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PEOPLE OF GREATNESS: MEN OF OUR TIME
4- Professor Tony Leggett
(USA)
Professor Tony Leggett, 2003 Nobel Laureate in Physics "for pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids" Professor of Physics, has been a faculty member at Illinois since 1983. He is widely recognized as a world leader in the theory of low-temperature physics, and his pioneering work on superfluidity was recognized by the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Russian Academy of Sciences (foreign member), and is a Fellow of the Royal Society (U.K.), the American Physical Society, and the American Institute of Physics. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics (U.K.). Professor Leggett has shaped the theoretical understanding of normal and superfluid helium liquids and other strongly coupled superfluids. He set directions for research in the quantum physics of macroscopic dissipative systems and use of condensed systems to test the foundations of quantum mechanics. His research interests lie mainly within the fields of theoretical condensed matter physics and the foundations of quantum mechanics. He has been particularly interested in the possibility of using special condensed-matter systems, such as Josephson devices, to test the validity of the extrapolation of the quantum formalism to the macroscopic level; this interest has led to a considerable amount of technical work on the application of quantum mechanics to collective variables and in particular on ways of incorporating dissipation into the calculations. He is also interested in the theory of superfluid liquid. Research Area: theoretical condensed matter physics, low temperature phenomena, quantum fluids, statistical physics, macroscopic quantum systems, quantum theory of measurement. 5-Mstislav Rostropovich (Russia) Born in 1927 in Baku, Russia, he began piano lessons with his mother at the age of four, then switched to cello studies with his father at the age of eight. He made his cello debut in 1940 and conducting debut in 1961 in Russia Mstislav Rostropovich is recognized internationally as a outspoken defender of human rights.
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Considered to be the world's greatest living cellist, he has recorded virtually the entire cello repertoire and has inspired many finest composers such as Britten, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khatchaturian, Schnittke, Bernstein, Dutilleux and Lutoslawski to create works especially for him. Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC for seventeen seasons, Rostropovich has conducted most of the world's major orchestras and also enjoys a special relationship with the London Symphony Orchestra. He often plays the piano in recitals with his wife, the acclaimed soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. Rostropovich has earned numerous awards including the Albert Schweitzer Music Award and the Ernst von Siemens Foundation Music Prize, previously given only to Benjamin Britten and Olivier Mesiaen. His recordings have brought him the world's most coveted recording prizes including a Grammy award and the Grand Prix du Disque . He holds over 40 honorary degrees and over 30 different nations have lavished more than 100 decorations and prizes upon him, including the Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Commander of the Légion d'Honneur of France, membership in the Academy of Arts of the French Institute, other called the “Forty Immortals”, the Japan Art Association's Praemium Imperiale, and, from the United States, the Presidencial Medal of Freedom and a Kennedy Center Honors of 1992.Prior to leaving for the West in 1974, he had received the Stalin Prize, had been named a the People's artist of the USSR, and received the Lenin Prize, the nation's highest honor. For his support to the democratic forces during the aborted coup in Moscow in August 1991, Rostropovich was presented with the State Prize of Russia. Mstislav Rostropovich's various efforts on behalf of human rights, artistic freedom and humanitarian aid have earned him various awards and medals, among them the 1974 Annual Award of the International League of Human Rights. CONTINUES ON P25 |
