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In 2010, Chapman University physics professor Yakir Aharonov was awarded the National Medal of Science by then-U.S. President Barack Obama. (Courtesy of Chapman University)
Professor Yakir Aharonov of Chapman University will be admitted to the Royal Society, Britain’s national academy of science and the oldest still in existence, in July this year.
Widely regarded as one of the foremost experts in modern quantum theory, Aharonov joins Isaac Newtown, Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer and Stephen Hawking as members of the Royal Society’s elite circle of leaders in their fields and from around the world. They are elected for life through a peer-review process based on scientific excellence.
The honor, a sort of lifetime achievement award, recognizes the 91-year-old’s groundbreaking work in physics, dating back to his seminal work in the late 1950s. His 1959 co-discovery of the Aharonov-Bohm effect, the behavior of atomic particles around a magnetic field, is today considered one of the cornerstones of modern physics. Over the course of his career, he has been credited with discovering more than 30 fundamental physical effects.
“Yakir is perhaps one of the greatest theoretical quantum physicists alive today,” Chapman University President Daniele Struppa said in a statement. “His impact on physics is immeasurable. What’s incredible about Yakir is that he has built on his most famous work, the Aharonov-Bohm effect in 1959, with many more exciting discoveries. He has reframed quantum mechanics in an entirely new way, providing new ways to predict the peculiar behavior of quantum systems.”
“We are honored to have someone like Yakir as part of the Chapman community,” Stupa added. “Yakir continues to be an incredibly dynamic and creative scientist, and we are confident he will continue to make even more outstanding contributions in the future.”
Aharonov previously received the Wolf Foundation Prize, one of the most important awards in the field of physics, and in 2010 he was awarded the National Medal of Science, the United States’ highest scientific award, by then-President Barack Obama.
Aharonov was born in Haifa, Israel in 1932 and served as professor of physics at Tel Aviv University (professor emeritus), the University of Southern California, and George Mason University before joining the Chapman University faculty in 2008. He currently serves as director of the Quantum Institute.
“Aharonov is a giant of science,” says Sandu Popescu, another key collaborator at the Chapman Institute for Quantum Studies, “and one of the most important and far-reaching contributions of any contemporary physicist to shaping our understanding of the nature of quantum mechanics.”
When he chose Chapman in 2008, Aharonov said he “could have gone to any university in the world,” but chose the Orange-based institution because of the opportunity “to create one of the best universities in the world.”
Chapman has been working to expand its research agenda for the 21st century. Today, it ranks among the top universities in the country when it comes to research productivity, and citations to its faculty work have increased 9,000 percent over the past 20 years, President Norma Bouchard announced at the commencement ceremony last month.
Quantum Institute continues to expand and will have a new headquarters next year in the redeveloped Killefer School Building. This historic site in Orange was home to an elementary school that integrated classes in 1944. Three years earlier, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had desegregated Orange County schools. The decision set a precedent for the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that found segregating children based on race in public schools unconstitutional. The university purchased the property from the school district and plans to renovate it as part of the project.
At 91, Akhoronov remains active in his research, spending part of June attending a conference in Egypt before being inducted into the Royal Society in London in July.
“Guided by the simplicity and beauty of the laws of physics, he pursues mysteries that relentlessly push the limits of mathematical formalism,” the Royal Society wrote about the nonagenarian in its Fellows list. “Laboratory experiments continue to test his predictions, some of the most surprising.”
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