George Sawatzky is a physicist who is best known for his research in the area of solid state physics. George has made major contributions to our understanding of the electronic structure of nanostructured strongly correlated materials, including magnetic materials, high-temperature superconductors and materials for molecular electronics applications.
He pioneered the use of cluster diagonalization methods to describe the electronic structure of transition metal compounds as well as the spectroscopic results obtained from these compounds. His work has contributed to an improved understanding of widely used methods such as X-ray absorption, magnetic X-ray dichroism, Auger electron spectroscopy and various forms of resonant X-ray scattering.
George has been a member of many prestigious advisory committees, including the Science Advisory Committee of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. He has received a huge number of awards and honours, including the 2007 Henry Marshall Tory Medal of the Royal Society of Canada.
