John Hopfield
Photo: Denise Applewhite
Princeton Professor John Hopfield has been selected to receive the
2005 Albert Einstein World Award of Science by the World Cultural
Council.
The award usually is given in recognition of an outstanding
contribution to a discipline within the pure or applied sciences that
has benefited the human race. Hopfield is being honored for his
contributions to three major disciplines -- physics, chemistry and
biology -- and for his ability to cross boundaries "to discover new
questions and propose answers that uncover the conceptual structure
behind the experimental facts," according to the council.
"[Professor Hopfield] today is considered the leading theoretician of
biology, both in terms of accomplishment and influence," a news release
from the council stated. "His ability to think broadly as well as
deeply about science is a characteristic shared by very few scientists
in modern times."
Hopfield currently is the Howard A. Prior Professor in the Life
Sciences at Princeton, where he joined the faculty as a professor of
physics in 1964. In 1969, only 11 years after earning a Ph.D. in
physics from Cornell University, he received the American Physical
Society's Buckley Prize for his research on the emission and absorption
of light by semiconductors.
Over the next several years, Hopfield switched his research focus from
physics to biology and earned an international reputation for his
pioneering applications of physics-related computational techniques to
the emerging field of neurobiology. He has worked to develop a
theoretical understanding of how the neural circuits of the brain
perform complex calculations, investigating the way in which nerve
cells work together to process sensory perceptions such as the
recognition of odors or sounds. The Hopfield model of neural
processing, which provides insight into the differences between
computation in computers and the brain, has become widely referenced in
the field.
The recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Award in 1983, Hopfield also
received the American Physical Society's Prize in Biophysics in 1985 as
well as the Dirac Medal from the Abdus Salam International Centre for
Theoretical Physics in 2001. He is a member of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. Between 2000
and 2002, he served on an NAS panel on undergraduate biology education
for future scientists.
A professor of chemistry and biology at the California Institute of
Technology from 1980 to 1997, Hopfield returned to Princeton as a
professor of molecular biology in 1997 and was named to the endowed
professorship in 2002. He also serves on the faculty of Princeton's
Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics.
The Albert Einstein World Award of Science will be presented Nov. 12
during a ceremony at the Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro in
Saltillo, Coahuila, México. The World Cultural Council is an
international organization based in México that annually acknowledges
individuals or institutions for outstanding achievements in science,
education and the arts. During the same ceremony, Mexican architect
Enrique Norten will receive the Leonardo da Vinci World Award of
Arts.
