Leo Kadanoff receives the Niels Bohr Institute's first honorary medal

In recognition and appreciation of Leo Kadanoff's great contributions to the advancement of physics and science in general and for the strong collaboration with researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute, the Niels Bohr Institute has chosen Leo Kadanoff as the first recipient of the Niels Bohr Institute's honorary medal.

Leo P. Kadanoff was born in New York in 1937 and it was there that he received his early education. He received his academic degrees from Harvard University in the period between 1957 and 1960. After a Post doctoral period at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen he joined the University of Illinois in 1962, where he became a professor in physics already in 1965.

Kadanoff has studied the problems of urban growth. In 1969 he moved to Brown University where he was university professor and simultaneously researched mathematical models for urban growth.

He has delivered groundbreaking and important contributions to many problems in modern physics, especially concerning phase transitions and critical phenomena, as well as in the theory of chaos and complex systems.

Since then, over a period of 40 years, he has been among the leading researchers in the world in the development of modern physics and later became a professor at the University of Chicago and President of the American Physical Society (APS).

In many instances, discoveries by Leo Kadanoff have led to entirely new activities and the e of physics worldwide. In Chicago, Leo Kadanoff has created an excellent school of physics for students and Post docs - a school which is famous worldwide.