David Robert Nelson (born May 9, 1951) is 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 ...

, and Arthur K. Solomon Professor of Biophysics, at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. He is known for developing

KTHNY theory In statistical mechanics, the Kosterlitz–Thouless–Halperin–Nelson–Young (KTHNY) theory describes the process of melting of crystals in two dimensions (2D). The name is derived from the initials of the surnames of John Michael Kosterlitz, ...

Education

Nelson graduated from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

''Summa cum laude'' with a double major in physics and mathematics in 1972, and received an M.S. in theoretical physics in 1974, and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics in January, 1975. He was in the fourth and final class of Cornell's short-lived "Six-year Ph.D. program". His thesis was on applications of

renormalization Renormalization is a collection of techniques in quantum field theory, statistical field theory, and the theory of self-similar geometric structures, that is used to treat infinities arising in calculated quantities by altering values of the ...

critical phenomena In physics, critical phenomena is the collective name associated with the physics of critical points. Most of them stem from the divergence of the correlation length, but also the dynamics slows down. Critical phenomena include scaling relations ...

, advised by

Michael Fisher Michael Ellis Fisher (3 September 1931 – 26 November 2021) was an English physicist, as well as chemist and mathematician, known for his many seminal contributions to statistical physics, including but not restricted to the theory of phase t ...

. He then became a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows. Nelson is currently the Arthur K. Solomon Professor of Biophysics and Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University.

Research

Since 1978 he has been a professor at

. His research is in the fields of both hard and soft theoretical

condensed matter physics Condensed matter physics is the field of physics that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter, especially the solid and liquid State of matter, phases, that arise from electromagnetic forces between atoms and elec ...

, and of physical biology. With his colleague,

Bertrand Halperin 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 department of Harvard University. In 2006, he received the Wolf Prize in Physics for hi ...

, he is responsible for a theory of two-dimensional melting that predicted a fourth

hexatic phase The hexatic phase is a state of matter that is between the solid and the isotropic liquid phases in two dimensional systems of particles. It is characterized by two order parameters: a short-range positional and a quasi-long-range orientational (six ...

of matter, interposed between the usual solid and liquid phases.

is named after J. Michael Kosterlitz, David J. Thouless, Halperin and Nelson. A variety of predictions associated with this two-state freezing process have now been confirmed in experiments on two-dimensional colloidal assemblies, thin films and bulk smectic liquid crystals. Nelson's research also includes a theory of the structure and statistical mechanics of metallic glasses and investigations of tethered surfaces, which are two-dimensional generalizations of linear polymer chains. Flexural phonons lead a remarkable low temperature flat phase in these fishnet-like structures, with predictions of strongly scale-dependent elastic constants such as the two-dimensional

Young's modulus Young's modulus (or the Young modulus) is a mechanical property of solid materials that measures the tensile or compressive stiffness when the force is applied lengthwise. It is the modulus of elasticity for tension or axial compression. Youn ...

and the bending rigidity of atomically or molecularly thin materials such as a free-standing sheets of

graphene Graphene () is a carbon allotrope consisting of a Single-layer materials, single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, honeycomb planar nanostructure. The name "graphene" is derived from "graphite" and the suffix -ene, indicating ...

and

molybdenum disulfide Molybdenum disulfide (or moly) is an inorganic chemistry, inorganic compound composed of molybdenum and sulfur. Its chemical formula is . The compound is classified as a transition metal dichalcogenide. It is a silvery black solid that occurs as ...

(MoS₂). Nelson has also studied flux line entanglement in

high temperature superconductors High-temperature superconductivity (high-c or HTS) is superconductivity in materials with a critical temperature (the temperature below which the material behaves as a superconductor) above , the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. They are "high- ...

. At high magnetic fields, thermal fluctuations cause regular arrays of flux lines to melt into a tangled spaghetti state. The physics of this melted flux liquid resembles that of a directed polymer melt, and has important implications for both electrical transport and vortex pinning for many of the proposed applications of these new materials in strong magnetic fields. David Nelson's recent investigations have focused on problems that bridge the gap between the physical and biological sciences, including

dislocation In materials science, a dislocation or Taylor's dislocation is a linear crystallographic defect or irregularity within a crystal structure that contains an abrupt change in the arrangement of atoms. The movement of dislocations allow atoms to sli ...

dynamics in bacterial

cell wall A cell wall is a structural layer that surrounds some Cell type, cell types, found immediately outside the cell membrane. It can be tough, flexible, and sometimes rigid. Primarily, it provides the cell with structural support, shape, protection, ...

s, range expansions and genetic demixing in microorganisms and localization in asymmetric sparse neural networks. Additional recent interests include the non-Hermitian transfer matrices that describe thermally excited vortices with columnar pins in Type II superconductors, the effect of perforations, cuts and other defects on atomically thin cantilevers at finite temperatures and topological defects on curved surfaces.

Awards

* 1979–1983 AP Sloan Fellowship * 1984–1989 MacArthur Prize Fellowship * 1986 Award for Initiatives in Research from the National Academy of Sciences * 1987 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. The following lists are divided chronologically by the year of designation. * List of fellows of the ...

* 1993–1994

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

* 1995 Harvard Ledlie Prize,

* 2001 Welsh Lectures, University of Toronto * 2003 (for research in superconductivity) * 2004

Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize The Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize is an annual award given by the American Physical Society "to recognize and encourage outstanding theoretical or experimental contributions to condensed matter physics." It was endowed by AT&T Bell Labor ...

* 2004 Mary Upson Visiting professor,

* 2005 Mayent-Rothschild Visiting professor, Curie Institute, Paris * 2006 Sommerfeld Lecturer, Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich * 2006 Lorentz Visiting Professor,

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

* 2007 Mark Kac Memorial Lecturer,

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development Laboratory, laboratories of the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, United States Department of Energy ...

* 2007 Primakoff Lecturer,

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

* 2009 Visiting professor, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen * 2010 Kavli Lectureship,

Delft University The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft; ) is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. It specializes in engineering, technology, computing, design, and natural sciences. It is considered one ...

* 2013 KITP Simons Distinguished Visiting Scholar, UCSB * 2019

Niels Bohr Institute The Niels Bohr Institute () is a research institute of the University of Copenhagen. The research of the institute spans astronomy, geophysics, nanotechnology, particle physics, quantum mechanics, and biophysics. Overview The institute was foun ...

Medal of Honor

Notable works

* * * * * * * * *

References

External links

* Fifth Bangalore School on Population Genetics and Evolution, International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, 2022 *
Video of Introduction to Spatial Population Genetics (Lecture 1), January 19, 2022
*
Video of Pushed Genetic Waves and Antagonistic Interactions (Lecture 2), January 20, 2022
*
Video of Microbial Interactions and Expansions on Liquid Substrates (Lecture 3), January 21, 2022

Video of NSCS Online Seminar: August 11, 2020

Video of Harvard Physics Colloquium ("On Growth and Form of Microorganisms on Liquid Substrates"): April 20, 2020

Video of Gene Surfing and Survival of the Luckiest: September 25, 2019

Video of Perforations and the Crumpling of Free-Standing Graphene: September 17, 2018

Video of Keynote Address, Physics@FOM Veldhoven: January 24, 2014

Link to Google Scholar Citations

Retrieved on 5 October 2009.
"David R. Nelson", ''Scientific Commons''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, David Robert 1951 births Living people Cornell University alumni Scientists from Stuttgart Harvard University faculty 21st-century American physicists MacArthur Fellows Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize winners Emigrants from West Germany to the United States Fellows of the American Physical Society