5/19/2011 Celia Elliott
Professor of Physics Michael Stone and Swanlund Chair of Physics Nigel Goldenfeld have been elected Fellows of the Institute of Physics (UK).
Written by Celia Elliott
Professor of Physics Michael Stone and Swanlund Chair of Physics Nigel Goldenfeld have been elected Fellows of the Institute of Physics (UK). Both are members of the Institute of Condensed Matter Theory at the University of Illinois.
Headquartered in London, the Institute of Physics is a leading international scientific society, whose aim is to advance the understanding, practice, and application of physics. It has nearly 40 000 members worldwide, in all branches of physics. Fellows, who are selected by rigorous peer review, must have demonstrated significant contributions to the discipline.
Michael Stone is a mathematical physicist who has applied the quantum-field-theory concepts and techniques of high-energy physics to condensed matter systems. The main focus of his current research is the dynamics of vortices in superfluids and superconductors. He has resolved a decades-long puzzle about the fundamental mechanism of dissipation in superconductors by clarifying the motion of Abrikosov vortices under the influence of a Magnus force. Previously, he explored and clarified the extent to which topological constraints impose "anomalous" behavior on physical systems, such as superfluid liquid helium, and has linked such behavior to the Berry's phase.
Stone received his PhD in applied mathematics and theoretical physics from the University of Cambridge (UK) in 1976. He carried out postdoctoral research on quantum field theory at the University of Southhampton and the University of Cambridge before coming to the University of Illinois in 1980, first as a postdoctoral research associate (1980-81) and then as a member of the faculty (1981-present). He served as the deputy director for the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1992 until 1994. He is currently a principal investigator in the Institute for Condensed Matter Theory at Illinois.
Nigel Goldenfeld is a theoretical physicist whose interests in emergent and collective phenomena extend from condensed matter physics, where he has contributed to the modern understanding of high-temperature superconductors, to biology, where his current work focuses on evolution and microbial ecology. Goldenfeld's research explores how patterns evolve in time; examples include the growth of snowflakes, the microstructures of materials, the flow of fluids, the dynamics of geological formations, and even the spatial structure of ecosystems.
Goldenfeld received his PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Cambridge (UK) in 1982 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, from 1982 to 1985. He joined the Department of Physics at the University of Illinois in 1985. Goldenfeld is a principal investigator in the Institute for Condensed Matter Theory and leads the Biocomplexity Theme at the Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois.