Jon Magne Leinaas (born 11 October 1946) is a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

theoretical

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

. He was born in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

. He took the

cand.real. Candidatus realium or candidata realium (abbreviated cand. real.) is a former academic degree used in Norway, and conferred in mathematics and natural sciences. It was abolished in 1985. There was originally no set duration for the completion of th ...

at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

in 1970 and the dr.philos. degree at the same institution in 1980. He was a fellow at

Nordita The Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics, or NORDITA, or Nordita ( da, Nordisk Institut for Teoretisk Fysik), is an international organisation for research in theoretical physics. It was established as Nordisk Institut for Teoretisk Atomfys ...

, and at

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...

, and held a faculty position at the

University of Stavanger The University of Stavanger (Norwegian: ''Universitetet i Stavanger,'' UiS) is a university located in Stavanger, Norway. UiS was established in 2005 when the former Stavanger University College (''Høgskolen i Stavanger''; HiS) received univer ...

, before he was appointed as a professor of

theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experim ...

at the

in 1989. He is a fellow of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Univer ...

, and th
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Together with

Jan Myrheim Jan Myrheim (born 14 February 1948) is a Norwegian physicist. He was born in Røyrvik. He took the cand.real. at the University of Oslo in 1972 and took the dr.philos. degree at the University of Trondheim in 1994. He was then appointed as a prof ...

he discovered that in one and two spatial dimensions, there is a possibility of having fractional quantum statistics. This is of particular importance in two dimensions where fractional statistics particles, usually referred to as

anyon In physics, an anyon is a type of quasiparticle that occurs only in two-dimensional systems, with properties much less restricted than the two kinds of standard elementary particles, fermions and bosons. In general, the operation of exchangi ...

s, play an important role in the theory of the

fractional quantum Hall effect The fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) is a physical phenomenon in which the Hall conductance of 2-dimensional (2D) electrons shows precisely quantized plateaus at fractional values of e^2/h. It is a property of a collective state in which elec ...

. The duo shared the Fridtjof Nansen Excellent Research Award in Science in 1993. He resides at Gjettum, a suburb of Oslo.

References

1946 births Living people Scientists from Oslo University of Oslo alumni University of Oslo faculty Norwegian physicists Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences People associated with CERN {{Norway-academic-bio-stub