Steven T. Bramwell (born 7 June 1961) is a British

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 ...

and

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

who works at the

London Centre for Nanotechnology The London Centre for Nanotechnology is a multidisciplinary research centre in physical and biomedical nanotechnology in London, United Kingdom. It brings together three institutions that are world leaders in nanotechnology, University Colleg ...

and the Department of Physics and Astronomy,

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. He is known for his experimental discovery of

spin ice A spin ice is a magnetic substance that does not have a single minimal-energy state. It has magnetic moments (i.e. "spin") as elementary degrees of freedom which are subject to frustrated interactions. By their nature, these interactions preven ...

with M. J. Harris and his calculation of a

critical exponent Critical or Critically may refer to: *Critical, or critical but stable, medical states **Critical, or intensive care medicine *Critical juncture, a discontinuous change studied in the social sciences. *Critical Software, a company specializing in ...

observed in two-dimensional magnets with P. C. W. Holdsworth. A probability distribution for global quantities in complex systems, the "Bramwell-Holdsworth-Pinton (BHP) distribution", (to be implemented in

Mathematica Wolfram Mathematica is a software system with built-in libraries for several areas of technical computing that allow machine learning, statistics, symbolic computation, data manipulation, network analysis, time series analysis, NLP, optimizat ...

) is named after him. In 2009 Bramwell's group was one of several to report experimental evidence of

magnetic monopole In particle physics, a magnetic monopole is a hypothetical elementary particle that is an isolated magnet with only one magnetic pole (a north pole without a south pole or vice versa). A magnetic monopole would have a net north or south "magneti ...

excitations in spin ice. He coined the term "magnetricity" to describe currents of these effective magnetic "monopoles" in condensed-matter systems. Bramwell studied chemistry at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, obtaining his PhD in 1989. He was a professor of physical chemistry at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

from 2000-2009, before becoming a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Honours and distinctions

Bramwell was awarded the 2010

Holweck Prize The Fernand Holweck Medal and Prize is a major European prize for Physics awarded jointly every year by the British Institute of Physics (IOP) and the Société Française de Physique (SFP). It is one of the four Grand Prix of the SFP and one of ...

of the British

Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, research and application. It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide membership of over 20,000. The IOP is the Physica ...

and the Société Française de Physique (SFP) for "pioneering new concepts in the experimental and theoretical study of spin systems". He shared the 2012

Europhysics Prize The EPS CMD Europhysics Prize is awarded (currently every 2nd year) since 1975 by the Condensed Matter Division of the European Physical Society, in recognition of recent work (completed in the 5 years preceding the attribution of the award) by one ...

of the

European Physical Society The European Physical Society (EPS) is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to promote physics and physicists in Europe through methods such as physics outreach. Formally established in 1968, its membership includes the national physical so ...

Condensed Matter Division "for the prediction and experimental observation of magnetic monopoles in spin ice". He is a Fellow of the

. In 2010 he won the Times Higher Education research project of the year for "magnetricity", and was named by

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

on their list of the 100 top UK scientists.

Selected publications

* * * * * * * *

References

External links

Steve Bramwell , London Centre for NanotechnologySurvey of two dimensional critical exponents by Taroni, Bramwell and Holdsworth
* *
Steve Bramwell discusses Marie and Pierre Curie on Radio 4's

In Our Time In Our Time may refer to: * ''In Our Time'' (1944 film), a film starring Ida Lupino and Paul Henreid * ''In Our Time'' (1982 film), a Taiwanese anthology film featuring director Edward Yang; considered the beginning of the "New Taiwan Cinema" * ''In ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bramwell, Steven T. British physicists 1961 births Living people British chemists Academics of University College London Alumni of the University of Oxford Physical chemists