Carlo Beenakker
Carlo Beenakker | |
|---|---|
 Carlo Beenakker at Leiden University in April 2007 | |
| Born | 9 June 1960 |
| Citizenship | Dutch |
| Alma mater | Leiden University |
| Parent |
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| Awards | Spinoza Prize (1999) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Theoretical physics |
| Thesis | On transport properties of concentrated suspensions (1984) |
| Doctoral advisor | Peter Mazur |
| Website | www |
Carlo Willem Joannes Beenakker (born 9 June 1960) is a professor at Leiden University and leader of the university's mesoscopic physics group, established in 1992.
Early life and education[edit]
Born in Leiden as the son of physicists Jan Beenakker and Elena Manaresi,[1] Beenakker graduated from Leiden University in 1982 and obtained his doctorate two years later.
Career[edit]
After the awarding of his doctorate, he then spent one year working in the United States of America as a fellow of the Niels Stensen Foundation before returning to the Netherlands as a member of the scientific staff of the Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven. He was made External Professor of Theoretical Physics at Leiden in 1991.
His work in mesoscopic physics addresses fundamental physical problems that occur when a macroscopic object is miniaturized.
In 1993, he shared the Royal/Shell prize for "the discovery and explanation of quantum effects in the electrical conduction in mesoscopic systems". He was elected a member of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities in 2001, and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002.[2] He was awarded one of the Netherlands' most prestigious science awards, the Spinozapremie, in 1999.[3] In 2006 he was honored with the AkzoNobel Science Award "for his pioneering work in the field of nanoscience".[4] He was granted an honorary doctorate from the Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.[5] Beenakker is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science[6] and of the American Physical Society and a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion.
Research[edit]
Carlo Beenakker is a condensed matter theorist who has worked on a variety of topics involving electronic properties on the nanoscale:[5] These first dealt with conventional electrons in a semiconductor two-dimensional electron gas, then with massless Dirac fermions in graphene and topological insulators, followed by Majorana fermions in superconductors. He contributed to the discovery of conductance quantization in a quantum point contact, to the establishment of the basic concepts of ballistic conduction, single-electron tunnelling, the Coulomb blockade and shot noise in mesoscopic systems, and to the transport theory of the Quantum Hall effect. He developed the theory of random matrices, originating from nuclear physics, into a powerful and versatile tool for the study of quantum transport. His recent research focuses on ways in which topological superconductors can be used in a topological quantum computer.
References[edit]
- ^ "Ik wil zo dicht mogelijk bij onsterfelijkheid komen". NRC Handelsblad. 19 July 2014. Archived from the original on 27 February 2015.
- ^ "Carlo Beenakker". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
- ^ "NWO Spinoza Prize 1999". Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. 11 September 2014. Archived from the original on 16 March 2016. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
- ^ "Nanoscience pioneer receives Akzo Nobel Science Award" (PDF). Azko Nobel Corporation. 28 September 2006.
- ^ a b "List of doctors philosophiae honoris causa, Bogolyubov Institute".
- ^ "Leiden professor appointed AAAS Fellow".
External links[edit]
| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
- 1960 births
- Living people
- 21st-century Dutch physicists
- Science teachers
- Leiden University alumni
- Academic staff of Leiden University
- Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Spinoza Prize winners
- Fellows of the American Physical Society
- Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science