After a start in theoretical solid-state physics, Ekhard Salje became one of the world leaders in applying the theoretical and experimental advances of physics to problems in mineralogy and solid-state-physics. His work on feldspars showed how the internal state of order and strain in a mineral can be understood and related to its geological history via a few parameters in the Landau free energy. This approach has been successfully extended to kinetics and resulting textures. He was first to use the line shape of ‘hard’ phonons to measure degree of order, a technique particularly useful in complex mineral structures. He studied metal–insulator transition in terms of the behaviour of polaron gas. The stability of minerals and functional materials was elucidated by resonance methods and the avalanche properties of collapsing porous materials was shown to reproduce the acoustic fingerprints of earthquakes and the stability of mine shafts. He demonstrated atomic mechanisms of acoustic emission during mechanical and electric perturbations. His work on multiferroic materials in physics and material sciences is internationally leading.
Professor Ekhard Salje FRS died in March 2025.
Professional position
- Fellow, German National Academy of Sciences
- Ulam Fellow, Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Visiting Professor, Paris SUD Universites
- Visiting Professor, Universidad del País Vasco
- Visiting Professor, Université du Maine
- Visiting Professor, Nagoya University
- President, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge
- Fellow, Reial Acadèmia de Ciències i Arts de Barcelona
Subject groups
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Astronomy and Physics
Crystallography, Condensed matter incl softmatter, liquids, nano-materials
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Earth and Environmental Sciences
Geochemistry
