| RefNo | EC/1996/32 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Salje, Ekhard Karl Hermann: certificate of election to the Royal Society |
| Date | 1996 |
| Description | Principal certificate. Citation typed. With Supplementary certificate of a Candidate for Election. |
| Citation | After a start in theoretical solid-state physics, Dr Salje has become one of the world leaders in applying the theoretical and experimental advances of physics to problems in mineralogy, particularly structural phase transitions. His work on albite and the other feldspars has shown how the internal state of order and strain in a mineral can be understood and related to its geological history via a few parameters in the Landau free energy. This approach has recently been successfully extended to kinetics and resulting textures. He was first to use the line shape of 'hard' phonons to measure degree of order, a technique particularly useful in complex mineral structures. His studies of tungsten and other oxides have elucidated their metal-insulator transition in terms of the behaviour of polaron gas, work that is now being extended to the oxidation state of iron in minerals. Salje has provided major stimulation for mineralogical studies in the UK through organising interdisciplinary workshops, etc. between the physics and mineralogy communities. |
Supplementary certificate of a Candidate for Election
His approach using the Landau free energy has become standard in the study of mineral phase transitions. Recently his experimental work is the first successful analysis of the applicability of various rate equations (Glauber, Kawasaki, Landau-Ginzberg). His quantative rate laws allow, for the first time, for the reconstruction of the geological time development from subtle structural changes in the materials involved. He has developed new x-ray facilities which allow the analysis of microstuctures such as twin formation. All experimental work has been supported by new theoretical approaches, in particular in the formation of tweed and twin patterns. Salje was one of the founders of the first IRC in the UK, the IRC for Superconductivity. His work on the renormalisation of infrared-active phonons and polarons is leading in the field. |
| Extent | 2 sheets |
| AccessStatus | Closed |