William Conyers Herring (November 15, 1914 – July 23, 2009) was an American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

. He was a Professor of Applied Physics 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 ...

and the

Wolf Prize in Physics The Wolf Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Chemistry, Mathematics, Medicine and Arts ...

recipient in 1984/5.

Academic career

Conyers Herring completed his Ph.D. 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 ...

from

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 ...

in 1937, submitting a dissertation entitled ''On Energy Coincidences in the Theory of Brillouin Zones'' under the direction of

Eugene Wigner Eugene Paul "E. P." Wigner ( hu, Wigner Jenő Pál, ; November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who also contributed to mathematical physics. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his co ...

. In 1946, he joined the technical staff of

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial Research and development, research and scientific developm ...

in Murray Hill, New Jersey, where he remained until 1978. Then, he joined the faculty at

Contributions

Conyers Herring played a major role in the development of solid state physics. He laid the foundations of band structure calculations of

metals A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typical ...

and

semiconductors A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way. ...

, culminating in the discovery of the Orthogonalized Plane Wave Method (O.P.W.) in 1940. He was years ahead of his time in this contribution. A great deal of modern

solid state physics Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state physics studies how the ...

as produced today stems from this original and early paper. In 1937, he predicted the existence of Weyl semimetal, materials that display Weyl quasiparticles, which were experimentally demonstrated in 2015. His influence on the development of solid state physics extends to a deep understanding of many facets such as surface physics, of thermionic emission, of transport phenomena in semiconductors and of collective excitations in solids such as spin waves. He created the

theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experim ...

division at Bell Telephone Laboratory. Because of this, the total research effort at this institution and brought about much of the most original research in condensed matter physics during the latter half of the 20th century. He has also been most influential in promoting international cooperation among scientists and through his character and his personal example, he has exemplified a somewhat unattainable ideal of how a research scholar in any field should operate. He has contributed to religion and science discussions. He has stated about God that "Things such as truth, goodness, even happiness, are achievable by virtue of a force that is always present, in the here and now and available to me personally".

Awards and honors

In June 1954 he was one of twenty scientists under the age of forty identified by ''

Fortune Magazine ''Fortune'' is an American multinational business magazine headquartered in New York City. It is published by Fortune Media Group Holdings, owned by Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon. The publication was founded by Henry Luce in 1929. The ...

'' as "top young scientists in U. S. universities and industry". In 1984/85 Conyers Herring was awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics along with

Philippe Nozieres Philippe is a masculine sometimes feminin given name, cognate to Philip. It may refer to: * Philippe of Belgium (born 1960), King of the Belgians (2013–present) * Philippe (footballer) (born 2000), Brazilian footballer * Prince Philippe, Cou ...

for "their major contributions to the fundamental theory of solids, especially of the behaviour of electrons in metals". In 1980 he was awarded the NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing from the

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 ...

References

External links

*
Profile of Conyers Herring

The contributions of Conyers Herring

* ttp://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/4666_1.html Oral History interview transcript with Conyers Herring 23 July 1974, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
Stanford Obituary of Conyers HerringNational Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herring, Conyer 1914 births 2009 deaths Stanford University Department of Applied Physics faculty Princeton University alumni Wolf Prize in Physics laureates Scientists at Bell Labs Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Physical Society 20th-century American physicists Condensed matter physicists People from Schenectady County, New York Scientists from New York (state) Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize winners

Academic career

Contributions

Awards and honors

See also

References

External links