CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Gordon A. Baym, Center for Advanced Study Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois, has been selected as the 2002 recipient of the Hans A. Bethe Prize from the American Physical Society.
The prize, which recognizes Baym for “superb synthesis of fundamental concepts which have provided an understanding of matter at extreme conditions, ranging from crusts and interiors of neutron stars to matter at ultrahigh temperature,” will be presented April 22 at the APS meeting in Albuquerque, N.M.
Baym joined the UI faculty in 1963. He earned his bachelors degree in physics in 1956 from Cornell University, his masters in mathematics in 1957 and his doctorate in physics in 1960, both from Harvard University.
Baym has been a leader in the study of matter under extreme conditions in astrophysics and nuclear physics. He has made original, seminal contributions to the understanding of neutron stars, relativistic effects in nuclear physics, condensed matter physics, quantum fluids and Bose-Einstein condensates. His work is characterized by a superb melding of basic theoretical physics concepts, from condensed matter to nuclear to elementary particle physics.
Baym is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (where he chaired its Physics Section), the American Philosophical Society, and a fellow of the APS, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
