- Title: Princeton professor says Nobel physics win 'gratifying'
- Date: 4th October 2016
- Summary: PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 4, 2016) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS WINNER, DUNCAN HALDANE, WALKING TO GARAGE (SOUNDBITE) (English) NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS WINNER, DUNCAN HALDANE, SAYING: "Well the phone rang, and it could have been someone dying I suppose. So you never know. It's the only reason you get a phone call at five in the morning, but it wasn't. It was the lady from the Swedish Royal Academy. And so that that's how it started." HALDANE IN HOUSE (SOUNDBITE) (English) NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS WINNER, DUNCAN HALDANE, SAYING: "There was always...I knew there was always some possibility but I actually didn't think anything would be happening now. And I was wondering who it would be this year. And, so yeah, I was quite, I wasn't totally, you know surprised in the sense that I fell out of bed or something but I certainly was, uh, didn't expect to get it then anyway." HALDANE LEAVING HOUSE (SOUNDBITE) (English) NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS WINNER, DUNCAN HALDANE, SAYING: "Well, it's a very gratifying recognition of of the work. I mean it's - I don't think one goes into the business - for prizes. You're kind of trying to find neat stuff basically. Everyone wants to find neat stuff. I mean, some people may dream of Nobel prizes is in some areas if lots of, you know, competition, lots of people who think they're in line for a prize competing with each other. So I guess it's very nice to see how much impact work has had. I mean that's most gratifying. I started off when this, when I started out the way we looked at condensed matter and quantum mechanics was very different from what it is now, and I'm really happy that I played some role in discovering new ways to think about things." HALDANE WALKING, PHOTOGRAPHER TAKING PHOTOGRAPHS (SOUNDBITE) (English) NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS WINNER, DUNCAN HALDANE, SAYING: "We really haven't understood the form mark and the full amount of marvelous things that that quantum mechanics can do. And what this has shown us, especially these new topologically materials, which the prize is mainly for, is that it does things which we never dreamed of and could actually be tremendously useful for all kinds of new technologies, which is the big dream of people, for a new century may put in physics at least, will be all kinds of people dreaming new technologies based on fundamental manipulations with quantum mechanics will take place. And it's just more more surprising than we thought. And what I stumbled upon a few times in my career is that, you know, that things, or the conventional wisdom about how things would behave was just wrong. If you can't imagine something marvelous, you're not going to find it. So I think that's the big barrier to discovering what can be done is actually imagination." HALDANE WALKING
- Embargoed: 19th October 2016 15:39
- Keywords: Physics bagel professor Princeton Nobel
- Location: PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES
- City: PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Science
- Reuters ID: LVA00152LC1MV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A British-born scientist who won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday (October 4) for revealing unusual states of matter said the award was "gratifying" and credits imagination for pursuing his work.
Princeton professor Duncan Haldane, along with David Thouless and Michael Kosterlitz, share the prize for their discoveries on abrupt changes in the properties, or phases, of ultra-thin materials.
Their research centers on topology, a branch of mathematics involving step-wise changes like making a series of holes in an object. The difficult-to-grasp concept was illustrated by Nobel Committee member Thors Hans Hansson at a news conference using a cinnamon bun, a bagel and a pretzel.
Haldane told Reuters he was pleasantly surprised by the win.
"I knew there was always some possibility," he said, but "I wasn't totally, you know surprised in the sense that I fell out of bed or something."
Phases are obvious when matter goes from solid to liquid to gas, but materials can also undergo topological step changes that affect their electrical properties. One example is a superconductor, which at low temperatures conducts electricity without resistance.
"Thanks to their pioneering work, the hunt is now on for new and exotic phases of matter," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in awarding the 8 million Swedish crown ($937,000) prize.
"Many people are hopeful of future applications in both materials science and electronics."
Superfast quantum computers, one of the holy grails of science, should be able to test multiple solutions to a problem at once and could in theory solve in seconds problems that take today's fastest machines years to crack.
Traditional computers use binary bits of information to store data while quantum computers use "qubits" that can simultaneously be 0 and 1, making them ultra-fast but unstable.
Haldane, 65, said he appreciated the recognition the Nobel Prize brought.
"Well, it's a very gratifying recognition of of the work. I mean it's - I don't think one goes into the business - for prizes. You're kind of trying to find neat stuff basically," he said.
"When I started out the way we looked at condensed matter and quantum mechanics was very different from what it is now, and I'm really happy that I played some role in discovering new ways to think about things," he added.
Haldane said imagination opens the possibilities of discovery.
"We really haven't understood the form mark and the full amount of marvelous things that that quantum mechanics can do," Haldane said.
"What I stumbled upon a few times in my career is that, you know, that things, or the conventional wisdom about how things would behave was just wrong. If you can't imagine something marvelous, you're not going to find it. So I think that's the big barrier to discovering what can be done is actually imagination," he said.
As Nobel physics laureates, the trio of researchers join the ranks of some of the greatest names in science, including Einstein, Niels Bohr and Marie Curie. Thouless was awarded half the prize, with the other half divided between Haldane and Kosterlitz.
The prizes were first awarded in 1901 to honor achievements in science, literature and peace in accordance with the will of the Swedish dynamite inventor and business tycoon Alfred Nobel, who left much of his wealth to establish the award. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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