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and Daniel C. Tsui of
Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
, he was awarded a share of the 1998
Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
in
physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...
for their explanation of the
fractional quantum Hall effect The fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) is a physical phenomenon in which the Hall conductance of 2-dimensional (2D) electrons shows precisely quantized plateaus at fractional values of e^2/h. It is a property of a collective state in which elec ...
. In 1983, Laughlin was first to provide a many body
wave function A wave function in quantum physics is a mathematical description of the quantum state of an isolated quantum system. The wave function is a complex-valued probability amplitude, and the probabilities for the possible results of measurements ...
, now known as the ''
Laughlin wavefunction In condensed matter physics, the Laughlin wavefunction pp. 210-213 is an ansatz, proposed by Robert B. Laughlin, Robert Laughlin for the ground state of a two-dimensional electron gas placed in a uniform background magnetic field in the presence of ...
,'' for the
fractional quantum hall effect The fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) is a physical phenomenon in which the Hall conductance of 2-dimensional (2D) electrons shows precisely quantized plateaus at fractional values of e^2/h. It is a property of a collective state in which elec ...
, which was able to correctly explain the fractionalized charge observed in experiments. This state has since been interpreted as the integer quantum Hall effect of the
composite fermion A composite fermion is the topological bound state of an electron and an even number of quantized vortices, sometimes visually pictured as the bound state of an electron and, attached, an even number of magnetic flux quanta. Composite fermions we ...
. His 2017 paper, "Pumped thermal grid storage with heat exchange" inspired Project Malta at
Google X X Development LLC (formerly Google X) is an American semi-secret research and development facility and organization founded by Google in January 2010, which now operates as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. X has its headquarters about a mile and a ...
and subsequently Malta inc.


Biography

Laughlin was born in
Visalia, California Visalia ( ) is a city in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley of California. The population was 141,384 as per the 2020 census. Visalia is the fifth-largest city in the San Joaquin Valley, the 42nd most populous in California, and 192nd in ...
. He earned a
B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
in
mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...
in 1972, and his Ph.D. in physics in 1979 at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...
(MIT). Between 2004 and 2006 he served as the president of
KAIST The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) is a national research university located in Daedeok Innopolis, Daejeon, South Korea. KAIST was established by the Korean government in 1971 as the nation's first public, resear ...
in
Daejeon Daejeon () is South Korea's fifth-largest metropolis, with a population of 1.5 million as of 2019. Located in the central-west region of South Korea alongside forested hills and the Geum River, the city is known both for its technology an ...
,
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
.


Honors and awards

* E. O. Lawrence Award in Physics – 1984 * Oliver E. Buckley Prize – 1986 * Elected
Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its mot ...
- 1986 *
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...
– 1994 * Benjamin Franklin Medal for Physics of the Franklin Institute – 1998 *
Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...
– 1998 * Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet ...
– 1999 * Doctorate of Letters, University of Maryland – 2005 * Onsager Medal – 2007


Publications

Laughlin published a book entitled '' A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down'' in 2005. The book argues for
emergence In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties or behaviors that emerge only when the parts interact in a wider whole. Emergenc ...
as a replacement for
reductionism Reductionism is any of several related philosophical ideas regarding the associations between phenomena which can be described in terms of other simpler or more fundamental phenomena. It is also described as an intellectual and philosophical po ...
, in addition to general commentary on hot-topic issues. * (Trad. esp.: ''Un universo diferente. La reinvención de la física en la Edad de la Emergencia'', Buenos Aires/Madrid, Katz editores, 2007, ). * (Trad. esp.: ''Crímenes de la razón. El fin de la mentalidad científica'', Buenos Aires/Madrid, Katz editores, 2010, ). * ''Mente y materia. ¿Qué es la vida? Sobre la vigencia de Erwin Schrödinger'' (with Michael R. Hendrickson; Robert Pogue Harrison and
Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht Hans Ulrich "Sepp" Gumbrecht (born 15 June 1948) is a literary theorist whose work spans philology, philosophy, semiotics, literary and cultural history, and epistemologies of the everyday. As of June 14, 2018, he is Albert Guérard Professor E ...
), Buenos Aires/Madrid, Katz editores, 2010, . *


References


External links

* * including the Nobel Lecture on December 8, 1998 ''Fractional Quantization''
The Crime of Reason and the Closing of the Scientific Mind
lecture at the
Linda Hall Library The Linda Hall Library is a privately endowed American library of science, engineering and technology located in Kansas City, Missouri, sitting "majestically on a urban arboretum." It is the "largest independently funded public library of scien ...
, May 4, 2011 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Laughlin, Robert B. Nobel laureates in Physics American Nobel laureates 1950 births Living people University of California, Berkeley alumni Scientists at Bell Labs People from Visalia, California Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Stanford University Department of Applied Physics faculty Stanford University Department of Physics faculty Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize winners MIT Department of Physics alumni Fellows of the American Physical Society Presidents of KAIST