Nobel laureate Philip W. Anderson Receives the Richard E. Prange Prize and Lectureship in Condensed Matter Theory and Related Areas

Pioneering theorist and Nobel laureate Philip W. Anderson was on campus on October 19 & 20 to accept the Richard E. Prange Prize and Lectureship in Condensed Matter Theory and Related Areas. The award, newly established by the UMD Department of Physics and Condensed Matter Theory Center (CMTC) and made possible by a gift from Dr. Prange’s wife, Dr. Madeline Joullié, was presented by Drs. Joullié, Baden and Das Sarma.

Reconnecting Magnetic Fields

James Drake co-wrote the cover article for the September/October 2009 issues of American Scientist Magazine. The article, written with James Burch, is on magnetic reconnection. The cover (front and back) is an artist's rendering of the sun. Burch is the PI of the NASA MMS mission, a $1billion, four-satellite constellation, that will study magnetic reconnection in the Earth's magnetosphere.

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ADM Formulation

Texas A&M University, supported by the Department of Physics and College of Science, is holding a three-day conference in recognition of the 50th Anniversary of the ADM formulation. The ADM formulation, developed by Richard Arnowitt, Stanley Deser and Maryland’s Charles Misner, restructured the dynamics of general relativity.“Einstein's 1915 gravitation equations had both unfamiliar content (spacetime is curved) but also a mathematical form that intimidated physicists (including Einstein) familiar with Newton's mechanics and Maxwell's electromagnetism,” said Professor Misner.

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