Leopoldo Máximo Falicov (June 24, 1933 – January 24, 1995) was an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

theoretical physicist 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 experi ...

, specializing in the theory of

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 ...

Life

Falicov was born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

with both parents of Eastern European Jewish origin. His father, Isaías Félix Falicov, was Argentine and his mother, Dora Samoilovich, emigrated to Argentina as a child. Falicov attended the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires and then attended the School of Engineering and Natural Sciences at the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires (, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the second-oldest university in the country, and the largest university of the country by enrollment. Established in 1821 ...

(UBA). In 1955 he entered the recently created Institute of Physics, later known, after 1962, as the Balseiro Institute and received his Bachelor's Degree in Physics in May 1958 as a member of the first class of Physicists. Meanwhile, in 1957, he received a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry from the UBA. Simultaneously, he was working on his doctoral thesis at the Bariloche Institute of Physics under the direction of José Antonio Balseiro on the subject "Photon packets: their classification, dispersion and formation" which he defended in August 1958, 3 months after finishing his undergraduate degree. It was the first doctoral thesis at the Balseiro Institute. He continued in 1959 with a scholarship from the British Council at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

England where he completed a second doctorate under the direction of Professor Volker Heine on the subject "The structure of metal bands", with a defense date of December 8, 1960. He then became a professor at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. In 1959 he married Marta Puebla whom made his famous Magnesium Fermi Surface in his post doctoral thesis. In 1969, he moved to Berkeley to work at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, heading the department from 1981 to 1983. Falicov was a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, 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 ...

, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters and the Academia Nacional de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicas y Naturales. He was a fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

, the

Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based not-for-profit learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, physics research, research and applied physics, application. It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide ...

and the Third World Academy of Sciences.

Honours

A library, Biblioteca Leo Falicov, at the Balseiro Institute is named after him.

External links

Falicov's monster (Drawing by Marta Puebla)National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Falicov, Leopoldo Maximo 1933 births 1995 deaths 20th-century Argentine physicists Argentine people of Jewish descent Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences University of Chicago faculty University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty