Pierre Hohenberg

Pierre Hohenberg (3 October 1934 – 15 December 2017) was a French-American theoretical physicist, who worked primarily on statistical mechanics.

The Hohenberg–Kohn theorems, formulated by Hohenberg and Walter Kohn gave rise to the density functional theory (DFT). He is also known for the development of dynamic scaling theory of critical phenomena, along with Bertrand Halperin.

With N. Richard Werthamer and Eugene Helfand, Hohenberg came up with the Werthamer–Helfand–Hohenberg theory in 1966 to model type-II superconductors. In collaboration with Richard Friedberg, he presented a new formulation of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics based on the consistent histories approach to the interpretation of quantum mechanics.

Fellowships and awards Hohenberg was also politically active. In 1983, he chaired the committee of the American Physical Society for the freedom of scientists and in 1992–1993 on an APS committee for the support of scientists in the Soviet Union. From 1984 to 1996, he was a member of the committee for human rights of the New York Academy of Sciences. Hohenberg was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 1985), the American Philosophical Society (since 2014) and the New York Institute for the Humanities (since 2016).

He received several prizes including

1990 Fritz London Memorial Prize, 1999 Max Planck Medal,

Selected works

P. C. Hohenberg: Dynamical theory of critical phenomena, in E. G. D. Cohen (Ed.) "Statistical mechanics at the turn of the decade", Dekker, New York 1971.