View source for Leo Kadanoff

{{short description|American physicist}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name              = Leo Kadanoff
|image             = Professor Leo Kadanoff.jpg
|image_size        =
|caption           = Leo P. Kadanoff
|birth_date        = {{Birth date|mf=yes|1937|01|14}}
|birth_place       = [[New York City]], New York
|death_date        = {{nowrap|{{death date and age|2015|10|26|1937|01|14|mf=y}} }}
|death_place       = [[Chicago, Illinois]]
|nationality       = American
|education        = [[Harvard University]] ([[B. S.|BS]], [[PhD]])
|doctoral_advisor  = [[Paul Martin (physicist)|Paul Martin]]
|doctoral_students = {{plainlist|1=
*[[Michael P. Brenner]]
*[[William A. Dembski]]
*[[Anette Hosoi]]
*[[Marcelo Osvaldo Magnasco|Marcelo Magnasco]]
*[[Abdullah Sadiq]]
*[[Scott Shenker]]
*[[Chao Tang]]
*[[Jorge V. José]]
}}
|field             = [[Theoretical physics]]
|work_institutions = [[University of Chicago]]
|known_for         = [[Renormalization group]] theory of [[phase transition]]s<br>Application of [[operator algebras]] in [[statistical mechanics]]<br>[[Universality (dynamical systems)|Universality]]<br>[[Luttinger–Ward functional|Baym–Kadanoff functional]]
|prizes            = [[Wolf Prize in Physics]] {{small|(1980)}}<br />[[Elliott Cresson Medal]] {{small|(1986)}}<br />[[Lars Onsager Prize]] {{small|(1998)}}<br>[[Lorentz Medal]] {{small|(2006)}}<br />[[Isaac Newton Medal]] {{small|(2011)}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://physics.uchicago.edu/about/honors/index.html#Kadanoff|title=Honors by Faculty|work=uchicago.edu|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110613105056/http://physics.uchicago.edu/about/honors/index.html#Kadanoff|archive-date=2011-06-13}}</ref>
}}
'''Leo Philip Kadanoff''' (January 14, 1937 – October 26, 2015) was an American [[physicist]].<ref>{{cite journal|author-link1=Michael P. Brenner|author=Brenner, Michael P.|author2=Nagel, Sidney R.|author-link2=Sidney R. Nagel|title=Obituary. Leo Philip Kadanoff|journal=Physics Today|volume=69|issue=4|pages=69–70|date=April 2016|doi=10.1063/pt.3.3146|bibcode=2016PhT....69d..69B|doi-access=free}}</ref> He was a professor of physics (emeritus from 2004)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://physics.uchicago.edu/about/contact/faculty.html#Kadanoff|title=Faculty Directory|work=uchicago.edu|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110613111458/http://physics.uchicago.edu/about/contact/faculty.html#Kadanoff|archive-date=2011-06-13}}</ref> at the [[University of Chicago]] and a former president of the [[American Physical Society]] (APS).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://aps.org/about/governance/presidents.cfm|title=History of the APS Presidential Line|access-date=23 June 2011}}</ref>  He contributed to the fields of [[statistical physics]], [[chaos theory]], and theoretical [[condensed matter physics]].

==Biography==
Kadanoff was raised in [[New York City]]. He received his undergraduate degree and doctorate<ref>{{cite web|url=http://physics.uchicago.edu/research/areas/condensed_t.html#Kadanoff|title=Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics|work=uchicago.edu|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110618145626/http://physics.uchicago.edu/research/areas/condensed_t.html#Kadanoff|archive-date=2011-06-18}}</ref> in physics (1960) from [[Harvard University]]. After a post-doctorate at the [[Niels Bohr Institute]] in [[Copenhagen]], he joined the physics faculty at the [[University of Illinois]] in 1965.

Kadanoff's early research focused upon [[superconductivity]].  In the late 1960s, he studied the organization of matter in [[phase transition]]s.  Kadanoff demonstrated that sudden changes in material properties (such as the magnetization of a magnet or the boiling of a fluid) could be understood in terms of scaling and universality. With his collaborators, he showed how all the experimental data then available for the changes, called [[second-order phase transition]]s, could be understood in terms of these two ideas. These same ideas have now been extended to apply to a broad range of scientific and engineering problems, and have found numerous and important applications in urban planning, computer science, hydrodynamics, biology, applied mathematics and geophysics. In recognition of these achievements, he won the [[Buckley Prize]] of the American Physical Society (1977), the [[Wolf Prize in Physics]] (1980), the 1989 [[Boltzmann Medal]] of the [[International Union of Pure and Applied Physics]], and the 2006 [[Lorentz Medal]].

