The University of Illinois established the prestigious Anthony J. Leggett Postdoctoral Fellowship in Fall 2023. This new postdoctoral fellowship is named after Professor Anthony J Leggett, 2003 Nobel laureate in Physics, who was recognized for his seminal work on the superfluidity of liquid helium-3. Leggett is a pioneer in the research of dissipation and coherence in macroscopic quantum systems, work that plays a central role in today’s research on quantum qubits and quantum information. The John D. MacArthur Professor of Physics, Leggett has been with the Department of Physics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 1983.
The Anthony J. Leggett Postdoctoral Fellowship is intended to support the work of young condensed matter theorists. This broad area of research in physics has a long tradition at the University of Illinois, going back to Professor John Bardeen, the only recipient of two Nobel Prizes in Physics, one for the invention of the transistor (1956) and the other for the the theory of superconductivity (1973). The Anthony J. Leggett Postdoctoral Fellowship is generously funded by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the Office of the Provost, and by the Grainger College of Engineering, the Office of the Dean. The fellowship includes a competitive salary and research funds.
We are pleased to announce that the inaugural Anthony J. Leggett Postdoctoral Fellow will be Kyung-Su Kim, who is currently finishing his PhD in physics at Stanford University (Stanford, California). Kim has a bachelor of science degree from Seoul National University (Republic of Korea). He has done ground-breaking research in the theory of strongly interacting electron fluids in two dimensions, where he uncovered the existence of a novel metallic state coexisting with the Wigner crystal of electrons. Kyung-Su Kim has also done innovative research in the physics of quantum Hall fluids.
The faculty members of the Anthony J. Leggett Institute for Condensed Matter Theory are proud to have Kyung-Su Kim as the first Leggett Fellow. We are looking forward to three years of doing exciting new research with him.