Bertrand I. Halperin (born December 6, 1941) is an American physicist, former holder of the
Hollis Chair of Mathematicks and Natural Philosophy at the
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 rel ...
department of
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
.
[ ]
Biography
Halperin was born in
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behi ...
, where he grew up in the
Crown Heights neighborhood and attended public schools. His mother was Eva Teplitzky Halperin and his father Morris Halperin. His mother was a college administrator and his father a customs inspector.
Both his parents were born in
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
. His paternal grandmother's family the Maximovs claimed descent from
Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, the BESHT.
He attended
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
(class of 1961),
and did his graduate work at
Berkeley with
John J. Hopfield (PhD 1965).
After 10 years (1966–1976) working at
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 scientific development company owned by mul ...
, Murray Hill, New Jersey he was appointed Professor of Physics at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
.
In the 1970s, he, together with
David R. Nelson, worked out a theory of two-dimensional
melting
Melting, or fusion, is a physical process that results in the phase transition of a substance from a solid to a liquid. This occurs when the internal energy of the solid increases, typically by the application of heat or pressure, which inc ...
, predicting the
hexatic phase before it was experimentally observed by Pindak ''et al.'' In the 1980s, he made contributions to the theory of the
Quantum Hall Effect
The quantum Hall effect (or integer quantum Hall effect) is a quantized version of the Hall effect which is observed in two-dimensional electron systems subjected to low temperatures and strong magnetic fields, in which the Hall resistance exhib ...
and 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 ...
. His recent interests lie in the area of strongly interacting low-dimensional electron systems.
Halperin was elected a
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 moti ...
in 1972, a member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...
in 1981, a member of 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 ...
in 1982,
[ ] and a member of the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communi ...
in 1990. In 2001, he was awarded the
Lars Onsager Prize
The Lars Onsager Prize is a prize in theoretical statistical physics awarded annually by the American Physical Society. Prize recipients receive a medal, certificate, and $10,000. It was established in 1993 by Drs. Russell and Marian Donnelly in ...
.
[ ] In 2003, he and
Anthony J. Leggett were awarded the
Wolf Prize
The Wolf Prize is an international award granted in Israel, that has been presented most years since 1978 to living scientists and artists for ''"achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among people ... irrespective of natio ...
in physics.
[ ] In 2016 he was
Lise Meitner Distinguished Lecturer.
In 2018, he was awarded the 2019
APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research,
[ ] for "his seminal contributions to theoretical condensed matter physics, especially his pioneering work on the role of topology in both classical and quantum systems."
"2019 APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research Recipient: Bertrand I. Halperin"
/ref>
Selected bibliography
*
Pdf.
See also
* Dynamic scaling
References
External links
Harvard University faculty page
Wolf Prize page
*
1941 births
Harvard University alumni
American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
21st-century American physicists
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellows of the American Physical Society
Harvard University faculty
Jewish American scientists
Jewish physicists
Living people
Scientists at Bell Labs
University of California, Berkeley alumni
Wolf Prize in Physics laureates
Hollis Chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy
Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize winners
Descendants of the Baal Shem Tov
{{US-physicist-stub
Members of the American Philosophical Society