Michael Berry (physicist) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sir
Michael Berry
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Berry in 2015
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| Born |
Michael Victor Berry
14 March 1941 Surrey, England, United Kingdom
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| Alma mater | University of Exeter (BSc) University of St. Andrews (PhD) |
| Known for |
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| Awards | Maxwell Medal and Prize (1978) Fellow of the Royal Society (1982) Lilienfeld Prize (1990) Royal Medal (1990) IOP Dirac Medal (1990) Naylor Prize and Lectureship (1992) ICTP Dirac Medal (1996) Knight Bachelor (1996) Wolf Prize (1998) Ig Nobel prize (2000) Onsager Medal (2001) Pólya Prize (2005) Lorentz Medal (2014) |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of Bristol |
| Thesis | The diffraction of light by ultrasound (1965) |
| Doctoral advisor | Robert Balson Dingle |
| Doctoral students | |
Sir Michael Victor Berry, born on March 14, 1941, is a British scientist who studies theoretical physics. He is a retired professor of physics at the University of Bristol.
He is famous for discovering something called the Berry phase. This is a special effect seen in tiny particles (in quantum mechanics) and in light (in optics). He also works on quantum chaos, which looks at how things behave in a messy or unpredictable way at the quantum level.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Michael Berry grew up in a Jewish family. His father was a taxi driver in London, and his mother was a dressmaker.
He went to the University of Exeter and earned a bachelor's degree in physics. Later, he got his PhD from the University of St. Andrews. His PhD paper was about how light bends when it passes through sound waves.
Career and Research
Sir Michael Berry spent his entire career at the University of Bristol. He started as a research fellow in 1965. Over the years, he became a lecturer, then a reader, and finally a Professor of Physics.
From 1988 to 2006, he was a special research professor for the Royal Society. Since 2006, he has been a retired professor at Bristol University.
Awards and Honors
Sir Michael Berry has received many important awards for his work. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1982. This is a very high honor for scientists in the UK. In 1996, he was knighted, which means he received the title "Sir."
From 2006 to 2012, he was the editor of a science journal called Proceedings of the Royal Society A.
Some of his notable awards include:
- Maxwell Medal and Prize, 1978
- Elected Fellow of the Royal Society, 1982
- Dirac Medal from the Institute of Physics, 1990
- Royal Medal from the Royal Society, 1990
- Wolf Prize for Physics, 1998 (shared with Yakir Aharonov)
- Ig Nobel Prize for Physics, 2000 (shared with Andre Geim)
The Ig Nobel Prize
In 2000, Sir Michael Berry won an Ig Nobel Prize for Physics. This award is given for funny or unusual scientific research. He won it with Andre Geim for their work on making a frog float using magnets. This experiment was later used as inspiration for a lunar gravity research facility in China.
Other Recognitions
- Onsager Medal, 2001
- Pólya Prize, 2005
- Lorentz Medal, 2014
See also
- Quantum chaos
- Superoscillation
