David Sherrington (physicist) facts for kids

David Sherrington is a brilliant British scientist. He is a theoretical physicist. This means he uses math and ideas to understand how the universe works. He taught physics at Oxford University. He is famous for inventing a special model. It helps us understand materials called "spin glasses."

David Sherrington's Journey

David Sherrington was born in Blackpool, England, in 1941. He grew up in Yorkshire. He loved physics from a young age. He studied at the University of Manchester. He earned his first degree in physics in 1962. Then, he got his PhD in theoretical physics in 1966.

After his studies, David taught at Manchester for a short time. Then, he moved to Imperial College London. He started as a lecturer there. He later became a professor. In 1989, he joined Oxford University. He became the head of the Theoretical Physics department. He was also a Fellow at New College. He retired from leading the department in 2004. He stopped teaching in 2008.

David has also been a very important editor. He has been Editor-in-Chief of Advances in Physics since 1984. He helped start another journal called Communications on Physics. He also edited the Oxford Monographs in Physics book series.

Awards and Honors

David Sherrington has received many important awards. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very high honor for scientists in the UK. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. In 2001, he received the Bakerian Medal. This is a special award from the Royal Society. In 2007, he won the Dirac Medal and Prize. This came from the Institute of Physics. In 2010, he received the Blaise Pascal Medal. This was from the European Academy.

Amazing Discoveries

David Sherrington's work focuses on how materials behave. He studies condensed matter physics. This looks at how atoms and electrons interact in solids and liquids. He also works in statistical physics. This uses statistics to understand large systems. He is especially interested in complex systems. These are systems with many parts that interact in complicated ways.

The Sherrington-Kirkpatrick Model

Perhaps his most famous discovery is the Sherrington–Kirkpatrick model. He invented this in 1975 with Scott Kirkpatrick. This model helps us understand "spin glasses." Imagine tiny magnets (spins) inside a material. In a spin glass, these magnets are jumbled up. They point in random directions. They also interact with each other in a very complex way.

The Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model is special. It shows how every tiny magnet in the material interacts with every other magnet. The way they interact is random. This model was important because another scientist, Giorgio Parisi, found a way to solve it. This means they could understand how spin glasses behave at different temperatures. The solution showed that spin glasses can enter a "glassy phase." In this phase, the magnets get stuck in a frozen, random pattern.

Other Important Work

David Sherrington has continued to study spin glasses. He has also worked on other complex systems. One example is the minority game. This is a model that helps understand how people make decisions in competitive situations. He also did early work on network theory. This looks at how different parts of a system are connected.

See also

• Spin glass
• Artificial neural network