| Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, July 24, 2009 - Dr. Neil Turok, Director of Canada’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI), is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Leo Kadanoff as a Perimeter Institute Distinguished Research Chair. He will join 10 other eminent international scientists, including Professor Stephen Hawking, in spending extended research visits at the Institute each year. In making the announcement, Dr Turok stated, “Professor Kadanoff is one of the world’s most creative physicists. He has played a leading role in expanding the reach of physics, discovering the essential simplicity in highly complex phenomena such as phase transitions, chaos, and singularities. We are delighted to welcome him as a Perimeter Institute Distinguished Research Chair, and as a lecturer on our new Perimeter Scholars International Masters program. What a wonderful prospect for our students, to learn from him!” Professor Kadanoff is a theoretical physicist and applied mathematician based at the James Franck Institute at the University of Chicago. He has made important contributions to research in the properties of matter, the development of urban areas, statistical models of physical systems, and the development of chaos in simple mechanical and fluid systems. His best-known contribution was in the development of the concepts of "scale invariance" and "universality" as they are applied to phase transitions. More recently, he has been involved in the understanding of singularities in fluid flow. Among Dr. Kadanoff’s numerous honours, he is a past recipient of the National Medal of Science (US), the Grande Medaille d'Or of the Académie des Sciences de l'Institut de France, the Wolf Foundation Prize, the Boltzmann Medal of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, and the Centennial Medal of Harvard University. He is also a past President of the American Physical Society. In addition to building its team of resident scientists in Waterloo, Ontario, PI is becoming a second research home to many leading scientists from around the world. Distinguished Research Chairs become part of Perimeter’s research community while retaining their permanent positions at their home institutions. Dr. Kadanoff plans to make his first research visit as a Distinguished Research Chair in August, 2009. Note: Dr. Kadanoff recently gave a colloquium talk at PI entitled, “Making a Splash--Breaking a Neck, The Making of Complexity in Physical Systems,” examining how complexity is produced naturally in fluids. His talk may be viewed on PIRSA, Perimeter’s online archive at: http://pirsa.org/09030002/. Media Contact:
Angela Robinson,
Communications Coordinator
(519) 569-7600 x5051
arobinson@perimeterinstitute.ca |  |
About Perimeter Institute Canada's Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics is an independent, non-profit, scientific research and educational outreach organization where international scientists cluster to push the limits of our understanding of physical laws and develop new ideas about the very essence of space, time, matter and information. The centre provides a multi-disciplinary environment to foster scientific collaboration in the research areas of cosmology, particle physics, quantum foundations, quantum gravity, quantum information, superstring theory, and related disciplines. Located in Waterloo, Ontario, PI also provides a wide array of award-winning outreach resources and public lectures for students, teachers and the general public to share the joy of research, discovery and innovation. In partnership with the Governments of Ontario and Canada, PI continues to be a successful example of private and public collaboration in science research and education. Full details at http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/. |  |
