Gregory Wannier

Gregory Hugh Wannier (also Gregory Wannier, born 1911 in Basel, † October 21, 1983 in Portland, Oregon) was a Swiss solid-state physicist.

Wannier studied at the University of Leuven (1930 /31), the University of Cambridge (1933 /34) and the University of Basel, where he received his doctorate in 1935. It was 1935/36, an assistant at the University of Geneva and went 1936/37, as an exchange student at Princeton University. 1937/38, he was instructor at the University of Pittsburgh, 1938/39, Assistant Lecturer at the University of Bristol, 1939-1941 Instructor at the University of Texas and from 1941 to 1946 at the University of Iowa. In 1945 he was involved in the Alsos mission in Germany. He went in 1946 in the industry, first at the Socony - Vaccuum Laboratories and from 1949 at the Bell Laboratories. He was taught there in the Physical Electronics group with colleagues such as William B. Shockley, Conyers Herring, John Bardeen, Charles Kittel, Philip W. Anderson, in which he latter in solid state physics. Only in 1961 he returned back to the university as a professor at the University of Oregon. In 1977 he became Professor Emeritus.

Wannier is known for achievements in solid state physics, among other things, to ferromagnetism ( Ising model, Kramers- Wannier duality ) and physics of crystal lattice. Wannier functions are named after him. He also dealt with photoconductivity and movement of ions in gases. Wannier is also known by two textbooks.

He was a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Writings

• Elements of solid state theory, Cambridge University Press 1959
• Statistical Physics, Wiley 1966, Dover, 1987, 2010