United States
In recognition of his landmark contributions to the field of soft matter physics, which have shed new light on the fundamentals of physics and expanded the boundaries of human knowledge; of his immeasurable personal and professional impact as a teacher and mentor, inspiring generations of aspiring scientists; and of his warm, long-lasting friendship and instrumental service to the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Prof. Philip (Fyl) A. Pincus is a founding father of the interdisciplinary research area of soft matter physics, and today is among the preeminent physicists in this field. His efforts in mentoring a generation of scientists in the 1980s has enabled soft matter physics (and its related field of biological physics) to emerge as a discipline in its own right.
Born in New York in 1936, Prof. Pincus earned his BS from the University of California, Berkeley, and went on to complete his PhD there in 1961, working on problems in magnetism. Shortly after obtaining his PhD, he accepted a faculty position at UCLA, where he worked from 1962-1982, during which he also headed the University’s Physics Department. He then spent three years at Exxon Research and Engineering, mentoring a cohort of (then) novice soft matter scientists. Since 1985, he has been at UC Santa Barbara, where he chaired the Biomolecular Science and Engineering Program and the Physics Department. He is currently a Distinguished Professor of Physics and Materials.
During a long and prolific career, Prof. Pincus has made several pioneering breakthroughs in the field of condensed matter physics. Starting with fundamental contributions to magnetism and superconductivity, Prof. Pincus turned his attention to polymers. Since then, his research has cut across conventional categories and disciplines, and has resulted in seminal contributions to the understanding of the properties of charged colloids, polymers, membranes, and DNA. Prof. Pincus’ insights into the unique behavior of charged soft matter extended the understanding of neutral systems uncovered by Nobel Laureates Flory and de Gennes, and has dramatically changed the way we think about a variety of systems such as charged and magnetic colloids, polyelectrolytes, and charged membranes.
Since the 1980s, Prof. Pincus has collaborated with numerous Weizmann Institute research groups, contributing his expertise for the benefit of younger scientists. In 2000, he was elected to the Institute’s Board of Governors and became a member of its Scientific and Academic Advisory Committee (SAAC), an office he held until 2012. He was elected as a Life Member of the Weizmann Institute’s International Board in November 2020.
Prof. Pincus is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Physical Society, and the recipient of the 1992 High Polymer Physics Prize of the American Physical Society, among other honors.