Robert B. Laughlin
Robert B. Laughlin
Robert Betts Laughlinis the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Stanford University. Along with Horst L. Störmer of Columbia University and Daniel C. Tsui of Princeton University, he was awarded a share of the 1998 Nobel Prize in physics for their explanation of the fractional quantum Hall effect...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPhysicist
Date of Birth1 November 1950
CountryUnited States of America
interest mathematics owe precisely
I owe my interest in mathematics to my father, or more precisely the sense that mathematics was something important and mysterious.
aspects either enormous mit speakers talked terrific took variety work
One of the terrific aspects of MIT in those days was the enormous variety of experimental work that either took place there or was talked about in seminars by outside speakers aggressively recruited by the faculty.
acquire good habits impressed study
But it was impressed upon me that there was such a thing as good study habits and that I would have to acquire them if I wanted to be a scholar.
age alleged paper senility wrote
It was at this moment that I wrote my first important paper in theoretical physics. I was 32 years old, 5 years beyond the alleged age of senility for theorists.
describe discovered electron interests motion moving particles vacuum
But through my interests in electron motion in vacuum tubes I discovered a need to describe trajectories of moving particles with equations.
aspect home respect
Another important aspect of our home was respect for ideas.
apart appliances attempt broke fix rarely
I, for example, used to take appliances apart when they broke in an attempt to fix them, which I rarely did successfully, being a kid.
delicate-things people everyday
The questions worth asking, in other words, come not from other people but from nature, and are for the most part delicate things easily drowned out by the noise of everyday life.
reading work-out firsts
To this day I always insist on working out a problem from the beginning without reading up on it first, a habit that sometimes gets me into trouble but just as often helps me see things my predecessors have missed.
space creative ironic
It is ironic that Einsteins most creative work, the general theory of relativity, should boil down to conceptualizing space as a medium when his original premise [in special relativity] was that no such medium existed [..]....
thinking profound development
In parallel with the development of my interests in technical gadgetry I began to acquire a profound love of and respect for the natural world which motivates my scientific thinking to this day.
space vacuums modern
The modern concept of the vacuum of space, confirmed every day by experiment, is a relativistic ether.
philosophy needs prejudice
But the need for conflict to expose prejudice and unclear reasoning, which is deeply embedded in my philosophy of science, has its origin in these debates.
discovery trying research
When I moved to Stanford I began to pursue the line of research I have been following ever since, namely trying to understand the larger implications of fractional quantum hall discovery.