Philip Warren Anderson (born December 13,
1923) is an American theoretical physicist
and Nobel laureate.
Anderson has made contributions to the theories
of localization, antiferromagnetism, symmetry
breaking (including a paper in 1962 discussing
symmetry breaking in particle physics, leading
to the development of the Standard Model around
10 years later), and high-temperature superconductivity,
and to the philosophy of science through his
writings on emergent phenomena.
== Education and early life ==
Anderson was born in Indianapolis, Indiana
and grew up in Urbana, Illinois.
He graduated from University Laboratory High
School in Urbana in 1940.
Afterwards, he went to Harvard University
for undergraduate and graduate work, with
a wartime stint at the U.S. Naval Research
Laboratory in-between.
In graduate school he studied under John Hasbrouck
van Vleck.
== Career and research ==
From 1949 to 1984 he was employed by Bell
Laboratories in New Jersey, where he worked
on a wide variety of problems in condensed
matter physics.
During this period he developed what is now
called Anderson localization (the idea that
extended states can be localized by the presence
of disorder in a system); invented the Anderson
Hamiltonian, which describes the site-wise
interaction of electrons in a transition metal;
proposed symmetry breaking within particle
physics (this played a role in the development
of the Standard Model and the development
of the theory behind the Higgs mechanism,
which in turn generates mass in some elementary
particles); created the pseudospin approach
to the BCS theory of superconductivity; made
seminal studies of non-s-wave pairing (both
symmetry-breaking and microscopic mechanism)
in the superfluidity of He3; and helped found
the area of spin-glasses.
He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences in 1963.From 1967 to
1975, Anderson was a professor of theoretical
physics at Cambridge University.
In 1977 Anderson was awarded the Nobel Prize
in Physics for his investigations into the
electronic structure of magnetic and disordered
systems, which allowed for the development
of electronic switching and memory devices
in computers.
Co-researchers Sir Nevill Francis Mott and
John van Vleck shared the award with him.
In 1982, he was awarded the National Medal
of Science.
He retired from Bell Labs in 1984 and is currently
Joseph Henry Professor of Physics, Emeritus
at Princeton University.Anderson's writings
include Concepts of Solids, Basic Notions
of Condensed Matter Physics and The Theory
of Superconductivity in the High-Tc Cuprates.
Anderson currently serves on the board of
advisors of Scientists and Engineers for America,
an organization focused on promoting sound
science in American government.
He is a certified first-degree master of the
Chinese board game Go.
Anderson has also made conceptual contributions
to the philosophy of science through his explication
of emergent phenomena.
In 1972 he wrote an article called "More is
Different" in which he emphasized the limitations
of reductionism and the existence of hierarchical
levels of science, each of which requires
its own fundamental principles for advancement.A
2006 statistical analysis of scientific research
papers by José Soler, comparing number of
references in a paper to the number of citations,
declared Anderson to be the "most creative"
amongst ten most cited physicists in the world.
== Awards and honors ==
He was awarded the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed
Matter Prize in 1964, the Nobel Prize in Physics
in 1977 and was elected a Foreign Member of
the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1980.
He was awarded the National Medal of Science
in 1982.
== Personal life ==
Anderson is an atheist and was one of 22 Nobel
Laureates who signed the Humanist Manifesto.
== Publications ==
=== Books ===
Anderson, Philip W. (1954).
Notes on theory of magnetism.
Tokyo,: University of Tokyo.
OCLC 782103851.
Anderson, Philip W. (1997) [1963].
Concepts in solids: lectures on the theory
of solids.
Singapore River Edge, New Jersey: World Scientific.
ISBN 9789810232313.
Anderson, Philip W. (1997) [1984].
Basic notions of condensed matter physics.
Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.
ISBN 9780201328301.
Anderson, Philip W.; Arrow, Kenneth J.; Pines,
David, eds. (1988).
The economy as an evolving complex system:
the proceedings of the Evolutionary Paths
of the Global Economy Workshop, held September,
1987 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Redwood City, California: Addison-Wesley Pub.
Co. ISBN 9780201156850.
Anderson, Philip W. (2004) [1994].
