Robert Graham (physicist)

Robert Graham (born February 11, 1942 in Berlin ) is a German theoretical physicist .

Graham attended the Karls-Gymnasium in Stuttgart and studied at the University of Stuttgart , where he graduated in physics with Hermann Haken in 1967 ( quantum fluctuations of the optical parametric oscillator ) and obtained his doctorate in 1969 ( light propagation in laser-active fluctuating media ). In doing so, he applied the theory of cooperative systems in quantum optics, propagated by Haken as synergetics . As a post-doc he was visiting scholar at New York University and, after completing his habilitation in 1971, he was a scientific adviser and professor at the University of Stuttgart. From 1975 he was a professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen , where he is now (2009) Professor Emeritus . He was also Dean and Vice Rector for Research there.

He dealt with various areas of quantum theoretical statistical mechanics, in addition to laser theory also in the 1990s with the theory of Bose-Einstein condensates . In 2009 he received the Max Planck Medal , the DPG's highest award in theoretical physics for his contributions in the fields of quantum optics, the statistical mechanics of open stationary systems outside of thermodynamic equilibrium, quantum liquids and quantum gases, and quantum chaos (according to the laudation of the Max Planck Medal 2009) and on quantum aspects of cosmology and gravitation.

He is an honorary doctor of the Loránd Eötvös University in Budapest .

Fonts

• From the laser threshold to the quantum phase transition - photons and atoms as quantum gases in constant equilibrium. In: Physics Journal. 2009, No. 8/9 (award speech for the Max Planck Medal)
• Statistical theory of instabilities in stationary nonequilibrium systems with applications to lasers and nonlinear optics (= Springer Tracts in Modern Physics, Volume 66). 1973 (habilitation 1971)
• Macroscopic potentials, bifurcations and noise in dissipative systems. In: F. Moss and PVE McClintock (editors): Noise in nonlinear dynamical systems. Volume 1, Cambridge University Press 1989, pages 225-278

Web links

• Homepage. University of Duisburg-Essen, November 18, 2008, archived from the original on October 28, 2010 . 
• Laudation Max Planck Medal 2009 . In: Physik-Journal . tape 8 , no. 1 , 2009, p. 50 ( uni-essen.de [PDF]).