Duncan Haldane is a physicist whose work has overturned previously accepted theories. His original insights into a variety of problems have stimulated advances in both quantum field theory — the construction of mechanical models of tiny particles — and condensed matter physics, the physical properties of condensed matter. His work has applications that include the modelling of the early Universe.
He is renowned for his advancements in theoretical magnetism and the theory of the fractional quantum Hall effect, a phenomenon observed in electrons. His key work includes determining the solution of the Anderson model and understanding differences in the excitation of spin chains, amongst other findings.
Duncan is currently Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics at Princeton University, where he runs courses through the Princeton Centre for Complex Materials. He has published several key papers in his field and was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1986. He received the 1993 Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize of the American Physical Society and is a co-recipient of the 2012 ICTP Dirac Medal.
Awards
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Nobel Prize in Physics
jointly with J. Michael Kosterlitz for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.
