Robert B. Laughlin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Robert Betts Laughlin
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| Born | November 1, 1950 Visalia, California, United States
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| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | MIT University of California, Berkeley |
| Known for | Quantum Hall effect |
| Awards | E. O. Lawrence Award (1984) Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize (1986) Nobel Prize in Physics (1998) The Franklin Medal (1998) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Theoretical physics |
| Institutions | Stanford |
| Doctoral advisor | John D. Joannopoulos |
Robert Betts Laughlin, born on November 1, 1950, is a famous American physicist. He is a professor of physics at Stanford University.
He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1998. He shared this award with Horst L. Störmer and Daniel C. Tsui. They won for explaining a special behavior of electrons. This behavior is called the fractional quantum Hall effect.
In 1983, Laughlin created a special mathematical idea. It is called the Laughlin wavefunction. This idea helped explain how electrons act in the fractional quantum Hall effect. It showed why electrons seemed to have only a part of their normal charge.
About Robert Laughlin
Robert Laughlin was born in Visalia, California. He studied mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his first degree there in 1972. Later, he got his Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1979.
From 2004 to 2006, he was the president of KAIST. This is a science and technology university in Daejeon, South Korea.
Awards and Honors
Robert Laughlin has received many important awards for his work. These awards recognize his big contributions to physics.
- E. O. Lawrence Award in Physics – 1984
- Oliver E. Buckley Prize – 1986
- Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society – 1986
- National Academy of Sciences – 1994
- Benjamin Franklin Medal for Physics – 1998
- Nobel Prize in Physics – 1998
- Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement – 1999
- Doctorate of Letters, University of Maryland – 2005
- Onsager Medal – 2007
See also
In Spanish: Robert B. Laughlin para niños
