UChicago physicist earns Dirac Medal for pioneering research

Physicist Dam Thanh Son, University Professor at the University of Chicago, has been awarded the 2018 ICTP Dirac Medal for his contributions to revolutionizing human understanding of how quantum mechanics affects large groups of particles. Son was awarded the medal with physicists Subir Sachdev of Harvard University and Xiao-Gang Wen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The three winners made independent contributions toward understanding novel phases in strongly interacting many-body systems, according to the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, which awards the Dirac Medal. "I feel very honored to receive this award alongside two colleagues I deeply respect," Son said. "The prize is especially valuable to me because ICTP is an institution created to help scientists from the developing world, and I am from Vietnam." Son studies how quantum mechanics affects many-body systems, which are large groups of particles that comprise everyday objects. In such systems, particles entangle and interact in complex ways, and studying these quantum entanglements helps researchers better understand the material's macroscopic properties such as density, volume and surface tension. Many-body systems can be studied by looking at the material's phase and its transition between phases, when external conditions like temperature and pressure are slowly altered.