Obituary of Gabriele Giuliani (1953-2012)

Gabriele Francesco Giuliani, Professor of Physics at Purdue University, passed away on November 22, 2012 in his home in West Lafayette, Indiana, after a long battle with cancer - an illness he bravely survived for more than 12 years.

Born in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, in 1953, Giuliani was educated at the University of Pisa where he graduated cum laude in 1976 under the guidance of Professor Mario Tosi. He continued his studies at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and was a researcher in Rome and in Trieste, where he worked with Professor Erio Tosatti. In 1979 he met Professor Albert Overhauser, who was to be the decisive influence in his career. Fascinated by the physics of broken symmetry phases in simple metals, he joined Overhauser at Purdue University in the study of collective modes of charge-density waves, the so-called ‘phasons’ and ‘amplitons’. He eventually became a member of the physics faculty at Purdue in 1984 - but not before completing an extremely fruitful postdoctoral experience at Brown University with Professor John Quinn. It was during this period that some of his best known contributions sprang to life, such as the calculation of plasmon dispersions in semiconductor superlattices, the discovery of the singular T²lnT behavior of the quasiparticle linewidth as a function of temperature in a two-dimensional electron gas (now a topic of high interest in graphene), and the prediction of a ferromagnetic phase transition in the two-dimensional electron gas in the quantum Hall regime (now experimentally observed).

Gabriele Giuliani’s field of research was the theoretical study of the properties of low-dimensional electronic systems, particularly those that are controlled by electron-electron interactions. His enthusiasm for the theory of the interacting electron gas earned him the nickname of ‘EG’ since the Trieste days. Many of his contributions are widely known and some of them are featured in textbooks. Besides the already mentioned works, these include an elegant analysis of the role of impurities in the integer quantum Hall effect, an experimentally confirmed theory of the effect of a magnetic field on the critical current of a layered superconductor, and numerous contributions to the foundations of the theory of Fermi liquids, most recently in the presence of spin-orbit interactions. Among his legacies is a monograph, co-authored with Giovanni Vignale, on the ‘Quantum theory of the electron liquid’ (Cambridge University Press, 2005), which has become a standard reference for beginning students and advanced researchers.

Giuliani was known in physics circles for his flamboyant personality, his quick sense of humor, and his unremitting critical eye. Shunning the superficial and the fashionable he always strove for genuine accomplishment and complete intellectual honesty. His criticism could be abrasive, but never intentionally so. His ability to entertain and provoke with humorous word play was unmatched. In many ways he never lost the purity and the enthusiasm of his happy childhood in Ascoli Piceno. An avid soccer player and sports critic to his last days, he successfully coached soccer teams of all age groups at Purdue and in the Lafayette area. Other interests of his were Hammond-based blues, wildlife (he boasted to have once met a grizzly bear at Yellowstone), and all kinds of ‘italica’, ranging from spaghetti alla carbonara ‘better than sex’, to espresso brews, to Italian politics which he followed with a mixture of wit, concern, and shame. In the early 2000, after surviving against all odds a first major operation to remove a large liposarcoma (a tumor of the adipose tissue), he decided to act on one of the great passions of his youth: auto racing. Equipped with an old van Diemen, which he used to call ‘his girlfriend’, he experienced the adrenaline rush of Formula Ford racing. During this period he also participated as a volunteer race marshall in several racing events. Above all, Gabriele Giuliani loved his family, his mentors, and his students, several of which are now professors in various countries. With his mentors he always enjoyed a relation based on admiration, respect and love, and to his students he tried to give back what his mentors had given him. A few weeks before dying, musing on the twelve years that followed his first encounter with cancer, he told his wife: ‘If somebody had offered me this twelve years ago, I would’ve signed on the dotted line in a minute to be able to live as well as I did for these twelve years'. He died as he had lived, joyously, defiantly, and deeply engaged in his own wonderful life. The fruits of his scientific ingenuity will outlive him. He is survived by his wife, Pamela Wilhelm-Giuliani, and his children Daniela, Adriana and Giuseppe. In Italy he is survived by his mother Angela, his brother Alessandro, and his sister Carla Cutolo.