Barry Martin Simon

 

Barry Simon is the IBM Professor of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology, where he serves as Executive Officer (Chair) of the Mathematics Department. Simon is known for his prolific contributions in spectral theory, functional analysis, and nonrelativistic quantum mechanics (particularly Schrödinger operators), including the connections to atomic and molecular physics. More particularly, his work has focused on broad areas of mathematical physics and analysis covering: quantum field theory, statistical mechanics, Brownian motion, random matrix theory, general nonrelativistic quantum mechanics (including N-body systems and resonances), nonrelativistic quantum mechanics in electric and magnetic fields, the semi-classical limit, the singular continuous spectrum, random and ergodic Schrödinger operators, orthogonal polynomials, and non-selfadjoint spectral theory. He has made contributions to the understanding of phase transitions, resonances, multiparticle quantum theory, constructive quantum field theory, spectral analysis and inverse spectral analysis, and orthogonal polynomials. Simon Has written many basic texts that continue to guide and influence the development of mathematical physics. Simon received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in 1999. He served as the vice president of the American Mathematical Society in 1988-89. In 2012 Simon received the Henri Poincaré Prize from the International Association of Mathematical Physics; in 2015 the Bolyai Prize of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences; in 2016 the AMS Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement, in 2018 the APS Heineman Prize in Mathematical Physics; in 2019 election to the US National Academy of Sciences