LSU Physicist Named American Physical Society Fellow

11/05/15
BATON ROUGE – LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy Professor Ilya Vekhter has been named a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

A distinct honor among the physics profession, an American Physical Society Fellow is elected based on exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise including outstanding physics research, important applications of physics, leadership in or service to physics or significant contributions to physics education.

Vekhter was recognized by APS for his “important contributions to the theory of unconventional superconductors in the vortex state, including probes of order parameter symmetry.”

Superconductivity and magnetism are two phenomena that show how quantum mechanics, normally assumed to be relevant only for small particles, manifests itself on macroscopic scales relevant to our world. Vekhter’s general interests are in materials that exhibit a variety of quantum orders and have some promising applications for the future.

“I study how these orders appear, compete and complement each other, and how we can control them in bulk and at interfaces with other materials,” Vekhter said.

Vekhter’s ongoing research projects have been supported by the LSU Board of Regents, the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.

He joined LSU in 2004 as an assistant professor and was promoted to a full professor in physics in 2015. He received his B.S. in physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1989. He received his M.S. in 1993 and Ph.D in 1998 both in physics from Brown University. Prior to arriving at LSU, he held a postdoctoral position at the University of Guelph in Canada and a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The American Physical Society, or APS, is a non-profit membership organization working to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics through its outstanding research journals, scientific meetings, and education, outreach, advocacy and international activities. APS represents more than 51,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories and industry in the U.S. and throughout the world. Society offices are located in College Park, Md., Ridge, N.Y. and Washington, D.C.

 

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Contact Mimi LaValle
LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy
225-439-5633
mlavall@lsu.edu

 

Alison Satake
LSU Media Relations
225-578-3870
asatake@lsu.edu