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| William Kohn | |
|---|---|
| Name | William Kohn |
| Birth date | 9 March 1927 |
| Birth place | Vienna, Austria |
| Death date | 19 April 2016 |
| Death place | Santa Barbara, California, United States |
| Fields | Physics, Theoretical Physics, Quantum Chemistry |
| Workplaces | University of California, Santa Barbara; Carnegie Mellon University; University of California, San Diego; Bell Telephone Laboratories |
| Alma mater | University of Toronto; Harvard University |
| Doctoral advisor | Julian Schwinger |
| Known for | Density functional theory |
| Awards | Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1998); Fermi Award; American Physical Society Fellow |
William Kohn was an Austrian-born physicist and theoretical chemist best known for founding modern density functional theory. His work bridged quantum mechanics, solid-state physics, and quantum chemistry, reshaping electronic-structure calculations for atoms, molecules, and solids. Kohn's methods underlie computational approaches used across chemistry, materials science, and nanotechnology.
Kohn was born in Vienna in 1927 and, as a Jewish child, was forced to flee during the Anschluss; he was transported to the United Kingdom on a Kindertransport organized amid the prelude to World War II. After internment and relocation to Canada, he enrolled at the University of Toronto, where he studied under physicists influenced by Ernest Rutherford's legacy and the Toronto school of nuclear physics. Kohn completed undergraduate work before moving to graduate studies at Harvard University, receiving a Ph.D. under Julian Schwinger, a prominent figure in quantum electrodynamics.
Kohn held appointments at institutions including Carnegie Mellon University, Bell Telephone Laboratories, the University of California, San Diego, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. His early research addressed electronic properties of metals and alloys, interacting with scientists associated with Rudolf Peierls, Philip Anderson, and John Bardeen. Kohn investigated screening phenomena, collective excitations like plasmons, and impurity states, contributing to theoretical frameworks used by researchers in solid-state physics and condensed matter physics. Collaborations and intellectual exchange with figures such as David Pines, Lev Landau, and Niels Bohr shaped his analysis of many-electron systems.
Kohn's landmark contribution, developed with Lu Jeu Sham, reformulated the many-electron Schrödinger problem by expressing ground-state properties as functionals of the electron density rather than the many-electron wavefunction. This approach built on earlier concepts by Thomas and Fermi (the Thomas–Fermi model) but introduced the Kohn–Sham equations, enabling practical self-consistent calculations for real materials. The Kohn–Sham scheme provided a way to incorporate exchange and correlation effects via approximations such as the local density approximation (LDA) and later generalized-gradient approximations (GGA), which were refined by researchers including John Perdew, Axel Becke, and Walter Kohn's contemporaries. Density functional theory transformed electronic-structure methods used in studies of semiconductors, metals, molecules, and surfaces, and it facilitated computational predictions in fields spanning materials science, catalysis, and nanotechnology.
Kohn received numerous accolades, culminating in the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1998, awarded for his development of density functional theory. Other honors included the Enrico Fermi Award, election to the National Academy of Sciences, fellowship in the American Physical Society, and honorary degrees from institutions such as Harvard University and Oxford University. He was recognized by professional societies in physics and chemistry and invited to deliver named lectures at organizations including the Royal Society and the American Chemical Society.
Kohn settled in Santa Barbara and continued research, mentorship, and advocacy for theoretical methods until late in his career. His legacy endures through widely used computational codes and the work of former students and collaborators affiliated with universities and laboratories worldwide, including groups at MIT, Stanford University, Caltech, and national laboratories such as Argonne National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Kohn's intellectual descendants advanced hybrid functionals, time-dependent density functional theory, and applications to large-scale simulations relevant to photonics and energy materials. He is commemorated in symposia, named lectureships, and archival collections at institutions like the University of California, Santa Barbara and the Niels Bohr Library & Archives.
Category:Physicists Category:Nobel laureates in Chemistry Category:Austrian emigrants to Canada