Professor
Stein-Freiler Distinguished Service Professor, Dept. of Physics, James Franck Institute, Enrico Fermi Institute, and the College
- Address:
- GCIS E217
- Phone:
- 773 702 7190
- Email:
- srnagel@uchicago.edu
- Website:
- http://nagelgroup.uchicago.edu/Nagel-Group/index.html
Research
Many complex phenomena are so familiar that we hardly realize that they defy our normal intuition.Examples include the anomalous flow of granular material, the longmessy tendrils left by honey spooned from one dish to another, the pesky rings deposited by spilled coffee on a table after the liquid evaporates or the common splash of a drop of liquid onto a countertop.Aside from being uncommonly beautiful to see, many of these phenomena involve non-linear behavior where the system is far from equilibrium.Although most of the world we know is beyond description by equilibrium theories, we are still only at the threshold of learning how to deal with such deep and complex behavior.Thus, these are phenomena that can lead the inquisitive into new realms of physics.Problems such as these fuel much of our research effort.
News & Highlights
- Sidney Nagel Awarded 2023 APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research, December 14, 2022
- Professor Sidney Nagel elected to the American Philosophical Society, May 13, 2020
Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (1979)
Fellow, American Physical Society (1988)
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (1993)
Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (1996)
Fellow, American Academy of A
rts and Sciences (1997)
Klopsteg Memorial Lecture Award, American Association of Physics Teachers (1998)
Oliver E. Buckley Prize, American Physical Society (1999)
Member, National Academy of Sciences (2003)