Gordon Baym
{{Short description|American physicist (born 1935)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Gordon Baym
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1935|7|1|mf=y}}
| birth_place = New York City, U.S.
| field = Physics
| work_institution = University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
| alma_mater = Cornell University
Harvard University
| known_for = Baym–Kadanoff functional
| doctoral_advisor = Julian Schwinger
| doctoral_students = Ruben Gerardo Barrera
| prizes = {{nowrap|Hans A. Bethe Prize (2002)
Lars Onsager Prize (2008)
Eugene Feenberg Memorial Medal (2011)}}
APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research (2021)
}}
Gordon Alan Baym (born July 1, 1935) is an American theoretical physicist.
Biography
Born in New York City, he graduated from the Brooklyn Technical High School, and received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University in 1956. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1960, studying under Julian Schwinger.
He joined the physics faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1963, becoming a full professor in 1968. His areas of research include condensed-matter physics, nuclear physics and astrophysics, as well as the history of physics.
In 1962 he and Leo Kadanoff collaborated on Quantum Statistical Mechanics: Green's Function Methods in Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium Problems. In 1969 he published Lectures on Quantum Mechanics, a widely used graduate textbook that, unconventionally, begins with photon polarization. In 1991 he and Chris Pethick published the monograph Landau Fermi-Liquid Theory: Concepts and Applications.
Baym was awarded the Hans A. Bethe Prize in 2002 "For his superb synthesis of fundamental concepts which have provided an understanding of matter at extreme conditions, ranging from crusts and interiors of neutron stars to matter at ultrahigh temperature".[http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?name=Gordon%20Baym&year=2002 Prize Recipient] He also received the Lars Onsager Prize in 2008 "for fundamental applications of statistical physics to quantum fluids, including Fermi liquid theory and ground-state properties of dilute quantum gases, and for bringing a conceptual unity to these areas"[http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?name=Gordon%20Baym&year=2008 Prize Recipient] along with Christopher Pethick and Tin-Lun Ho.
He has four children, professors of communications Nancy Baym and Geoffrey Baym, mathematician and biologist Michael Baym, and cognitive neuroscientist Carol Baym. He was married from 1958 to 1970 to Nina Baym, a professor of English at the UIUC,{{cite newspaper|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/obituaries/nina-baym-who-brought-novels-by-women-to-light-dies-at-82.html|title=Nina Baym, Who Brought Novels by Women to LIght, Dies at 82|author=Genzlinger, Neil|author-link=Neil Genzlinger|date=June 22, 2018|newspaper=The New York Times}} and from 1981 to 1992 to Lillian Hoddeson, a professor of history at UIUC.{{cite web|title=Lillian E. Hoddeson|website=University of Illinois Archives|url=https://archon.library.illinois.edu/archives/index.php?p=creators/creator&id=2550}}{{cn|date=April 2021}}
Awards and honors
- Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1981{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter B|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|accessdate=May 28, 2011}}
- Member of the National Academy of Sciences, 1982{{cite web|title=Online directory|url=http://nas.nasonline.org/site/Dir/1034911900?pg=vprof&mbr=1001111&returl=http%3A%2F%2Fnas.nasonline.org%2Fsite%2FDir%2F1034911900%3Fpg%3Dsrch%26view%3Dbasic&retmk=search_again_link|publisher=National Acacdemy of Sciences|accessdate=December 13, 2011}}
- Member of the American Philosophical Society, 2000
- Hans A. Bethe Prize, 2002
- Lars Onsager Prize, 2008
- Eugene Feenberg Memorial Medal, 2011
- APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research, 2021
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.physics.uiuc.edu/People/Baym/ Gordon Baym, Department of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign]
- {{cite web | last = Baym | first = Gordon | title = Bose-Einstein Condensation Everywhere Else | publisher = Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics | url = http://online.kitp.ucsb.edu/online/becconf/baym/ | accessdate = 2008-04-27 | format = RealAudio}}. Recording of a lecture, April 3, 2008.
{{Hans Bethe Prize recipients}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baym, Gordon}}
Category:21st-century American physicists
Category:Cornell University alumni
Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Category:Harvard University alumni
Category:University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty
Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Category:American theoretical physicists