Leon Cooper

Infobox Scientist
box width = 300px
name = Leon Cooper


imagesize = 120px
birth_date = birth date and age|1930|2|28
birth_place = New York City, U.S.
residence = United States
nationality = United States
field = Physics
alma_mater = Columbia University
work_institution = Brown University
doctoral_advisor = Robert Serber
doctoral_students = Elie Bienenstock
Paul Munro
Nathan Intrator
Omer Artun
Michael Perrone
Alan Saul
known_for = Superconductivity
Cooper pairs
prizes = nowrap|Nobel Prize in Physics (1972)
footnotes =

Leon Neil Cooper (born February 28, 1930) is an American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate, who with John Bardeen and John Robert Schrieffer, developed the BCS theory of superconductivity. He is also the namesake of the Cooper pair.

Biography

Cooper graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1947 and received a B.A. in 1951, M.A. in 1953, and Ph.D. in 1954 from Columbia University. He spent a year at the Institute for Advanced Study and taught at the University of Illinois and Ohio State University before coming to Brown University in 1958. He is the Thomas J. Watson, Sr. Professor of Science at Brown, and Director of the Institute for Brain and Neural Systems.

A fellow of the American Physical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Philosophical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, associate, Neurosciences Research Program, he was an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow from 1959 to 1966 and a Guggenheim Fellow in 1965-66. He has carried out research at various institutions including the Institute for Advanced Study, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland.

In addition to his Nobel Prize, Dr. Cooper has received the Comstock Prize (with Dr. Schrieffer) of the National Academy of Sciences; the Award of Excellence, Graduate Faculties Alumni of Columbia University and Descartes Medal, Academie de Paris, Université René Descartes and the John Jay Award of Columbia College. He also has been awarded seven honorary doctorates.

He is the author of an unconventional liberal-arts physics textbook, originally "An Introduction to the Meaning and Structure of Physics" (Harper and Row, 1968) and still in print in a somewhat condensed form as "Physics: Structure and Meaning" (Lebanon: New Hampshire, University Press of New England, 1992).

Many printed materials, including the Nobel Prize website, have referred to Dr. Cooper as “Leon Neil Cooper”. However, the middle initial N does not stand for Neil, or for any other name. The correct form of the name is, thus, “Leon N Cooper”, with no abbreviation dots. According to his family, the "N" does indeed stand for a name, that name being Nathan.

Publications

*Cooper, L. N. & J. Rainwater. [http://www.osti.gov/cgi-bin/rd_accomplishments/display_biblio.cgi?id=ACC0120&numPages=56&fp=N "Theory of Multiple Coulomb Scattering from Extended Nuclei"] , Nevis Cyclotron Laboratories at Columbia University, Office of Naval Research (ONR), United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (August 1954).
*Cooper, L. N., Lee, H. J., Schwartz, B. B. & W. Silvert. [http://www.osti.gov/cgi-bin/rd_accomplishments/display_biblio.cgi?id=ACC0121&numPages=13&fp=N "Theory of the Knight Shift and Flux Quantization in Superconductors"] , Brown University, United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (May 1962).

External links

* [http://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/cooper.html Biography and Bibliographic Resources] , from the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, United States Department of Energy
* [http://physics.nobel.brainparad.com/leon_neil_cooper.html Leon Neil Cooper]
* [http://www.physics.brown.edu/people/detail.asp?id=5 Cooper's work at Brown University]
* "Critical Review" [http://www.brown.edu/Students/Critical_Review/modules/CR_Nav/nav_search.php?edition=All&coursecode=&instructor=Cooper&department=PH&coursetitle=&submit=Search evaluations] of Professor Cooper

Persondata
NAME= Cooper, Leon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Cooper, Leon N.
SHORT DESCRIPTION= American Physicist
DATE OF BIRTH= 28 February 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH= New York City, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=