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Gregory Hugh Wannier (1911–1983) was a Swiss physicist. He developed a complete set of orthogonal functions known as the Wannier functions which became tools of the trade for solid-state theorists. He also had made contributions to ferromagnetic theory via the Ising model. The Kramers–Wannier duality yields the exact location of the critical point for the Ising model on the square lattice.

Biography

Wannier received his physics PhD under Ernst Stueckelberg at the University of Basel in 1935. He worked with Professor Eugene P. Wigner as a post-doc exchange student at Princeton in the academic year 1936/1937 and later taught at several American universities before a stint in industry from 1946 to 1960. After working at Socony-Vacuum Laboratories, he joined Bell Laboratories in 1949. There he was in the Physical Electronics Group with colleagues such as William B. Shockley, Conyers Herring, John Bardeen, Charles Kittel, and Philip W. Anderson.

He returned to academia in 1961 at the University of Oregon, where he retired as professor emeritus in 1977. He published a series of important papers on the properties of crystals, working with graduate students and visiting professors. Additionally, he published widely read textbooks on solid-state theory and statistical mechanics.

He was regarded by many in the department as its most eminent member until his death on October 21, 1983. He was a fellow of the American Physical Society.

Books

• Elements of solid state theory, Cambridge University Press 1959. Elements of solid state chemistry (Wannier, Gregory H.)
• Statistical Physics, Wiley 1966; reprint Dover 1987, 2010

See also

• Hofstadter's butterfly

References

1. Anderson, Philip W. (May 1984). "Obituary: Gregory Wannier". Physics Today. 37 (5): 100–101. Bibcode:1984PhT....37e.100A. doi:10.1063/1.2916218.
2. Wannier, G. H. (1937). "The structure of electronic excitation levels in insulating crystals". Physical Review. 52 (3): 191–197. Bibcode:1937PhRv...52..191W. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.52.191.
3. Wannier, G. H. (1962). "Dynamics of Band Electrons in Electric and Magnetic Fields". Reviews of Modern Physics. 34 (4): 645–655. Bibcode:1962RvMP...34..645W. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.34.645.
4. Kramers, H. A.; Wannier, G. H. (1941). "Statistics of the two-dimensional ferromagnet". Physical Review. 60 (3): 252–262. Bibcode:1941PhRv...60..252K. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.60.252.
5. "Anderson, Oral History". Archived from the original on 2015-01-12. Retrieved 2013-09-29.
6. Campbell, J. A. (1960). "Review of Elements of Solid State Theory by Gregory H. Wannier". J. Chem. Educ. 37 (5): 272. Bibcode:1960JChEd..37..272C. doi:10.1021/ed037p272.1.
7. Weiss, George H. (1967). "Review of Statistical Physics by Gregory H. Wannier". Physics Today. 20 (5): 79–80. Bibcode:1967PhT....20e..79W. doi:10.1063/1.3034327.

External links

• Wannier, Gregory H., The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, 1995
• Gregory Wannier at the Mathematics Genealogy Project

• 1911 births
• 1983 deaths
• Scientists at Bell Labs
• Swiss physicists
• University of Basel alumni
• University of Oregon faculty
• Fellows of the American Physical Society