Stig Torsten Stenholm (26 February 1939 – 30 September 2017) was a theoretical physicist who formerly held an

Academy of Finland The Academy of Finland ( fi, Suomen Akatemia, sv, Finlands Akademi) is a governmental funding body for scientific research in Finland. It is based in Helsinki. Yearly, the Academy administers over 260 million euros to Finnish research activities. O ...

professorship.

Education and career

Stenholm obtained an engineering degree at the Helsinki University of Technology (HUT), and a master of science degree in mathematics at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

, both in 1964. He then earned his Dr. phil. at Oxford in 1967 on the topic of quantum liquids under supervision of Dirk ter Haar. From 1967 to 1968, he performed postdoctorate work at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. He obtained his a position as

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

at the University of Helsinki in 1974. In 1980, Stenholm was appointed as the scientific director of the Research Institute for Theoretical Physics (TFT). His colleague Kalle-Antti Suominen later affirmed: "As a director Stig was very broad-minded and without this the happy atmosphere of TFT could not have existed." In the 1990s, the TFT was replaced, and the

Helsinki Institute of Physics The Helsinki Institute of Physics (HIP, fi, Fysiikan tutkimuslaitos, sv, Forskningsinstitutet för fysik) is a physics research institute operated jointly by University of Helsinki, Aalto University, University of Jyväskylä, Lappeenranta Univer ...

(HIP) took its place. In 1997, Stenholm moved to the

Royal Institute of Technology The KTH Royal Institute of Technology ( sv, Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, lit=Royal Institute of Technology), abbreviated KTH, is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in engineering and technolo ...

in Stockholm, Sweden. He retired in 2005. He delivered the presentation speech for the 2005

Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

at the Stockholm Concert Hall.

Work

Stenholm specialised on quantum optics and worked among other topics on

laser cooling Laser cooling includes a number of techniques in which atoms, molecules, and small mechanical systems are cooled, often approaching temperatures near absolute zero. Laser cooling techniques rely on the fact that when an object (usually an atom) ...

Bose–Einstein condensation Bose–Einstein may refer to: * Bose–Einstein condensate ** Bose–Einstein condensation (network theory) * Bose–Einstein correlations * Bose–Einstein statistics In quantum statistics, Bose–Einstein statistics (B–E statistics) describe ...

and

quantum information Quantum information is the information of the state of a quantum system. It is the basic entity of study in quantum information theory, and can be manipulated using quantum information processing techniques. Quantum information refers to both th ...

Honors

He received an

professorship for the work he performed from 1992 to 1997, and he was member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

,The 70th birthday of Professor Stig Stenholm.
''Physica Scripta'', Volume 2010, T140. DOI 10.1088/0031-8949/2010/T140/011002 the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the

Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters The Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters is a Finnish academy for natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. It is known in Latin as Societas Scientiarum Fennica, in Swedish as Finska Vetenskaps-Societeten, and in Finnish as Suomen Tiede ...

and the Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in Finland.Stig T. Stenholm †
Austrian Academy of Sciences

Books

* Stenholm, Stig:
The Quest for Reality. Bohr and Wittgenstein – two complementary views.
' Oxford University Press. 2011.
abstract
* Stenholm, Stig & Suominen, Kalle-Antti: ''Quantum Approach to Informatics''. Wiley, 2005. * Stenholm, Stig: ''The Foundations of Laser Spectroscopy''. Wiley / Dover Books on Physics, 1984. * Stenholm, Stig: ''The semiclassical theory of the gas laser''. Pergamon Press, 1971.

References

External links

Stig Stenholm.
Scientific Commons

Research Leader: Professor emeritus Stig Stenholm, KTH Research Projects Database. {{DEFAULTSORT:Stenholm, Stig Theoretical physicists 1939 births 2017 deaths Academic staff of the University of Helsinki Academic staff of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology 20th-century Finnish physicists University of Helsinki alumni Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Members of the Austrian Academy of Sciences