Kenneth Geddes Wilson
Wilson, Kenneth Geddes (1936-) is an American physicist who received the 1982 Nobel Prize in physics for his method of analyzing the behavior of matter when it changes form, such as when water turns to steam. Through the use of a mathematical method, Wilson was able to analyze the interaction between neighboring atoms and molecules when they reach such a point of change.
Wilson was born on June 8, 1936, in Waltham, Massachusetts, to Emily Fisher Buckingham and Edgar Bright Wilson, Jr. He graduated from the George School, a Quaker institution in Pennsylvania, in 1952. At the age of 16, he began studying mathematics and physics at Harvard University, where his father was an influential chemistry professor. Wilson received his B.A. degree there in 1956 and began his graduate studies in physics at the California Institute of Technology, receiving his Ph.D. degree in 1961.
Wilson joined the physics department of Cornell University at Ithaca, New York, in 1963. There, he became interested in the behavior of materials under environmental conditions such as pressure and temperature when these conditions reach a certain point, called the critical point. Wilson's theory for critical phenomena describes the behavior near the critical point. His findings are widely applied in physics.
In 1985, Wilson became a director of one of five supercomputer centers created by the National Science Foundation, an independent agency of the United States government. He moved to Ohio State University's Department of Physics, where he was made distinguished professor.
In addition to the Nobel Prize in physics, Wilson won numerous other awards.