Natalia Borisovna Perkins (also published as N. B. Pustyl'nik) is a Russian and American physicist whose research involves

quantum phases Quantum phases are quantum states of matter at zero temperature. Even at zero temperature a quantum-mechanical system has quantum fluctuations and therefore can still support phase transitions. As a physical parameter is varied, quantum fluctuation ...

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

, such as

quantum spin liquid In condensed matter physics, a quantum spin liquid is a phase of matter that can be formed by interacting quantum spins in certain magnetic materials. Quantum spin liquids (QSL) are generally characterized by their long-range quantum entangleme ...

s, both through observation and theoretical analysis. She is a professor of physics at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

Education and career

Perkins is originally from

Dubna Dubna ( rus, Дубна́, p=dʊbˈna) is a town in Moscow Oblast, Russia. It has a status of '' naukograd'' (i.e. town of science), being home to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, an international nuclear physics research center and o ...

, near Moscow, where both her parents worked as physicists. After graduating from

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

with a degree in physics in 1994, Perkins continued at the university for a 1997 doctorate. Her dissertation, ''Magnons, magnetic polaritons and magnetostatic waves'', was supervised by Moisei Kaganov. Her doctoral research concerned theoretical magnetic

quasiparticle In condensed matter physics, a quasiparticle is a concept used to describe a collective behavior of a group of particles that can be treated as if they were a single particle. Formally, quasiparticles and collective excitations are closely relate ...

s that would later be important in

spintronics Spintronics (a portmanteau meaning spin transport electronics), also known as spin electronics, is the study of the intrinsic spin of the electron and its associated magnetic moment, in addition to its fundamental electronic charge, in solid-st ...

, but she soon shifted her interests, to frustrated magnetism and spin patterns. From 1997 to 2008 she was listed as a researcher for the Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics of the

Joint Institute for Nuclear Research The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR, ), in Dubna, Moscow Oblast (110 km north of Moscow), Russia, is an international research center for nuclear sciences, with 5,500 staff members including 1,200 researchers holding over 1,000 ...

in Dubna. Meanwhile, she was also a postdoctoral researcher in Europe, from 2002 to 2004 at the

Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati The INFN National Laboratory of Frascati (LNF) was founded in 1954 with the objective of furthering particle physics research, and more specifically to host the 1.1 GeV electrosynchrotron, the first accelerator ever built in Italy. The La ...

in Italy, from 2004 to 2006 at the

Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems The Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex systems is one of the 80 institutes of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, located in Dresden, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. I ...

in Germany, and from 2006 to 2007 at the

Technical University of Braunschweig TU Braunschweig (, unofficially ''University of Braunschweig – Institute of Technology'') is the oldest ' (comparable to an institute of technology in the American system) in Germany. It was founded in 1745 as Collegium Carolinum and is a membe ...

in Germany. She began an assistant professorship at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

in 2007, and was promoted to associate professor in 2013. In 2014, she moved to her present position at the

, and in 2019 she was promoted to full professor. She visited the

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; ) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Established in 1868 by King Ludwig II ...

in 2022, under a Hans Fischer Senior Fellowship.

Recognition

Perkins was named as 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. The following lists are divided chronologically by the year of designation. * List of fellows of the ...

(APS) in 2016, after a nomination from the APS Division of Condensed Matter Physics, "for theoretical studies of the low-energy behavior of strongly correlated electron systems that exhibit an interplay of orbital and spin degrees of freedom". In 2017, the

Perimeter Institute Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI, Perimeter, PITP) is an independent research centre in foundational theoretical physics located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1999. The institute's founding and major benefactor i ...

named her as an Emmy Noether Fellow.

References

External links

Home page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Perkins, Natalia Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Russian physicists Russian women physicists American physicists American women physicists American condensed matter physicists American quantum physicists Moscow State University alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty University of Minnesota faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society