Hohenberg wins Planck Medaille

Pierre Hohenberg, deputy provost for physical sciences and engineering, has been selected to receive the 1999 Max Planck Medaille, the most prestigious prize given by the German Physical Society for theoretical physics. The first winner of the medal was Albert Einstein in 1929. Hohenberg will receive the medal March 17 in Heidelberg, Germany. 

Hohenberg joined the Yale faculty in 1995 as adjunct professor of physics and applied physics following a distinguished career in research on theoretical condensed matter physics at Bell Laboratories, where he had become increasingly active in interdisciplinary research at the interaction between physics, mathematics, materials science and biology. As a member of the scientific advisory board of the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara, he helped develop programs in these areas and also has played a growing role in the public policy arena.

In his work with the American Physical Society, Hohenberg has been involved in formulating policies on public issues ranging from professional ethics to research priorities, national energy policy and national security. He also chaired the society's Committee on the International Freedom of Scientists and was cofounder of the Committee of Concerned Scientists' Program for Refugee Scientists.

Physicist D. Allan Bromley, dean of the Yale Faculty of Engineering and former national science and technology adviser to President George Bush, said: "The award of the Max Planck Medaille to Pierre Hohenberg for his research work in theoretical physics adds him to the company of the true giants of physics who have been honored by the award of this medal in the past -- a list that includes Planck and Einstein as well as Niels Bohr and Enrico Fermi. This medal is one of the most coveted in all of international science, and its merited award to Pierre Hohenberg now honors Yale as well."

Hohenberg is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1990, he was awarded the Fritz London Prize for Low Temperature Physics. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and wrote his dissertation in physics at Harvard under Professor P.C. Martin, receiving his Ph.D. in 1962.

Yale Bulletin & Calendar
February 1-8, 1999, Volume 27, Number 19