Michael Kosterlitz | |
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Born | John Michael Kosterlitz June 22, 1943 Aberdeen, Scotland |
Residence | Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. |
Citizenship | United States |
Nationality | British |
Fields | Condensed matter physics |
Institutions | Brown University |
Alma mater |
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Thesis | Problems in strong interaction physics (1969) |
Academic advisors | David Thouless (postdoc) |
Known for | Kosterlitz–Thouless transition |
Notable awards |
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Website vivo |
John Michael Kosterlitz (born June 22, 1943) is a British born Anglo-American physicist. He is the professor of physics at Brown University and the son of biochemist Hans Kosterlitz. He was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in physics along with David Thouless and Duncan Haldane for work on condensed matter physics.
He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, to German Jewish émigrés, the son of the pioneering biochemistHans Walter Kosterlitz and Hannah Gresshöner. He was educated independently at Robert Gordon's College before transferring to the Edinburgh Academy to prepare for his university entrance examinations. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree, subsequently converted to a Master of Arts degree, at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. In 1969, he earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Oxford as a postgraduate student of Brasenose College, Oxford. Kosterlitz is an American citizen.
After a few postdoctoral positions, including positions at the University of Birmingham, collaborating with David Thouless, and at Cornell University, he was appointed to the faculty of the University of Birmingham in 1974, first as a lecturer and, later, as a reader. Since 1982, he has been professor of physics at Brown University. Kosterlitz is currently a visiting research fellow at Aalto University in Finland and since 2016 a distinguished professor at Korea Institute for Advanced Study.