Giovanni Jona-Lasinio wins 2012 Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics

The American Institute of Physics (AIP) and the American Physical Society (APS) are pleased to announce that renowned physicist Giovanni Jona-Lasinio, Ph.D., has been selected as the 2012 recipient of the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics, which is given annually to recognize outstanding work in the field.

His citation reads: ‘For contributions to the interaction between statistical mechanics, field theory and the theory of elementary particles, including spontaneous symmetry breaking, critical phenomena and a general theory of dissipative systems.”

‘I am greatly honored for this award and grateful to the American Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society,’ said Jona-Lasinio.

Jona-Lasinio received his doctoral degree in physics from the University of Rome in 1956. He became a researcher at the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare in Rome, and an assistant professor in the physics department at the University of Rome. He then became a full professor at the University of Padua, Italy, in 1970, and returned to the University of Rome in 1974, where he is currently professor emeritus. Jona-Lasinio has spent several years abroad visiting the University of Chicago, CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, IHES (Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques), and the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris.

Jona-Lasinio is most widely known for having constructed, with Yoichiro Nambu, the first model in elementary particle physics with spontaneous symmetry breaking. He also made the early introduction, with Carlo Di Castro in 1969, of the field theoretic renormalization group in the study of critical phenomena. He also developed a theory of stationary states far from equilibrium. He is also known for his mathematical contributions to the theory of stochastic processes and their applications in physics.

Jona-Lasinio has received many awards and honors. He is a member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and has been awarded in Italy the Feltrinelli National Prize. He has served in scientific committees of the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie and the University of Geneva. He is presently a member of the Comite de Programmation Scientifique of the Institut Henri Poincare in Paris.

The Heineman Prize is named after Dannie N. Heineman, an engineer, business executive, and philanthropic sponsor of the sciences. The prize was established in 1959 by the Heineman Foundation for Research, Education, Charitable and Scientific Purposes, Inc.