Biosketch

F. Duncan M. Haldane is a condensed matter theorist who is known for work on exotic quantum states of matter, including low-dimensional quantum magnetism and the quantum Hall effect, and their entanglement properties. He shared the 2016 Nobel Prize for Physics for his work on “topological phases of matter”. Haldane was born in London, England, and graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in Physics in 1973, and again in 1978 with a Ph.D. supervised by P. W. Anderson. His initial postdoctoral position was as a physicist at the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble (France), followed by faculty positions at the University of Southern California, University of California San Diego, and Princeton University, as well as a period spent as a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.

Research Interests

Duncan Haldane is working on a geometric picture of "flux attachment" in the fractional quantum Hall effect, with the goal of understanding the energetics that could stabilize the "non-Abelian" topological states that are viewed as candidate platforms for "topologically-protected quantum computing". He is also generally interested in topological states of matter, quantum entanglement, Weyl semi-metals, and topologically-non-trivial Fermi surfaces.

Membership Type

International Member

Election Year

2017

Primary Section

Section 13: Physics

Secondary Section

Section 33: Applied Physical Sciences