Radzihovsky named Simons Foundation Investigator

Leo Radzihovsky, professor of physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been selected as a Simons Foundation Investigator in theoretical physics.

The Simons Foundation is a private foundation based in New York City whose mission is to advance the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences.

Simons Investigators are outstanding theoretical scientists who receive long-term research support from the foundation.

The Simons Investigators Program supports outstanding theoretical physicists in their most productive years, when they are establishing creative new research directions, providing leadership to the field, and effectively mentoring junior scientists.

Simons Investigators receive research support of $100,000 per year for five years, renewable for an additional five years. The Simons Investigators program provides a stable base of support for outstanding mid-career scientists, enabling them to undertake long-term studies of fundamental questions.



Radzihovsky is a condensed-matter physicist whose work bridges the divide between the classical and quantum aspects of the subject, using mathematical tools and insights developed in one field to make seminal contributions in the other.

His focus is on systems in which fluctuations and heterogeneity play qualitative roles. He is known for his work on bent-core and other exotic liquid crystals; on fluctuating membranes and driven elastic media in the presence of quenched disorder, including the prediction of the transverse smectic phase; and on degenerate atomic gasses, where his rigorous work on the BCS-BEC crossover, particularly in systems with narrow Feshbach resonances, with and without “spin” imbalance, uncovered a host of new phenomena including topological phase transitions.

Radzihovsky was selected along with six other leading theoretical physicists for this prestigious award.

 

For more information, see:

http://www.simonsfoundation.org/mathematics-and-physical-science/simons-investigators/simons-investigators-awardees/