Manuel Cardona Castro (7 September 1934 – 2 July 2014) was a
condensed matter physicist. According to the
ISI Citations web database, Cardona was one of the eight most cited physicists since 1970.
He specialized in
solid state physics
Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state physics studies how the l ...
.
Cardona's main interests were in the fields of:
Raman scattering
Raman scattering or the Raman effect () is the inelastic scattering of photons by matter, meaning that there is both an exchange of energy and a change in the light's direction. Typically this effect involves vibrational energy being gained by a ...
(and other optical spectroscopies) as applied to
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical resistivity and conductivity, electrical conductivity value falling between that of a electrical conductor, conductor, such as copper, and an insulator (electricity), insulator, such as glas ...
microstructure
Microstructure is the very small scale structure of a material, defined as the structure of a prepared surface of material as revealed by an optical microscope above 25× magnification. The microstructure of a material (such as metals, polymers ...
s,
materials with tailor-made isotopic compositions, and
high ''T''c superconductors, particularly investigations of electronic and vibronic excitations in the normal and superconducting state.
Academic career
Cardona was born in
Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
in 1934.
After obtaining a Masters in physics in 1955 from
University of Barcelona
The University of Barcelona ( ca, Universitat de Barcelona, UB; ; es, link=no, Universidad de Barcelona) is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, in Spain. With 63,000 students, it is one of the biggest universities i ...
Cardona was awarded a fellowship to work as a graduate student at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
starting in 1956.
At Harvard he began investigations of the dielectric properties of semiconductors, in particular germanium and silicon. With this work as a thesis he received a PhD in Applied Physics at Harvard. From 1959 till 1961 he continued similar work on III-V semiconductors at the RCA Laboratories in Zurich, Switzerland.
In 1961 he moved to the
RCA Labs in
Princeton, NJ
Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whic ...
, where he continued work on the optical properties of semiconductors and started investigations of the microwave properties of superconductors. In 1964 he became a member of the Physics Faculty of
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 ...
(Providence, RI).
In June–September 1965 he taught at the University of Buenos Aires under the auspices of the Ford Foundation. In 1971 he moved to Stuttgart, Germany as a founding director of the then-recently created
Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research
The Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (German: ''Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung'') was founded in 1969 and is one of the 82 Max Planck Institutes of the Max Planck Society. It is located on a campus in Stuttgart, togeth ...
.
Concomitantly he became scientific Member of the
Max Planck Society
The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (german: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V.; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. ...
, where he became emeritus in 2000.
From 1992 to 2004, Cardona served as chief editor of ''
Solid State Communications
Solid State Communications is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of solid-state physics. The journal specializes in short papers on significant developments in the condensed matter science. The journal was established 1963, when the ''Journal of P ...
''.
Distinctions and honors
Besides receiving over at least 61 awards during his career,
Cardona held eleven honorary doctorates. Some notable honors include:
* 1964
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
* 1982
Narcís Monturiol Medal, Government of Catalonia
* 1984
Frank Isakson Prize
The Frank Isakson Prize for Optical Effects in Solids is a prize that has been awarded every second year by the American Physical Society since 1980. The recipient is chosen for "''outstanding optical research that leads to breakthroughs in the co ...
,
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 ...
* 1984 Fellow,
Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
* 1984 Corresponding Member,
Royal Academy of Sciences of Barcelona
* 1987 Member,
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 Nati ...
of the USA
* 1987
Grand Cross of Alfonso X el Sabio, Spain
* 1988
Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research, named after the Crown Prince of Spain
* 1991 Member,
Academia Europaea
The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences.
The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...
* 1994
Max Planck Research Prize
Max or MAX may refer to:
Animals
* Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog
* Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE)
* Max (gorilla) (1 ...
, shared with E. E. Haller, Berkeley
* 1995 Corresponding Member,
Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences
The Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences (Spanish: ''Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales'') is an academic institution and learned society that was founded in Madrid in 1847. It is dedicated to the study and research of mathemat ...
* 1997
John Wheatley Award
The American Physical Society gives out a number of awards for research excellence and conduct; topics include outstanding leadership, computational physics, lasers, mathematics, and more.
;David Adler Lectureship Award in the Field of Materials ...
,
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 ...
* 1999
Ernst Mach Medal, Prague
* 2001
Nevill Mott Medal and Prize
The Nevill Mott Medal and Prize is an award presented in selected years by the Institute of Physics in the United Kingdom, for distinguished research in condensed matter or materials physics. It was first established in 1997 thanks to a donation ...
* 2003
Matteucci Medal The Matteucci Medal is an Italian award for physicists, named after Carlo Matteucci from Forlì. It was established to award physicists for their fundamental contributions. Under an Italian Royal Decree dated July 10, 1870, the Italian Society of S ...
by the
Accademia nazionale delle scienze The Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze (), or more formally L'Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta dei XL, and also called the Accademia dei XL (), is Italy's national academy of science. Its offices are located within the Villino Rosso, at the co ...
, Italy
* 2009 Fellow,
Royal Society of Canada
The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...
* 2011
Vernadsky Gold Medal of the
National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU; uk, Національна академія наук України, ''Natsional’na akademiya nauk Ukrayiny'', abbr: NAN Ukraine) is a self-governing state-funded organization in Ukraine th ...
* 2012
Paul Klemens Award, Phonons Conference, Ann Arbor, MI.
* 2012
Luis Federico Leloir Prize, Argentina
Publications
Cardona has authored over 1,300 scientific publications in international journals, ten monographs on solid state physics and co-authored a textbook on semiconductors.
Since 1972, Cardona has served on the Board of Editors of at least seven journals,
including being the Editor-in-Chief of ''
Solid State Communications
Solid State Communications is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of solid-state physics. The journal specializes in short papers on significant developments in the condensed matter science. The journal was established 1963, when the ''Journal of P ...
'' from 1992 to 2005.
Some of his works include:
* Manuel Cardona: Modulation Spectroscopy, Academic Press 1969. Lib of Congress 55-12299
* Manuel Cardona, Gernot Günterodt and Roberto Merlin: Light Scattering in Solids I-IX (nine volumes) Springer Verlag;
* Pere Bonnin: Manuel Cardona i Castro, Fundació Catalana per a la Recerca, Barcelona 1998
* Peter Y. Yu and Manuel Cardona, Fundamentals of semiconductors, 4 editions 1996-2000,
Personal life
He died in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
in 2014,
where he lived since 1971 with his wife Inge Cardona (née Hecht). He held American, German and Spanish citizenship and had 3 children
and 7 grandchildren.
References
External links
Marvin L. Cohen, Francisco de la Cruz, Lothar Ley, Miles V. Klein, Michael Thewalt, and Peter Y. Yu, "Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2016)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cardona Castro, Manuel
1934 births
2014 deaths
Spanish physicists
Scientists from Barcelona
University of Barcelona alumni
Scientists from Catalonia
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
Members of the Lincean Academy
Harvard University alumni
Brown University faculty
Fellows of the American Physical Society
Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada
Spectroscopists
Academic journal editors
Max Planck Institute directors