A career in theoretical physics.
World Scientific Series in 20th Century Physics,
volume 35.
Singapore Hackensack, New Jersey: World Scientific
Pub.
Co. ISBN 9789812567154.
Anderson, Philip W. (1997).
The theory of superconductivity in the high-TC
cuprates.
Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University
Press.
ISBN 9780691043654.
Anderson, Philip W. (2011).
More and different notes from a thoughtful
curmudgeon.
Singapore Hackensack, New Jersey: World Scientific.
ISBN 9789814350143.
=== Journal articles ===
Anderson, Philip W. (1 March 1958).
"Absence of diffusion in certain random lattices".
Physical Review.
109 (5): 1492–1505.
Bibcode:1958PhRv..109.1492A. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.109.1492.
Pdf.
Anderson, Philip W. (1 April 1963).
"Plasmons, gauge invariance, and mass".
Physical Review.
130 (1): 439–442.
Bibcode:1963PhRv..130..439A. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.130.439.
Pdf.
Anderson, Philip W.; Halperin, Bertrand I.;
Varma, Chandra M. (January 1972).
"Anomalous low-temperature thermal properties
of glasses and spin glasses".
Philosophical Magazine.
25 (1): 1–9.
Bibcode:1972PMag...25....1A. doi:10.1080/14786437208229210.
Pdf.
Anderson, Philip 
W. (4 August 1972).
"More is different".
Science.
177 (4047): 393–396.
Bibcode:1972Sci...177..393A. doi:10.1126/science.177.4047.393.
JSTOR 1734697.
PMID 17796623.
Pdf.
Anderson, Philip W. (6 March 1987).
"The resonating valence bond state in La2CuO4
and superconductivity".
Science.
235 (4793): 1196–1198.
Bibcode:1987Sci...235.1196A. doi:10.1126/science.235.4793.1196.
JSTOR 1698247.
PMID 17818979.
Pdf.
Anderson, Philip W. (18 July 1995).
"Physics: the opening to complexity".
Proceedings of the National Academy 
of Sciences.
92 (15): 6653–6654.
Bibcode:1995PNAS...92.6653A. doi:10.1073/pnas.92.15.6653.
JSTOR 236771.
PMC 41390.
Pdf.
Anderson, Philip W. (3 April 1997).
"Mind over matter: Review of The Large, the
Small and the Human Mind by Roger Penrose".
Nature.
386 (6624): 456.
Bibcode:1997Natur.386..456A. doi:10.1038/386456c0.
Anderson, Philip 
W. (October 1997).
"When the electron falls apart".
Physics Today.
50 (10): 42–49.
Bibcode:1997PhT....50j..42A. doi:10.1063/1.881959.
Anderson, Philip W. (8 July 1999).
"Computing: solving problems in finite time".
Nature.
400 (6740): 115.
Bibcode:1999Natur.400..115A. doi:10.1038/22001.
Anderson, Philip W. (February 2000).
"Brainwashed by Feynman?".
Physics Today.
53 (2): 11–14.
Bibcode:2000PhT....53b..11A. doi:10.1063/1.882955.
Pdf.
Anderson, Philip W. (27 September 2005).
"Thinking big".
Nature.
437 (7059): 625–626.
Bibcode:2005Natur.437..625A. doi:10.1038/437625a.
Anderson, Philip W. (1 September 2007).
"Twenty years of talking past each other:
the theory of high TC".
Physica C. 460–462 (Part 1): 3–6.
Bibcode:2007PhyC..460....3A. doi:10.1016/j.physc.2007.03.261.
== References ==
== External links ==
Philip W. Anderson, Autobiography (The Nobel
Foundation, 1977, 2005).
Philip Warren Anderson
Video clip of Philip Anderson speaking at
the International Conference on Complex Systems,
Hosted by the New England Complex Systems
Institute (NECSI)
Oral History interview transcript with Philip
W. Anderson 30 March, 30 May, & 23 November
1999, American Institute of Physics, Niels
Bohr Library and Archives
Oral History interview transcript with Philip
W. Anderson 13 July 1987, American Institute
of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
