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| Brian Maple | |
|---|---|
| Name | Brian Maple |
| Birth date | 1939 |
| Birth place | San Francisco, California |
| Fields | Physics, Condensed matter physics, Superconductivity |
| Workplaces | University of California, San Diego; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Doctoral advisor | Bernd T. Matthias |
| Known for | Research on superconductivity, magnetic impurities in superconductors, heavy-fermion systems |
| Awards | Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship |
Brian Maple is an American experimental physicist recognized for pioneering studies of superconductivity, magnetic impurities, and correlated electron systems. His work spans low-temperature measurements, spectroscopy, and materials synthesis, linking phenomena in rare-earth and transition-metal compounds with theoretical concepts developed by leading condensed matter physicists. Maple has held long-term positions in California research universities and national laboratories and has been influential in advancing experimental techniques used to probe unconventional superconductors and heavy-fermion materials.
Maple was born in San Francisco, California, and grew up during the post-World War II era that saw rapid expansion of scientific institutions such as the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley. He obtained his Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees at University of California, Berkeley, where he studied under the supervision of noted physicists in the tradition of Bernd T. Matthias and the broader community that included figures associated with Stanford University and Bell Labs. During his graduate studies he trained in low-temperature techniques and materials preparation, connecting experimental approaches practiced at Argonne National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Maple's research concentrated on the interplay between magnetism and superconductivity in intermetallic compounds, work that linked experimental findings to theoretical frameworks developed by physicists at Cornell University, Princeton University, and University of Cambridge. He produced influential studies of magnetic-impurity effects in conventional superconductors and of unconventional pairing in heavy-fermion superconductors discovered in systems containing cerium, uranium, and other actinides. His investigations into the Kondo effect and mixed-valence behavior intersected with work by theorists from Institute for Advanced Study and experimentalists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Maple led measurements of resistivity, specific heat, magnetization, and thermal transport under extreme conditions—high magnetic field environments associated with facilities like the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and ultra-low temperatures achieved with dilution refrigerators similar to those used at Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics. His experiments clarified the role of crystalline-electric-field splitting, Ruderman–Kittel–Kasuya–Yosida interactions, and quantum critical points in rare-earth and actinide compounds, connecting to theoretical concepts from researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Collaborative work with chemists and materials scientists at institutions such as California Institute of Technology and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign advanced synthesis of single crystals used to reveal anisotropic superconducting gaps and non-Fermi-liquid behavior.
Maple contributed to the discovery and characterization of unconventional superconductivity in compounds that became paradigmatic in the study of strongly correlated electrons, complementing discoveries by scientist-teams at University of Tokyo and Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids. His publications influenced subsequent examinations of high-temperature superconductors investigated at IBM Research and studies of spin-fluctuation mediated pairing pursued at Rutgers University.
Maple served on the faculty of the University of California, San Diego, where he led laboratories and graduate training programs interacting with centers like the San Diego Supercomputer Center and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography for interdisciplinary projects. He held visiting appointments and collaborative roles at national laboratories, including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory, and participated in multi-institution initiatives funded by agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. Maple supervised doctoral students who went on to positions at universities including University of California, Santa Barbara, University of Michigan, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and collaborated with postdoctoral researchers from Imperial College London and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich.
During his career he chaired departmental and divisional committees, contributed to editorial boards of journals published by societies such as the American Physical Society and the Institute of Physics, and organized international conferences that convened delegations from CERN and leading condensed matter centers.
Maple's honors reflect his impact on condensed matter physics. He received the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize from the American Physical Society for contributions to superconductivity and correlated electron systems. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and elected to professional societies including the American Physical Society and foreign academies associated with institutions such as the Royal Society of London and national academies collaborating with the National Academy of Sciences. Maple also received recognition from university-level distinguished faculty awards and from conference organizers who bestowed lifetime achievement and plenary lecture invitations.
- Experimental studies of magnetic impurities in superconductors and anomalous normal-state properties of intermetallics, published in journals associated with the American Physical Society and the Institute of Physics. - Reviews on heavy-fermion superconductivity and non-Fermi-liquid behavior, coauthored with collaborators from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. - Papers on the discovery and characterization of unconventional superconducting states in cerium- and uranium-based compounds, cited widely by researchers at Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research and University of Tokyo. - Technical articles on low-temperature measurement techniques and materials synthesis, developed in cooperation with teams at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.
Category:American physicists Category:Condensed matter physicists Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:University of California, San Diego faculty