Rolf Landauer facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rolf William Landauer
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Landauer September 1969
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| Born | February 4, 1927 |
| Died | April 27, 1999 (aged 72) |
| Nationality | German American |
| Alma mater | Stuyvesant High School Harvard University |
| Known for | Landauer's principle Landauer formula |
| Awards | Stuart Ballantine Medal (1992) Oliver E. Buckley Prize (1995) Edison Medal (1998) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physicist |
| Institutions | NASA IBM |
| Thesis | Phase Integral Approximations in Wave Mechanics: I. Reflections in One-Dimensional Wave Mechanics. II. Phase Integral Approximations in Two and Three Dimensions. (1950) |
| Doctoral advisor | Léon Brillouin Wendell Furry |
Rolf William Landauer (born February 4, 1927 – died April 27, 1999) was a smart German-American scientist. He made big discoveries in how computers handle information. He also studied how electricity moves through different materials.
Born in Germany, he moved to the U.S. in 1938. He earned his science degree from Harvard University in 1950. Most of his work life was spent at IBM, a famous technology company.
In 1961, he found something called Landauer's principle. It says that when a computer does something that can't be undone, like deleting a file, it uses a tiny bit of energy and creates heat. This idea is super important for making faster and more efficient computers, including quantum computing. He also created the Landauer formula. This helps us understand how easily electricity flows through different materials. He won many awards for his work. These included the Stuart Ballantine Medal and the IEEE Edison Medal.
Contents
Rolf Landauer's Early Life and Education
Rolf Landauer was born on February 4, 1927, in Stuttgart, Germany. His family moved to the United States in 1938. They left Germany to escape unfair treatment of Jewish people.
He finished high school in 1943 at Stuyvesant High School. This school in New York City is known for math and science. He then went to Harvard University and got his first degree in 1945. After serving in the US Navy, he went back to Harvard. He earned his Ph.D. (a very high science degree) in 1950. His main teachers were Léon Brillouin and Wendell H. Furry.
Working at NASA and IBM
After college, Rolf Landauer worked for two years at NASA. At that time, it was called the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. He worked at the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland.
When he was 25, he started working at IBM Research. IBM is a huge technology company. He spent most of his career there. In the mid-1960s, he helped manage IBM's research. He worked on many projects, including special lasers used in computers. In 1969, IBM gave him a special title: IBM Fellow. This showed how important his work was.
Big Ideas in Science
After 1969, much of Rolf Landauer's research focused on tiny structures. He studied how small systems change between different stable states. He showed that even small amounts of "noise" (like random energy changes) affect how these systems behave.
He also had new ideas about how electricity moves. He thought of electric flow as coming from "current sources." This was different from just thinking about electric fields. He was also a leader in understanding how information works. His ideas helped show that computers could communicate using very little energy.
Rolf William Landauer passed away on April 27, 1999. He died at his home in Briarcliff Manor from brain cancer.
Awards and Special Recognitions
Rolf Landauer received many honors for his amazing work:
- He was a Fellow of the IEEE.
- He became a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
- He was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
- He joined the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.
- He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- He received an honorary doctorate from Technion in Israel.
- In 1991, he was a Scott Lecturer at Cambridge University.
- In 1992, he won the Stuart Ballantine Medal.
- Harvard University gave him a Centennial Medal in 1993.
- In 1995, he won the Oliver E. Buckley Prize.
- He received the LVMH Science for Art Prize in 1997.
- In 1998, he earned the IEEE Edison Medal. This was for his important work on the physics of computing.
- The International ETOPIM Association created the Rolf Landauer Medal in 2009.
His wide range of work was celebrated in special issues of two science journals.
See also
- Persistent current
- Tunnel ionization
