David Adler (physicist)
| David Adler | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | April 13, 1935 Bronx, New York |
| Died |
March 31, 1987 (aged 51) Lexington, Massachusetts |
| Fields | Condensed matter physics |
| Institutions | MIT, Atomic Energy Research Establishment |
| Alma mater | RPI, Harvard |
| Doctoral advisor | Harvey Brooks |
David Adler (April 13, 1935 – March 31, 1987) was an American physicist and MIT professor. In condensed matter physics, Adler made significant contributions to the understanding of transition-metal oxides, the electronic properties of low-mobility materials, transport phenomena in amorphous materials, metal-insulator transitions, and electronic defects in amorphous semiconductors.
In particular, Dr. Adler was an expert on amorphous semiconductors, glassy substances that lack the precise atomic structure of semiconductor crystals. As a collaborator with Stanford Ovshinsky and other physicists at Energy Conversion Devices, Inc., where Adler consulted, he published extensively on solar photovoltaic energy conversion, and threshold switching and memory devices. He was also renowned for the “originality and clarity” of his review articles, which have been described as “among the clearest and best written in any field of science and technology.”
Adler was born in the Bronx to Russian immigrant parents and attended the Bronx High School of Science. He then received his B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in 1956 and his doctorate in physics from Harvard University in 1964. At Harvard, Adler started a dissertation on quantum field theory advised by Julian Schwinger at a time when Prof. Schwinger was revolutionizing theoretical physics. But Schwinger, who has been criticized for ignoring his graduate students, lost Adler’s thesis draft, and Adler changed his research direction, completing his Ph.D. on the theory of semiconductor-to-metal transitions with Harvey Brooks.
Next, Dr. Adler worked for a year as a research associate at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) in Harwell, United Kingdom. He then became a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1965, advancing to full professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1975. During his relatively short career, Adler published almost 300 papers in technical journals and presented over 80 invited papers at scientific meetings throughout the world.
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