American Physical Society Recognizes Rutgers Professors for Outstanding Research

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Two Rutgers University physics professors in the School of Arts and Sciences are receiving major prizes from the American Physical Society in recognition of their outstanding research.

The professors, Sang-Wook Cheong and Daniel Friedan, are being honored for contributions to understanding the basic nature and properties of materials. The work being cited is in a branch of physics known as condensed matter physics, which deals with the physical properties of solid and liquid matter.

Cheong, who is director of Rutgers Center for Emergent Materials, received the society’s James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials. He shares the $10,000 award with professors doing related research at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of California, Berkeley. The prize recognizes Cheong’s work in understanding a class of materials called “multiferroics,” materials which exhibit both magnetic properties and electrical properties that resemble magnetism. The materials have potential to add new capabilities to semiconductor electronics, boost solar cell efficiency and increase the data storage capacity of hard disk drives.

Cheong joined Rutgers in 1997 after a distinguished research career at Bell Laboratories, originally part of AT&T and now part of Alcatel-Lucent. In 2007, he received Korea’s Ho-Am Prize in Science for investigating properties of materials that have potential for high-performance electronic devices. A year later, he received the Korean Broadcasting System Overseas Compatriots Award, given to ethnic Koreans living overseas who have made distinguished contributions in promoting the image of the people and culture of Korea.

Cheong is a resident of Chatham, N.J.

Friedan, who specializes in high energy physics theory and is a member of the Rutgers New High Energy Theory Center, received the society’s Lars Onsager Prize. He shares that $10,000 award with collaborator Stephen Shenker of Stanford University, who was a physics professor at Rutgers from 1989 to 1998.

The prize recognizes Friedan and Shenker for mathematical descriptions of how complex materials behave. Their work examined “critical phenomena,” where a material’s phases such as solid, liquid and gas converge or coexist. Phases of complex materials also can be related to their electronic and magnetic properties. The researchers’ formulas specify the types of critical phenomena that can occur in nature or in theoretical models.

Friedan and Shenker specifically addressed material properties in two dimensions, such as when one material is deposited on the surface of another, and in one dimension, such as when electrons move along quantum wires at very low temperatures. Quantum wires are so thin that electrons act according to quantum mechanical rules that govern behavior at atomic and subatomic dimensions.

Friedan joined Rutgers in 1989 as a co-founder of the Rutgers New High Energy Theory Center, an internationally recognized leader in the development and exploration of string theory. String theory is a branch of physics that aims to provide a unified understanding of the basic forces and fundamental particles in nature. He was a MacArthur Fellow in 1987.

Friedan is a resident of Princeton, N.J.

Both scientists are receiving their awards this week at the American Physical Society’s annual March meeting in Portland, Ore.

Media Contact: Carl Blesch
732-932-7084 x616
E-mail: cblesch@ur.rutgers.edu