Robert Graham (born 11 February 1942,

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

) is a German theoretical physicist.

Biography

Graham attended the Karls-Gymnasium in Stuttgart and studied at the

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart (german: Universität Stuttgart) is a leading research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany wi ...

, where in 1967 he earned under

Hermann Haken Hermann Haken (born 12 July 1927) is physicist and professor emeritus in theoretical physics at the University of Stuttgart. He is known as the founder of synergetics. He is a cousin of the mathematician Wolfgang Haken, who proved the Four c ...

his physics

Diplom A ''Diplom'' (, from grc, δίπλωμα ''diploma'') is an academic degree in the German-speaking countries Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and a similarly named degree in some other European countries including Albania, Bulgaria, Belaru ...

(quantum fluctuations of the

optical parametric oscillator An optical parametric oscillator (OPO) is a parametric oscillator that oscillates at optical frequencies. It converts an input laser wave (called "pump") with frequency \omega_p into two output waves of lower frequency (\omega_s, \omega_i) by mean ...

) and in 1969 his PhD (''Lichtausbreitung in laseraktiven fluktuierenden Medien'', "Light Propagation in Laser-active Fluctuating Media"). Continuing this work, he applied the theory of cooperative systems publicized by Haken as "Synergetik" ( Synergetics) in quantum optics. As a post-doc, he was a guest scientist at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

and, after his

Habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including ...

in 1971, scientific advisor and professor at the University of Stuttgart. From 1975 he was a professor at the

Universität Duisburg-Essen The University of Duisburg-Essen (german: link=no, Universität Duisburg-Essen) is a public research university in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. In the 2019 ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'', the university was awarded ...

, where he is now retired as professor emeritus. He was there also dean and prorector for research. He worked on extremely diverse areas of quantum theoretical statistical mechanics, apart from laser theory also in the 1990s with the theory of

Bose–Einstein condensate In condensed matter physics, a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter that is typically formed when a gas of bosons at very low densities is cooled to temperatures very close to absolute zero (−273.15 °C or −459.67&n ...

. In 2009 he received the

Max Planck medal The Max Planck medal is the highest award of the German Physical Society , the world's largest organization of physicists, for extraordinary achievements in theoretical physics. The prize has been awarded annually since 1929, with few exceptions, ...

, the highest honor of the DPG in theoretical physics for his contributions in the areas of quantum optics, the statistical mechanics of open stationary systems outside thermodynamic equilibrium, quantum fluids and quantum gases as well as quantum chaos (according to the Laudatio of the Max Planck medal 2009)Laudatio in Physik-Journal 2009, No.1, pdf Data
/ref> and his contributions to quantum aspects of cosmology and gravitation.

Selected works

* ''Von der Laserschwelle zum Quantenphasenübergang - Photonen und Atome als Quantengase im Fließgleichgewicht.'' In: ''Physik Journal.'' 2009, No. 8/9 (prize acceptance speech for the Max Planck medal) * ''Statistical theory of instabilities in stationary nonequilibrium systems with applications to lasers and nonlinear optics'' (= Springer Tracts in Modern Physics, Vol. 66). 1973 (Habilitation 1971) * ''Macroscopic potentials, bifurcations and noise in dissipative systems.'' In: F. Moss und P.V.E. McClintock (eds.): ''Noise in nonlinear dynamical systems.'' Band 1, Cambridge University Press 1989, pages 225–278

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Robert 20th-century German physicists 1942 births Living people Winners of the Max Planck Medal Scientists from Stuttgart Academic staff of the University of Duisburg-Essen