- Victor Emery
Victor John Emery (1933 –
18 July 2002 ) was a British specialist onsuperconductor s andsuperfluidity . His model for the electronic structure of the copper-oxide planes is the starting point for many analyses of high-temperature superconductors and is commonly known as theEmery model .Biography
Early life
Emery was born in
Boston, Lincolnshire ,England , where he was educated at Staniland School andBoston Grammar School . He won the Parry Gold Medal for the best scholar in 1951 before going on to studyphysics at theUniversity of Hull , theUniversity of London and theUniversity of Manchester , where he gained aPhD inTheoretical Physics .At school Emery was a keen swimmer and the star goal-scorer of the Boston
water polo team. He also won the town's one mile swimming race on theRiver Witham on more than one occasionCareer in Theoretical Physics
After completing his studies at Manchester he spent two years as a research associate at
Cavendish Laboratory inCambridge . He was a Fellow at theUniversity of California, Berkeley until 1960. While at Berkeley in 1960, together withAndrew Sessler , he made the prediction that liquidhelium-3 would experience superfluidity, flowing without friction, at temperatures very close toabsolute zero . The theory was later confirmed experimentally. At this stage he returned to theUnited Kingdom where he spent some time as a lecturer at theUniversity of Birmingham .As a result of his work at Berkeley, Emery was invited to join the
Brookhaven National Laboratory 's Physics Department in 1964. After joining BNL he worked on fundamental theories for the behaviour of helium-3/helium-4 mixtures and later turned to the theory of organic conductors and superconductors. He provided insights into general many-body aspects ofboson andfermion systems. Through this work, Emery became one of the world's leading theorists in the study ofphase transitions , where substances change state between liquid, solid and gas.Emery's work with low-temperature superconductivity laid the foundation for his concentration over the next nine years on the theory of
high-temperature superconductivity . Discovered in 1986, high-temperature superconductors have the potential to bring superconducting technology into everyday use.Emery presented one of the first believable theories, identifying the nature of the superconducting material's 'holes', which are the carriers of the supercurrent. He correctly stated that the holes tend to sit mainly on
oxygen , rather than oncopper , contrary to initial popular belief. His model for the electronic structure of the copper-oxide planes is the starting point for many analyses of high-temperature superconductors and is commonly known as theEmery model .Victor Emery received tenure at Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1967 and was named Senior Physicist in 1972. In the Physics Department he led the
Cryogenics Group from 1973 to 1977 and the Solid State Theory Group from 1975 to 1984 and again from 1994. He also served as Associate Chairman from 1981 to 1985. Internationally recognised as one of the world's leading physicists, he won the BNL Distinguished Research and Development Award in 1996.The 1996
Nobel Prize in Physics was won by David Lee,Douglas D. Osheroff and Robert Richardson ofCornell University for their 1972 discovery that theisotope helium-3 can become superfluid at a temperature of 0.002kelvin , very close to absolute zero. Their prize-winning research was sparked by the paper Victor Emery and Andrew Sessler had written in 1960.In 1997 Emery gave the 326th Brookhaven lecture, entitled 'High Temperature Superconductors - The First Ten Years' illustrating his points with simple, non-technical terms. He explained how key experiments at BNL had led to deeper insights into the atomic structure and forces of electricity and magnetism, that underlie the mechanisms of high-temperature superconductivity. To give an example of the
Meissner effect , one part of his basic research, he showed how a 200-kilogram JapaneseSumo wrestler could float inches off the ground on a thin magnet.In 2001 Emery won the Oliver E. Buckley Prize in Condensed Matter Physics for his "fundamental contribution to the theory of interating electrons in a one-dimension". The theory is believed to be of crucial importance for understanding high temperature superconductors.
On
13 October 2001 theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences , welcomed 185 new Fellows at a ceremony at their headquarters inCambridge, Massachusetts . Those new fellows includedRichard Avedon ,Paul Newman ,Joanne Woodward ,Riley Bechtel ,Woody Allen ,Madeleine Albright ,King Juan Carlos of Spain and Victor Emery.Death
By 2002, he had been suffering from
Motor Neurone Disease for two years. The progressive debility interfered with his work until finally he could no longer go to his office. He died on18 July of that year.External links
* [http://www.bluepig.plus.com/BGS/Boys/E/emery_v.htm Victor John Emery]
* [http://www.lbl.gov/Publications/Currents/Archive/Nov-8-1996.html#RTFToC7 Nobel Prize has Berkeley Roots]
* [http://neutrons.phy.bnl.gov/DOEREVIEWFY01/charin.pdf Charge Inhomogeneity in Correlated Electron Systems][Category:Deaths from motor neurone disease|Emery, Victor]
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