J. Michael Kosterlitz
Facts
© Nobel Media AB. Photo: A. Mahmoud
J. Michael Kosterlitz
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2016
Born: 22 June 1943, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
Affiliation at the time of the award: Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
Prize motivation: “for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”
Prize share: 1/4
Life
Michael Kosterlitz was born into a family of Jewish immigrants in Aberdeen, Scotland. His father was a biochemist. Kosterlitz studied at Cambridge University and received a PhD at Oxford University in 1969. Thereafter he carried out some of his Nobel Prize awarded work with David Thouless at the University of Birmingham. In 1982, Kosterlitz became a professor at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Michael Kosterlitz is married with three children.
Work
Matter occurs in different phases, for example as a gas, liquid or solid. At very low temperatures unusual phases may occur, for example superconductivity, when electric current flows without resistance, and superfluidity, when a fluid flows without resistance. To describe these phases and phase transitions Michael Kosterlitz used the concepts of topology, a branch of mathematics. For example, in the early 1970s he and David Thouless described phase transitions in thin layers at low temperatures.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
