Physics
Research Interests:
Condensed matter and statistical physics; stochastic processes; first-passage processes; chemical kinetics; transport in disordered media; percolation theory and disordered systems; dynamics of social systems; structure of complex networks. Please visit my website for more information and my full publication list.
Education:
- A.B. degree with distinction in general scholarship, University of California, Berkeley, 1972.
- Ph.D. in physics from MIT, 1977.
Biography:
Sid Redner is a condensed-matter theorist whose research focuses on non-equilibrium statistical physics and its applications. Redner has been on the BU faculty since 1978 and has been a full professor since 1989. He has published 230 research articles and two books: the monograph "A Guide First-Passage Processes" (Cambridge University Press, 2001) and the recent graduate text "A Kinetic View of Statistical Physics with P. L. Krapivsky and E. Ben-Naim (Cambridge University Press, 2010). Redner is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and has been a visiting scientist at Schlumberger Research in 1984-85, the Ulam Scholar at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2004-05 and visiting professor at Universite' Paul Sabatier (Toulouse) and Universite' Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris) in 2008. He also served as Acting Chair of the Physics Department in 1993-94 and 2003-04, and will again become chair in the fall of 2011.
Honors/Awards:
- Fellow of the American Physical Society
- Outstanding Referee, American Physical Society
- Ulam Scholar, Center for Non-Linear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 2004-05
In the news:
- Professor Redner ponders the effects of zealots and vacillators
- Professor Redner Among APS Outstanding Referees
- Art Projects
Research Descriptions:
Research by Sidney Redner
Professor Redner’s research field is non-equilibrium statistical physics. His current interests include the structure of networks, chemical reaction kinetics, and the dynamics of social systems. Professor’s Redner’s recent studies of networks has led to new insights about the link structures of the world wide web and the distribution of citations in scientific publications. He is also applying fundamental approaches from non-equilibrium spin systems to yield insights into opinion formation in populations that are driven by the competing influences of compromise and incompatibility. The ultimate goal is to understand the conditions for consensus or lack thereof in heterogeneous populations that evolve by socially rational rules. Professor Redner also has interests in complex systems, including weather statistics, granular materials, and general stochastic processes.