Background
Libchaber, Albert Joseph was born on October 23, 1934 in Paris. Son of Charles and Cyrla (Markowska) Libchaber. came to the United States, 1983.
Libchaber, Albert Joseph was born on October 23, 1934 in Paris. Son of Charles and Cyrla (Markowska) Libchaber. came to the United States, 1983.
Albert J. Libchaber graduated with a bachelor"s degree in mathematics from the University of Paris in 1956 and an Ingénieur des Telecommunications from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Telecommunications in 1958. He earned a master of science degree in physics from the University of Illinois in 1959 and his doctoral degree from the École Normale Supérieure in 1965.
Libchaber was a professor at the University of Chicago from 1983 to 1991. He left Chicago and became a professor of physics at Princeton University in 1991. In the same year, the Nippon Electric Corporation Institute in Princeton named him a fellow and, in 1993, he became the James South. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton.
He joined the faculty at The Rockefeller University in 1994.
Albert Libchaber made major contributions in experimental condensed matter physics. In particular, he carried out the first experimental observation of the bifurcation cascade that leads to chaos and turbulence in convective Rayleigh–Bénard systems
Using microbolometers engraved in the convective cell he was able to observe temperature fluctuations without perturbing the environment. In this way, he clearly observed the bifurcations that lead to chaos: period doubling, possibly accompanied by locking of several incommensurate frequencies.
The theoretical predictions of Mitchell Feigenbaum were thus entirely confirmed.
His first work was done on 4He. Later he used mercury, in which an applied magnetic field provides an additional degree of freedom. The experiment is so perfect that it can measure quantitatively the Feigenbaum critical exponents that characterize the cascade to chaos.
Since the 1990s, Albert Libchaber"s research has been primarily in biology, from the viewpoints of physics and nonlinear dynamics.
Served as officer French Army, 1959-1961. Fellow Nippon Electric Corporation Research Institute Princeton. Member American Physical Society, French Physical Society (Silver medal 1971, prix Ricard 1979), American Academy Arts and Sciences.
Married Irene Gelman, September 11, 1955;children— Jacques, Remy, David.