Albert J. Libchaber

Joseph Albert Libchaber ( born October 23, 1934 in Paris ) is a French physicist who deals with chaos physics and biophysics.

Life

Libchaber studied at the University of Paris, where he earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1956. Then he began studying as a telecommunications engineer at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications (Diploma 1958). His degree in physics, he made in 1959 at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. In 1965 he received his doctorate from the École normale supérieure and was thereafter to 1966 at Bell Laboratories, where he regularly also investigated to 1972 in the summer. In 1974 he was Research Director at the CNRS in Paris. 1983 to 1991 he was a professor at the University of Chicago and from 1991 at Princeton University, where he also NEC Research Fellow in the same year. He was there James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in 1993. From 1994 he was professor at the Rockefeller University, where he is currently (2007) head of the Laboratory of Experimental Solid State Physics ( Experimental Condensed Matter Physics Laboratory for the Center for Studies in Physics and Biology ) and Detlev W. Bronk Professor.

Work

Libchaber is known for his classic experiments on the road to chaos (turbulence ) in the Rayleigh - Benard experiment. This is the first clear experimental evidence of the bifurcation cascade to turbulence ( period doubling ), where he confirmed the theoretical predictions of Mitchell Feigenbaum ( whom he met in 1979 ). He measured the series of temperatures with very small (micrometer) bolometers and initially used liquid helium, according to his former research field of superfluids, and later mercury, with an additional magnetic field as an additional variable parameters, performed with Stephan Fauve 1981.

In the 2000s he studied, among others nonlinear dynamics in biological systems, such as schools of fish (which he with model of filaments in moving soap film films examined ) and the behavior of DNA in a convective hot environment similar to some models of the " primordial soup " in which life on the earth was formed. He is also studying minimal cellular conditions under which life arises, in artificially produced biochemical models of cells ( Vesicle Bioreactors ), with a " basic equipment " of the cell from Escherichia coli, without which the genetic material that was added in a controlled manner .. The E. coli cell components could be enclosed by a trick with a double membrane of phospholipids as a cell wall that is permeable by a bacterial toxin for the nutrients in the surrounding nutrient solution. Thus, the cells produced several days proteins ( 2004).

Libchaber was 1986 McArthur Fellow and was awarded in 1986 with the fig tree the Wolf Prize in Physics. In 1999 he was awarded the Prix des Trois Physiciens the Fondation de France. Libchaber is a corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences (2007) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received the Academic Palms and is a Knight of the Legion of Honor in France.

Writings

  • Libchaber, "From Chaos to Turbulence in Benard convection ," Proceedings of the Royal Society A, Vol 413, 1987, p.63
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