Bertrand Halperin

Bertrand I. Halperin (born December 6, 1941) is an American physicist, former holder of the Hollis Chair of Mathematicks and Natural Philosophy at the physics department of Harvard University. In 2006, he received the Wolf Prize in Physics for his various contribution to condensed matter physics, including work on KTHNY theory for two-dimensional melting.

Biography Bertrand Halperin was born in Brooklyn, New York, where he grew up in the Crown Heights neighborhood and attended public schools. His mother was Eva Teplitzky Halperin and his father Morris Halperin. His mother was a college administrator and his father a customs inspector. Both his parents were born in USSR. His paternal grandmother's family the Maximovs claimed descent from Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (BeShT).

He attended Harvard University (class of 1961), a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1981, a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1982, and a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1990. In 2001, he was awarded the Lars Onsager Prize. In 2003, he was awarded the Wolf Prize in physics for his work on "two- dimensional melting, disordered systems and strongly interacting electrons", the other half went to Anthony James Leggett. In 2016 he was Lise Meitner Distinguished Lecturer.

In 2018, he was awarded the 2019 APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research, for "his seminal contributions to theoretical condensed matter physics, especially his pioneering work on the role of topology in both classical and quantum systems."

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