Kenneth Geddes "Ken" Wilson (June 8, 1936 – June 15, 2013) was an American theoretical physicist and a pioneer in using computers for studying particle physics. He was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on phase transitions—illuminating the subtle essence of phenomena like melting ice and emerging magnetism. It was embodied in his fundamental work on the renormalization group.

Life

Wilson was born on June 8, 1936, in Waltham, Massachusetts, the oldest child of Emily Buckingham Wilson and E. Bright Wilson, a prominent chemist at Harvard University, who did

important work on microwave emissions. His mother also trained as a physicist. He attended several schools, including Magdalen College School, Oxford, England,

ending up at the George School in eastern Pennsylvania.

He went on to Harvard College at age 16, majoring in Mathematics and, on two occasions, in 1954 and 1956, ranked among the top five in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition.{{cite web |title=Putnam Competition Individual and Team Winners |url=http://www.maa.org/programs/maa-awards/putnam-competition-individual-and-team-winners |publisher=Mathematical Association of America |access-date=December 10, 2021 |archive-date=March 12, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140312205244/http://www.maa.org/programs/maa-awards/putnam-competition-individual-and-team-winners |url-status=dead }}

He was also a star on the athletics track, representing Harvard in the Mile. During his summer holidays he worked at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He earned his PhD from Caltech in 1961, studying under Murray Gell-Mann.Wilson, K. G. (1961). "An investigation of the Low equation and the Chew-Mandelstam equations", Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology. [http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechETD:etd-10222002-104500] He did post-doc work at Harvard and CERN.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/science/kenneth-wilson-nobel-physicist-dies-at-77.html|title=Kenneth Wilson, Nobel Physicist, Dies at 77|first=Dennis|last=Overbye|date=20 June 2013|access-date=10 April 2018|newspaper=The New York Times}}

He joined Cornell University in 1963 in the Department of Physics as a junior faculty member, becoming a full professor in 1970. He also did research at SLAC during this period.Wilson, K. G. [https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4141859-broken-scale-invariance-anomalous-dimensions "Broken Scale Invariance and Anomalous Dimensions"], Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC,)Stanford University, Laboratory of Nuclear Studies, Cornell University, United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (May 1970). In 1974, he became the James A. Weeks Professor of Physics at Cornell.

In 1982 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on critical phenomena using the renormalization group.{{Cite journal | last1 = Wilson | first1 = K. | title = The renormalization group and the ε expansion | doi = 10.1016/0370-1573(74)90023-4 | journal = Physics Reports | volume = 12 | issue = 2 | pages = 75–199| year = 1974 |bibcode = 1974PhR....12...75W }}; {{Cite journal | last1 = Wilson | first1 = K. | title = The renormalization group and critical phenomena | doi = 10.1103/RevModPhys.55.583 | journal = Reviews of Modern Physics | volume = 55 | issue = 3 | pages = 583–600 | year = 1983 |bibcode = 1983RvMP...55..583W }}; {{Cite journal | last1 = Wilson | first1 = K. G. | doi = 10.1016/0031-8914(74)90229-8 | title = Critical phenomena in 3.99 dimensions | journal = Physica | volume = 73 | issue = 1 | pages = 119–128 | year = 1974 |bibcode = 1974Phy....73..119W }}

He was a co-winner of the Wolf Prize in physics in 1980, together with Michael E. Fisher and Leo Kadanoff.

His other awards include the A.C. Eringen Medal, the Franklin Medal, the Boltzmann Medal, and the Dannie Heinemann Prize. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Science and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science, both in 1975, and also was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1984.{{cite web|title=Member History|website=American Philosophical Society|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=wilson&title=&subject=1.+Mathematical+and+Physical+Sciences&subdiv=&mem=&year=1984&year-max=1984&dead=Dead&keyword=&smode=advanced}}

In 1985, he was appointed as Cornell's Director of the Center for Theory and Simulation in Science and Engineering (now known as the Cornell Theory Center), one of five national supercomputer centers created by the National Science Foundation. In 1988, Wilson joined the faculty at Ohio State University. Wilson moved to Gray, Maine in 1995. He continued his association with Ohio State University until he retired in 2008. Prior to his death, he was actively involved in research on physics education and was an early proponent of "active involvement" (i.e. Science by Inquiry) of K-12 students in science and math.

