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This is not a science book, nor even a book about science, although most of the contributors are scientists. It is a book of personal stories about Walter Kohn, a theoretical physicist and winner of half of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Walter Kohn originated and/or refined a number of very important theoretical approaches and concepts in solid-state physics. He is known in particular for Density-Functional Theory. This book represents a kind of "oral history" about him, gathered - in anticipation of his 80th birthday - from former students, collaborators, fellow-scientists, and friends.

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Walter Kohn (born March 9, 1923, in Vienna, Austria) is an Austrian-born American theoretical physicist. He was awarded, with John Pople, the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1998. The award recognized their contributions to the understandings of the electronic properties of materials. In particular, Kohn played the leading role in the development of density functional theory, which made it possible to incorporate quantum mechanical effects in the electronic density (rather than through its many-body wavefunction). This computational simplification led to many insights and became an essential tool for electronic materials, atomic and molecular structure. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In solid-state physics, k·p perturbation theory is an approximation scheme for calculating the band structure and optical properties of crystalline solids. It is pronounced "k dot p", and is also called the "k·p method". This theory has been applied specifically in the framework of the Luttinger-Kohn model, and of the Kane model. ... Read more

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Dieses "Märchen" und die anderen hier gesammelten Vorträge richten sich bewußt an ein breites Publikum im Umkreis des "Elfenbeinernen Turmes": Studierende, Dozenten, Physiker, Mathematiker, Wissenschaftshistoriker, aber auch Bildungspolitiker. Personifiziert durch große Gestalten, wie Faraday, Gauss, Boltzmann, Planck und Einstein, werden entscheidende Einflüsse in der Geschichte und Gegenwart der modernen Naturwissenschaft dargestellt. Mit historischen, kulturellen und ethischen Aspekten seiner Wissenschaft hat sich der theoretische Physiker Res Jost (1918-1990) in den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten seines Wirkens an der ETH Zürich ebenso intensiv auseinandergesetzt wie vorher etwa mit den mathematischen Grundlagen der Quantenfeldtheorie. ... Read more