Philippe Pierre Gaston François Nozières (12 April 1932 – 15 June 2022) was a French

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 ...

working at

Institut Laue-Langevin An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. He was born on 12 April 1932 in Paris and died on 15 June 2022, aged 90.

Education

In 1952, Nozières began his scientific career working on

semiconductor 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. ...

experiments in the group of Pierre Aigrain at the

École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, S ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. He wrote a master's thesis on the point-contact transistor. In 1955, received a fellowship study with David Pines at

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 ...

, working on

many-body theory The many-body problem is a general name for a vast category of physical problems pertaining to the properties of microscopic systems made of many interacting particles. ''Microscopic'' here implies that quantum mechanics has to be used to provid ...

. He spent the summer of 1956 at

Bell Labs 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 ...

, where he exchanged ideas with a variety of condensed matter theorists, including Philip W. Anderson and

Walter Kohn Walter Kohn (; March 9, 1923 – April 19, 2016) was an Austrian-American theoretical physicist and theoretical chemist. He was awarded, with John Pople, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1998. The award recognized their contributions to the unde ...

He received his Ph.D. from the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

in 1957 for the work he carried out at Princeton.

Academic career

In 1957 Nozières was appointed the assistant director of the physics laboratory at the

. In 1958 his academic career was interrupted when he was drafted by the French navy. He spent 2 years working on seismic detectors intended to sense atomic explosions. After leaving the navy in 1961, he became a professor at the

. He left Paris to join the

in 1972, and would continue to be associated with this institution for the rest of his career. In 1976 he became a professor at the University of Grenoble. In 1983 he became a professor at the

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris n ...

Research

Nozières’ work has been concerned with various facets of the

many-body problem The many-body problem is a general name for a vast category of physical problems pertaining to the properties of microscopic systems made of many interacting particles. ''Microscopic'' here implies that quantum mechanics has to be used to provid ...

. He made major contributions to understand the fundamental theory of

solid Solid is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being liquid, gas, and plasma). The molecules in a solid are closely packed together and contain the least amount of kinetic energy. A solid is characterized by structural ...

s, especially to the behavior of

electron The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no ...

s in

metal 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 typicall ...

s. In a short period, he has contributed profoundly to the concept of

quasiparticle In physics, quasiparticles and collective excitations are closely related emergent phenomena arising when a microscopically complicated system such as a solid behaves as if it contained different weakly interacting particles in vacuum. For exa ...

s and its relation to

Fermi liquid Fermi liquid theory (also known as Landau's Fermi-liquid theory) is a theoretical model of interacting fermions that describes the normal state of most metals at sufficiently low temperatures. The interactions among the particles of the many-body ...

s, to the dynamics of local systems in metals, to irreversible phenomena in quantum physics. Through his book (N-body problem) and his research, he has established a French school in solid state physics during the last 20 years whose influence extends all over the world. His work lately focused on crystal growth and surface physics.

Awards

Nozières has been recognized with a variety of awards for his seminal work. In 1988 he received the CNRS Gold medal. In 1984/85 he was awarded 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. ...

, along with

Conyers Herring William Conyers Herring (November 15, 1914 – July 23, 2009) was an American physicist. He was a Professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University and the Wolf Prize in Physics recipient in 1984/5. Academic career Conyers Herring completed ...

of Stanford University, for "their major contributions to the fundamental theory of solids, especially of the behaviour of electrons in metals". In 1974 he won the F. Holweck Prize. In 1961 he won the

CNRS Silver Medal The CNRS Silver Medal is a scientific award given every year to about fifteen researchers by the French National Centre for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherch ...

, and in 1960 the Prix Langevin from the Societe Francaise de Physique. In 1989 he became a Commandeur de l'Ordre National du Mérite. He is a member of the French Academy of Sciences and a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences.

References

External links

Books written by Philippe Nozieres

The Wolf Prize in Physics in 1984/85

Profile on The Academy of Europe website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nozieres, Phillip 1932 births 2022 deaths French physicists École Normale Supérieure alumni Wolf Prize in Physics laureates Members of the French Academy of Sciences Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences University of Paris alumni Academic staff of Grenoble Alpes University Academic staff of the University of Paris Princeton University people