Sir Michael Victor Berry, (born 14 March 1941), is a mathematical physicist at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a Red brick university, red brick Russell Group research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Society of Merchant Venturers, Merchant Venturers' sc ...

, England. He is known for the Berry phase, a phenomenon observed e.g. in

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, q ...

and

optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultra ...

, as well as Berry connection and curvature. He specialises in semiclassical physics (asymptotic physics,

quantum chaos Quantum chaos is a branch of physics which studies how chaotic classical dynamical systems can be described in terms of quantum theory. The primary question that quantum chaos seeks to answer is: "What is the relationship between quantum mech ...

), applied to wave phenomena in

and other areas such as

Education and early life

Berry was brought up in a Jewish family and was the son of a London taxi driver and a dressmaker. Berry has a BSc 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 rel ...

from the

University of Exeter , mottoeng = "We Follow the Light" , established = 1838 - St Luke's College1855 - Exeter School of Art1863 - Exeter School of Science 1955 - University of Exeter (received royal charter) , type = Public , ...

and a PhD from the University of St. Andrews.

Career and research

He has spent his whole career at the University of Bristol:

research fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a p ...

, 1965–67; lecturer, 1967–74; reader, 1974–78; Professor of Physics, 1978–88; Royal Society Research Professor 1988–2006. Since 2006 he is Melville Wills Professor of Physics (Emeritus) at Bristol University.

Publications

*''Diffraction of Light by Ultrasound'', 1966
''Principles of Cosmology and Gravitation''
1976; *About 395 research papers, book reviews, etc., on physics

Awards and honours

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1982 and knighted in 1996. From 2006 to 2012 he was editor of the journal, '' Proceedings of the Royal Society A''. Berry has been given the following prizes and awards: * Maxwell Medal and Prize,

Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, research and application. It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide membership of over 20,000. The IOP is the Physica ...

, 1978 *Elected

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematic ...

of London, 1982 *Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, 1983 *Elected Fellow of the

Royal Institution The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...

, 1983 *Elected Member of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala, Sweden, 1986 *Bakerian Lecturer,

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

, 1987 *Elected member of the

European Academy of Sciences and Arts The European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA, la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea) is a transnational and interdisciplinary network, connecting about 2,000 recommended scientists and artists worldwide, including 37 Nobel Prize laur ...

, 1989 *

Dirac Medal and Prize The Dirac Medal is the name of four awards in the field of theoretical physics, computational chemistry, and mathematics, awarded by different organizations, named in honour of Professor Paul Dirac, one of the great theoretical physicists of the 2 ...

, Institute of Physics, 1990 * Lilienfeld Prize, American Physical Society, 1990 *

Royal Medal The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal and The King's Medal (depending on the gender of the monarch at the time of the award), is a silver-gilt medal, of which three are awarded each year by the Royal Society, two for "the most important ...

, Royal Society, 1990 * Naylor Prize and Lectureship in Applied Mathematics,

London Mathematical Society The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh Mathematical S ...

, 1992 *Foreign Member: US

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 ...

, 1995 *

Dirac Medal The Dirac Medal is the name of four awards in the field of theoretical physics, computational chemistry, and mathematics, awarded by different organizations, named in honour of Professor Paul Dirac, one of the great theoretical physicists of the 2 ...

International Centre for Theoretical Physics The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) is an international research institute for physical and mathematical sciences that operates under a tripartite agreement between the Italian Government, United Nations Educatio ...

, 1996 *

Kapitsa Medal Kapitsa may refer to: * Andrey Kapitsa (1931–2011), Soviet geographer and Antarctic explorer, discoverer of Lake Vostok * Pyotr Kapitsa (1894–1984), Soviet physicist, Nobel prize winner * Sergey Kapitsa (1928–2012), Soviet physicist * 3437 K ...

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

, 1997 *

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 ...

for Physics,

Wolf Foundation The Wolf Foundation is a private not-for-profit organization in Israel established in 1975 by Ricardo Wolf, a German-born Jewish Cuban inventor and former Cuban ambassador to Israel. Ricardo Wolf Ricardo Wolf, the founder of the Wolf Founda ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, 1998 *Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics, 1999 * Forder Lectureship,

, 1999 *Foreign Member:

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

, 2000 *

Ig Nobel Prize The Ig Nobel Prize ( ) is a satiric prize awarded annually since 1991 to celebrate ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. Its aim is to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think." The name o ...

for Physics,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

(shared with

Andre Geim , birth_date = , birth_place = Sochi, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union , death_date = , death_place = , workplaces = , nationality = Dutch and British , fields = Condensed matter physics ...

for "The Physics of Flying Frogs"). By 2022 his and Geim's Ig Nobel for the magnetic levitation of a frog was reportedly part of the inspiration for China's lunar gravity research facility. * Onsager Medal, Norwegian Technical University, 2001 *Gibbs Lecturer,

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings ...

, 2002 *1st and 3rd prizes, Visions of Science,

Novartis Novartis AG is a Swiss-American multinational pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland and Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States (global research).name="novartis.com">https://www.novartis.com/research-development/research-loc ...

/ Daily Telegraph, 2002 *Elected to

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

, 2005 * Pólya Prize,

, 2005 *Doctor of Science,

honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad h ...

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

, 2007 *Doctor of Science,

, Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and ...

, 2012 *

Lorentz Medal Lorentz Medal is a distinction awarded every four years by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. It was established in 1925 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the doctorate of Hendrik Lorentz. The medal is given for impor ...

, 2014 *

Lise Meitner Distinguished Lecture Lise Meitner Distinguished Lecture and Medal is a colloquium-style distinguished lecture that takes place at AlbaNova University Center in Stockholm on annual basis. The lecture commemorates Lise Meitner who spent a substantial part of her care ...

, 2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berry, Michael 1941 births Living people British Jews Jewish physicists People educated at Ilford County High School Academics of the University of Bristol Alumni of the University of Exeter Alumni of the University of St Andrews British physicists Donegall Lecturers of Mathematics at Trinity College Dublin Fellows of the Institute of Physics Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Physics Maxwell Medal and Prize recipients Members of the American Philosophical Society Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Royal Medal winners Wolf Prize in Physics laureates Knights Bachelor

Education and early life

Career and research

Publications

Awards and honours

See also

References