Some of his PhD students include H. R. Krishnamurthy, Roman Jackiw, Michael Peskin, Serge Rudaz, Paul Ginsparg, and Steven R. White.

Wilson's brother David was also a professor at Cornell in the department of Molecular Biology and Genetics until his death,{{Cite web|url=http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2017/05/renowned-biochemist-david-b-wilson-dies-77|title=Renowned biochemist David B. Wilson dies at 77 {{!}} Cornell Chronicle|website=news.cornell.edu|language=en|access-date=2017-09-15}} and his wife since 1982, Alison Brown, is a prominent computer scientist.

He died in Saco, Maine, on June 15, 2013, at the age of 77.{{cite journal|author=Overbye, Dennis|author-link=Dennis Overbye|date=June 20, 2013|title=Kenneth Wilson, Nobel Physicist, Dies at 77|journal=NY Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/science/kenneth-wilson-nobel-physicist-dies-at-77.html}}{{cite journal|title=Physics Nobel laureate Kenneth Wilson dies|journal=Cornell Chronicle|date=June 18, 2013|url=http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2013/06/physics-nobel-laureate-kenneth-wilson-dies}} He was respectfully remembered by his colleagues.{{MathGenealogy|id=22937}}{{Cite journal | last1 = Kadanoff | first1 = L. P. | author-link1 = Leo Kadanoff| title = Kenneth Geddes Wilson (1936–2013) Nobel-prizewinning physicist who revolutionized theoretical science| doi = 10.1038/500030a | journal = Nature | volume = 500 | issue = 7460 | pages = 30 | year = 2013 | pmid = 23903743|bibcode = 2013Natur.500...30K | arxiv = 1411.6680| s2cid = 205078161 }}

Work

Wilson's work in physics involved formulation of a comprehensive theory of scaling: how fundamental properties and forces of a system vary depending on the scale over which they are measured. He devised a universal "divide-and-conquer" strategy for calculating how phase transitions occur, by considering each scale separately and then abstracting the connection between contiguous ones, in a novel appreciation of renormalization group theory. This provided profound insights into the field of critical phenomena and phase transitions in statistical physics enabling precise calculations.{{Cite journal | last1 = Wilson | first1 = K. G. | title = Renormalization Group and Critical Phenomena. I. Renormalization Group and the Kadanoff Scaling Picture | doi = 10.1103/PhysRevB.4.3174 | journal = Physical Review B | volume = 4 | issue = 9 | pages = 3174–3183 | year = 1971 |bibcode = 1971PhRvB...4.3174W | doi-access = free }}{{Cite journal | last1 = Wilson | first1 = K. | title = Renormalization Group and Critical Phenomena. II. Phase-Space Cell Analysis of Critical Behavior | doi = 10.1103/PhysRevB.4.3184 | journal = Physical Review B | volume = 4 | issue = 9 | pages = 3184–3205 | year = 1971 |bibcode = 1971PhRvB...4.3184W | doi-access = free }}{{cite journal | last1 = Wilson | first1 = K. G. | last2 = Fisher | first2 = M. | year = 1972 | title = Critical exponents in 3.99 dimensions | journal = Physical Review Letters | volume = 28 | issue = 4| page = 240 | doi=10.1103/physrevlett.28.240| bibcode = 1972PhRvL..28..240W }}{{cite journal | last1 = Wilson | first1 = K. G. | last2 = Kogut | first2 = J. | year = 1974 | title = The renormalization group and the epsilon expansion | journal = Physics Reports| volume = 12 | issue = 2| page = 75 | doi=10.1016/0370-1573(74)90023-4| bibcode = 1974PhR....12...75W }} One example of an important problem in solid-state physics he solved using renormalization is in quantitatively describing the Kondo effect.{{Cite journal | last1 = Wilson | first1 = K. | title = The renormalization group: Critical phenomena and the Kondo problem | doi = 10.1103/RevModPhys.47.773 | journal = Reviews of Modern Physics | volume = 47 | issue = 4 | pages = 773–840 | year = 1975 |bibcode = 1975RvMP...47..773W }}

