Leon N Cooper (born February 28, 1930) is an American physicist and

Nobel Prize laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...

who, with

John Bardeen John Bardeen (; May 23, 1908 – January 30, 1991) was an American physicist and engineer. He is the only person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics twice: first in 1956 with William Shockley and Walter Brattain for the invention of the tra ...

and

John Robert Schrieffer John Robert Schrieffer (; May 31, 1931 – July 27, 2019) was an American physicist who, with John Bardeen and Leon Cooper, was a recipient of the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing the BCS theory, the first successful quantum theor ...

, developed the

BCS theory BCS theory or Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer theory (named after John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and John Robert Schrieffer) is the first microscopic theory of superconductivity since Heike Kamerlingh Onnes's 1911 discovery. The theory describes sup ...

superconductivity Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in certain materials where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic flux fields are expelled from the material. Any material exhibiting these properties is a superconductor. Unlike ...

. His name is also associated with the

Cooper pair In condensed matter physics, a Cooper pair or BCS pair (Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer pair) is a pair of electrons (or other fermions) bound together at low temperatures in a certain manner first described in 1956 by American physicist Leon Coope ...

and co-developer of the

BCM theory BCM theory, BCM synaptic modification, or the BCM rule, named for Elie Bienenstock, Leon Cooper, and Paul Munro, is a physical theory of learning in the visual cortex developed in 1981. The BCM model proposes a sliding threshold for long-term pote ...

synaptic plasticity In neuroscience, synaptic plasticity is the ability of synapses to strengthen or weaken over time, in response to increases or decreases in their activity. Since memories are postulated to be represented by vastly interconnected neural circuits ...

Biography and career

Cooper graduated from the

Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science, commonly called Bronx Science, is a public specialized high school in The Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science involves passing the Sp ...

in 1947 and received a BA in 1951, MA in 1953, and

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...

in 1954 from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. He spent a year at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent schola ...

and taught at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Uni ...

and

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pub ...

before coming to

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

in 1958. He has been the Thomas J. Watson Sr. Professor of Science at Brown since 1974, and Director of the

Institute for Brain and Neural Systems An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

which he founded in 1973. Along with colleague

Charles Elbaum Charles Elbaum (May 15, 1926 – March 4, 2018) was an American physicist. Charles Elbaum was born in Lublin, Poland to parents Chil and Hannah Elbaum. After World War II, he moved to Belgium and Paris before earning a master's and doctorate from ...

, he founded the tech company ''Nestor'', dedicated to finding commercial applications for

artificial neural network Artificial neural networks (ANNs), usually simply called neural networks (NNs) or neural nets, are computing systems inspired by the biological neural networks that constitute animal brains. An ANN is based on a collection of connected unit ...

s. Nestor, along with Intel, developed the

Ni1000 The Ni1000 is an artificial neural network chip developed by Nestor Corporation and Intel. It is Intel's second-generation neural network chip but first all digital. The chip is aimed at image analysis applications, contains more than 3 million tr ...

neural network computer chip in 1994. Leon Cooper with wife 1972

In 1969 Cooper married Kay Allard. They have two children. He has carried out research at various institutions including the

and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (

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 Gen ...

) in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...

, Switzerland. The character

Sheldon Cooper Sheldon Lee Cooper, Ph.D., Sc.D., is a fictional character in the CBS television series '' The Big Bang Theory'' and its spinoff series '' Young Sheldon'', portrayed by actors Jim Parsons and Iain Armitage respectively (with Parsons as the la ...

, featured in the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

comedy ''

The Big Bang Theory ''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on CBS ...

'', is named in part after Leon Cooper.

Memberships and honors

*Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

*Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

*Member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

*Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

*Member of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

*Associate member of the Neuroscience Research Program *Research Fellow of the

Alfred P. Sloan Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr. ( ; May 23, 1875February 17, 1966) was an American business executive in the automotive industry. He was a long-time president, chairman and CEO of General Motors Corporation. Sloan, first as a senior executive and l ...

Foundation (1959–1966) *Fellow of the Guggenheim Institute (1965–66) *Nobel Prize Recipient for Physics (1972) *Co-winner (with Dr. Schrieffer) of the

Comstock Prize in Physics The Comstock Prize in Physics is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "for recent innovative discovery or investigation in electricity, magnetism, or radiant energy, broadly interpreted." Honorees must be residents of North America ...

of the National Academy of Sciences (1968) *Received the Award of Excellence, Graduate Faculties Alumni of

*Received the Descartes Medal, Academie de Paris, Université René Descartes. *Received the

John Jay Award The John Jay Award is presented annually by Columbia College of Columbia University to its alumni for distinguished professional achievement. It is named for Founding Father of the United States John Jay, Columbia College Class of 1764. The first ...

of Columbia College (1985) *Recipient of seven honorary doctorates

Publications

Cooper is the author o
Science and Human Experience
– a collection of essays, including previously unpublished material, on issues such as consciousness and the structure of space. (Cambridge University Press, 2014). Cooper is the author of an unconventional liberal-arts physics textbook, originally ''An Introduction to the Meaning and Structure of Physics'' (Harper and Row, 1968) and still in print in a somewhat condensed form as ''Physics: Structure and Meaning'' (Lebanon: New Hampshire, University Press of New England, 1992). *Cooper, L. N. & J. Rainwater
"Theory of Multiple Coulomb Scattering from Extended Nuclei"
Nevis Cyclotron Laboratories at

Office of Naval Research The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an organization within the United States Department of the Navy responsible for the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Established by Congress in 1946, its mission is to pl ...

(ONR),

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United States ...

(through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (August 1954). * * * *Cooper, L. N., Lee, H. J., Schwartz, B. B. & W. Silvert
"Theory of the Knight Shift and Flux Quantization in Superconductors"

(through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (May 1962). *Cooper, L. N. & Feldman, D
"BCS: 50 years"
World Scientific Publishing Co., (November 2010).

References

External links

* including the Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1972 ''Microscopic Quantum Interference Effects in the Theory of Superconductivity''
Brown University researcher profile

* '' Critical Review'
evaluations
of Professor Cooper * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Leon N 1930 births Living people Nobel laureates in Physics American Nobel laureates 21st-century American physicists Jewish American physicists Brown University faculty People associated with CERN Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Columbia College (New York) alumni Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Fellows of the American Physical Society Jewish neuroscientists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Superconductivity The Bronx High School of Science alumni Scientists from New York (state) Scientists from the Bronx