In 1969 he moved to [[Brown University]].  He exploited mathematical analogies between solid state physics and urban growth to shed insights into the latter field, so much so that he contributed substantially to the statewide planning program in Rhode Island.  In 1978 he moved to the [[University of Chicago]], where he became the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor of Physics and Mathematics.   Much of his work in the second half of his career involved contributions to chaos theory, in both mechanical and fluid systems. He was elected a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1982.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter K|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterK.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=June 21, 2011}}</ref>

He was one of the recipients of the 1999 [[National Medal of Science]], awarded by [[Bill Clinton|President Clinton]].  He was a member of the [[National Academy of Sciences]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Leo P. Kadanoff|url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/54014.html|access-date=2021-12-09|website=www.nasonline.org}}</ref> and of the [[American Philosophical Society]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Leo+Kadanoff&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-12-09|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> as well as being a Fellow of the [[American Physical Society]] and of the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]]. During the last decade, he has received the Quantrell Award (for excellence in teaching) from the University of Chicago, the [[Harvard Centennial Medal|Centennial Medal of Harvard University]], the [[Lars Onsager Prize]] of the [[American Physical Society]], and the [[Grande Medaille d'Or]] of the [[Académie des sciences]] de l'[[Institut de France]].

His textbook with [[Gordon Baym]], ''Quantum Statistical Mechanics'' ({{ISBN|020141046X}}), is a prominent text in the field and has been widely translated.

With [[Leo Irakliotis]], Kadanoff established the [http://mps.uchicago.edu/ Center for Presentation of Science] at the University of Chicago.

In June 2013, it was stated that anonymous donors had provided a $3.5 million gift to establish the [[Leo Kadanoff Center for Theoretical Physics]] at the University of Chicago.<ref>{{cite web |date=June 11, 2013 |title=Anonymous gift of $3.5 million to support Leo Kadanoff Center for Theoretical Physics |url=https://news.uchicago.edu/article/2013/06/11/anonymous-gift-35-million-support-leo-kadanoff-center-theoretical-physics }}</ref>  He died after complications from an illness on October 26, 2015.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/chicagotribune/obituary.aspx?n=leo-kadanoff&pid=176236342&fhid=14572|title=Leo Kadanoff Obituary - Skokie, IL - ChicagoTribune.com|work=ChicagoTribune.com}}</ref> In 2018 the American Physical Society established the [[Leo P. Kadanoff Prize]] in his honor.

==Publications (selection)==
* "Scaling laws for Ising models near <math>T_c</math>", ''Physics'' '''2'''(263), 1966. (The seminal paper for the development of renormalization group theory; see [[History of renormalization group theory]].)
* "Operator Algebra and the Determination of Critical Indices", ''Phys. Rev. Lett.'' '''23'''(1430), 1969. (The seminal paper for the development of conformal field theory; see [[History of conformal field theory]].)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://jfi.uchicago.edu/~leop/ "Leo P. Kadanoff"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180109101742/http://jfi.uchicago.edu/~leop/ |date=2018-01-09 }} at the University of Chicago
** [http://jfi.uchicago.edu/~leop/publications.html "Publications of Leo P. Kadanoff"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171013063139/http://jfi.uchicago.edu/~leop/publications.html |date=2017-10-13 }}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20091026162953/http://www.q2cfestival.com/play.php?lecture_id=7976 Video of Leo Kadanoff on the opening panel at the Quantum to Cosmos festival]

{{Wolf Prize in Physics}}
{{Presidents of the American Physical Society}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kadanoff, Leo}}
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:2015 deaths]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society]]
[[Category:Lorentz Medal winners]]
[[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:National Medal of Science laureates]]
[[Category:Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize winners]]
[[Category:Wolf Prize in Physics laureates]]
[[Category:Jewish American physicists]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:University of Chicago faculty]]
[[Category:21st-century American physicists]]
[[Category:20th-century American physicists]]
[[Category:Brown University faculty]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:Presidents of the American Physical Society]]
[[Category:Statistical physicists]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Boltzmann Medal]]