He extended these insights on scaling to answer fundamental questions on the nature of quantum field theory and the operator product expansionWilson, K. G. Non-lagrangian models in current algebra Physical Review, 179, 1969, p. 1499–1512; Model of coupling constant renormalisation, Physical Review D, 2, 1970, p. 1438–1472; Wilson, K. G., Operator product expansions and anomalous dimensions in Thirring model, ibid., p. 1473–77; Anomalous dimensions and breakdown of scale invariance in perturbation theory, ibid. p. 1478–93; {{Cite journal | last1 = Wilson | first1 = K. | title = Renormalization Group and Strong Interactions | doi = 10.1103/PhysRevD.3.1818 | journal = Physical Review D | volume = 3 | issue = 8 | pages = 1818–1846 | year = 1971 |bibcode = 1971PhRvD...3.1818W | osti = 1444885 }}; {{Cite journal | last1 = Wilson | first1 = K. G. | title = Quantum Field - Theory Models in Less Than 4 Dimensions | doi = 10.1103/PhysRevD.7.2911 | journal = Physical Review D | volume = 7 | issue = 10 | pages = 2911–2926 | year = 1973 |bibcode = 1973PhRvD...7.2911W }} and the physical meaning of the renormalization group.Wilson, K. G.:Problems in physics with many scales of length, Scientific American, August 1979 {{cite web |url=http://physics.ohio-state.edu/~jay/846/Wilson.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2013-06-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120710073400/http://physics.ohio-state.edu/~jay/846/Wilson.pdf |archive-date=2012-07-10 }}

He also pioneered the understanding of the confinement of quarks inside hadrons,{{Cite journal | last1 = Wilson | first1 = K. | title = Confinement of quarks | doi = 10.1103/PhysRevD.10.2445 | journal = Physical Review D | volume = 10 | issue = 8 | pages = 2445–2459 | year = 1974 |bibcode = 1974PhRvD..10.2445W }} utilizing lattice gauge theory,

and initiating an approach permitting formerly foreboding strong-coupling calculations on computers. On such a lattice, he further shed light on chiral symmetry, a crucial feature of elementary particle interactions.{{Cite journal | last1 = Ginsparg | first1 = P. | last2 = Wilson | first2 = K. | doi = 10.1103/PhysRevD.25.2649 | title = A remnant of chiral symmetry on the lattice | journal = Physical Review D | volume = 25 | issue = 10 | pages = 2649 | year = 1982 |bibcode = 1982PhRvD..25.2649G }}

Awards and honors

Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics, 1973
Boltzmann Medal, 1975
Wolf Prize, 1980
Harvard University, D.Sc (Hon.), 1981
Caltech, Distinguished Alumni Award, 1981
Franklin Medal, 1982
Nobel Prize for Physics, 1982
Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, 1983{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=American Academy of Achievement|url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration}}
A. C. Eringen Medal, 1984
Aneesur Rahman Prize, 1993{{cite web |title=1993 Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics Recipient |url=https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?last_nm=Wilson&first_nm=Kenneth&year=1993 |publisher=American Physical Society |access-date=9 January 2022}}
American Physical Society Fellow, 1998
Australian National University, Distinguished Anniversary Fellow, 1996

Notes

External links

{{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1982 The Renormalization Group and Critical Phenomena
[http://www.nobel-winners.com/Physics/kenneth_geddes_wilson.html Kenneth G. Wilson] on www.nobel-winners.com
{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070703053459/http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~kgw/kgw.html |date=July 3, 2007 |title=Kenneth G. Wilson's Homepage (on Archive, the original at Ohio State University no longer exists) }}
[http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/briefcvs/wilson_briefcv.pdf Kenneth G. Wilson's brief CV, from Ohio State University (PDF file)]
[https://arxiv.org/find/hep-th/1/au:+Wilson_K/0/1/0/all/0/1 Publications] on ArXiv
[http://authors.library.caltech.edu/5456/1/hrst.mit.edu/hrs/renormalization/Wilson/index.html Interview with Ken Wilson in 2002]
{{cite journal |arxiv=1307.0152 |title=Kenneth Geddes Wilson, 1936-2013, An Appreciation|last=Kadanoff|first=Leo P.|date=29 Jun 2013|doi=10.1088/1742-5468/2013/10/P10016|volume=2013|issue=10|journal=Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment|page=10016|bibcode=2013JSMTE..10..016K|s2cid=119288959}}
{{cite journal |arxiv=1308.1785 |title=The Legacy of Ken Wilson|author=Cardy, John|author-link=John Cardy|date=8 August 2013|doi=10.1088/1742-5468/2013/10/P10002|volume=2013|issue=10|journal=Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment|page=10002|bibcode=2013JSMTE..10..002C|s2cid=118447708}}