2016 Nobel (Prize) Laureate in Physics Michael Kosterlitz visited ProM Facility laboratory this afternoon.
On the occasion of the Rock Master Festival, the acclaimed scientist and famous mountaineer Kosterlitz arrived in Trentino and visited the innovative industrial rapid prototyping laboratory of Polo Meccatronica. This provided him with the opportunity to appreciate the great technological capacity of the machinery therewithin and deepen his knowledge on applied research and development activity carried out by ProM Facility.
The British professor of Physics at Brown University Kosterlitz was awarded the Nobel Prize last year along with David Thouless and Duncan Haldane “for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”, that is, the transitions that take place from one state of matter to another under unusual conditions. Their studies on high-temperature superconductivity and magnetism have opened new paths in the development of superconductors, superfluid materials that offer no resistance to the passage of electricity, making them very useful given their potential in the field of electronics of the future.
By mid morning, the Professor had already visited the laboratories at the Department of Physics of the University of Trento, including Nanoscience, Experimental Gravitation, the BEC Center as well as the laboratories of Communication of Physical Sciences and Theoretical Physics.
His reputation as a great scientist is also followed by his conquered success as high-altitude mountain climber. On Friday 25 August in Arco, Mike Kosterlitz will be the guest of honor at the 12th edition of Arco Rock Legends, the Oscars of sport climbing. The climber and 2016 Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics will receive the Dryarn® Climbing Ambassador by Aquafil award.
The son of Jews who fled Nazi Germany, arriving in Italy in the seventies, already a mountaineer and climber, but scientist yet to be discovered, Kosterlitz became a legend; the first man in history to climb a seven-meter crack in the rock of a mountain in the Orco Valley of Piedmont. A freeclimb, without ropes, which marked the absolute debut in Italy of bouldering.