Leggett, A. J. (Anthony J.)
Oral history interview with Anthony Leggett, 2020 February 7.
Interview with Sir Anthony Leggett, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Leggett begins with recollections from his childhood as the son of two schoolteachers. He discusses studying classics at Oxford and having minimal science or math education. Leggett explains that he contemplated pursuing graduate studies in philosophy, but he met a priest who taught him complex mathematics concepts, leading to his interest in physics. He describes obtaining his second undergraduate degree in physics from Oxford, as well as his graduate studies in theoretical condensed matter physics under Dirk ter Haar. Then Leggett recalls going to UIUC for a postdoc with David Pines and also to Japan to study with Takeo Matsubara. Leggett discusses his appointment at Sussex University and his shift from low temperature physics into quantum mechanics. He reflects on accepting the offer to move back to UIUC as the endowed MacArthur Chair, as well as what it was like to receive the call about winning the Nobel Prize. The interview ends with Leggett sharing advice for physics students and reflections on his time teaching in Ghana.
Anthony Leggett is a British-American theoretical physicist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He was a recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics. Leggett completed his studies at the University of Oxford.
Haar, D. ter
Leggett, A. J. (Anthony J.)
Pines, David, 1924-
T ky Daigaku
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Oxford
University of Sussex
Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics
Condensed matter. fast
Low temperatures
Nobel Prize winners
Quantum theory
Superconductivity
Superfluidity.
Interviews. aat
Oral histories. aat
Transcripts. aat
Williams, Beth Ann interviewer.
AIP-ICOS
American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA