Leon Cooper

Leon N. Cooper (né Kupchik; February 28, 1930 – October 23, 2024) was an American theoretical physicist and neuroscientist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on superconductivity. Cooper developed the concept of Cooper pairs and collaborated with John Bardeen and John Robert Schrieffer to develop the BCS theory of conventional superconductivity.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In neuroscience, Cooper co-developed the BCM theory of synaptic plasticity.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Biography

Childhood and education

Leon N. Kupchick was born in the Bronx, New York City on February 28, 1930.<ref name = McClain>Template:Cite web</ref> His middle initial N. does not stand for anything, though some sources erroneously suggested his middle name was Neil.<ref name = McClain/>

His father Irving Kupchik was from Belarus and moved to the United States after the Russian Revolution in 1917. His mother Anna (née Zola) Kupchik was from Poland; she died when Leon was seven.<ref name = McClain/> His father later changed the family's surname from Kupchick to Cooper when he remarried.<ref name = McClain/>

Leon attended the Bronx High School of Science, graduating in 1947<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He then studied at Columbia University in nearby Upper Manhattan, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1951.<ref name="brown">Template:Cite web</ref> He remained at Columbia for graduate school, obtaining a Master of Arts degree in 1953<ref name="brown" /> and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in 1954.<ref name="brown" /><ref name="biologyphysics">Template:Cite magazine</ref> His PhD was on the subject of muonic atoms, with Robert Serber as his thesis advisor.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:MathGenealogy</ref>

Scientific career

Cooper spent one year as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. New Jersey. He then taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and Ohio State University before joining Brown University in 1958.<ref name="biologyphysics" /> He would remain at Brown for the rest of his career.

Cooper founded Brown's Institute for Brain and Neural Systems in 1973, becoming its first director.<ref name="brown" /> In 1974 he was appointed Professor of Science at Brown, an endowed chair funded by Thomas J. Watson Sr.<ref name="brown" /> Cooper held visiting research positions at various institutions including the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, Switzerland.Template:Cn

Along with colleague Charles Elbaum, he founded the tech company Nestor in 1975, which sought commercial applications for artificial neural networks.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Nestor partnered with Intel to develop the Ni1000 neural network computer chip in 1994.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal life

File:Leon Cooper with wife 1972.jpg

Cooper with his wife, Kay Allard, in 1972

Cooper first married Martha Kennedy, with whom he had two daughters.<ref name="McClain" /> In 1969, he married for a second time, to Kay Allard. <ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He died at his home in Providence, Rhode Island, on October 23, 2024, at the age of 94.<ref name="McClain" />

Research

Superconductivity

File:Bardeen plaque uiuc.jpg

Plaque at the University of Illinois, commemorating the development of the BCS theory of superconductivity

While Cooper was a postdoc at Princeton, he was approached by John Bardeen, a professor at the University of Illinois, and Bardeen's graduate student John Robert Schrieffer. Bardeen and Schrieffer were working on superconductivity, a topic which was new to Cooper, but he agreed to collaborate with them. Superconductivity had been experimentally discovered in 1911, but there was no theoretical explanation for the phenomenon. Cooper moved to Illinois as a postdoc to work with Bardeen.

After a year of theoretical investigation, Cooper developed the idea of a quasiparticle composed of two bound electrons, now known as a Cooper pair. Cooper published his concept of Cooper pairs in Physical Review in September 1956.<ref name="McClain" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The movement of Cooper pairs through a low-temperature metal would be almost unimpeded, producing a very low electrical resistance. After further development, Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer showed how this could produce superconductivity, publishing their theory in Physical Reviews in two papers during 1957.<ref name="McClain" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=BCS_theory>Template:Cite journal</ref> This theory became known as the BCS theory, after the authors' initials, and is widely accepted as the explanation for conventional superconductivity. Bardeen, Schrieffer and Cooper were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1972 for their theory.<ref name="McClain" />

Neuroscience

After joining Brown University, Cooper became interested in neuroscience, particularly the process of learning. In 1982, Cooper and two doctoral students, Elie Bienenstock and Paul Munro, published their theory of synaptic plasticity in The Journal of Neuroscience.<ref name="McClain" /> They estimated the weakening and strengthening of synapses that could occur without saturation of the connections. As synapses saturate, electrical connections become less effective, thereby reducing the saturation. Connections therefore oscillate between saturation and unsaturation without reaching their limits. Their theory explained how the visual cortex works and how people learn to see. It became known as the BCM theory, after the authors' initials.<ref name="McClain" />

Memberships and honors

• Fellow of the American Physical SocietyTemplate:Cn
• Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesTemplate:Cn
• Member of the National Academy of SciencesTemplate:Cn
• Member of the American Philosophical SocietyTemplate:Cn
• Member of the American Association for the Advancement of ScienceTemplate:Cn
• Associate member of the Neuroscience Research ProgramTemplate:Cn
• Research fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (1959–1966)Template:Cn
• Fellow of the Guggenheim Institute (1965–66)Template:Cn
• Nobel Prize Recipient for Physics (1972)<ref name="brown" />
• Co-winner (with Dr. Schrieffer) of the Comstock Prize in Physics of the National Academy of Sciences (1968)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Received the Award of Excellence, Graduate Faculties Alumni of Columbia UniversityTemplate:Cn
• Received the Descartes Medal, Academie de Paris, Université René Descartes.Template:Cn
• Received the John Jay Award of Columbia College (1985)<ref name="brown" />
• Recipient of seven honorary doctorates<ref name="brown" />

Publications

Cooper was the author of 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 also wrote an unconventional liberal-arts physics textbook, originally An Introduction to the Meaning and Structure of Physics (Harper and Row, 1968)<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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 Columbia University, Office of Naval Research (ONR), United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (August 1954).
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• Cooper, L. N., Lee, H. J., Schwartz, B. B. & W. Silvert. "Theory of the Knight Shift and Flux Quantization in Superconductors", Brown University, United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (May 1962).
• Cooper, L. N. & Feldman, D. "BCS: 50 years", World Scientific Publishing Co., (November 2010).

See also

• List of Jewish Nobel laureates

External links

• Template:Nobelprize including the Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1972 Microscopic Quantum Interference Effects in the Theory of Superconductivity
• Brown University researcher profile
• Brown University Physics Department profile
• Critical Review evaluationsTemplate:Dead link of Professor Cooper
• Template:MathGenealogy