Santa Fe Institute

Bio

Thomas F. Rosenbaum, John T. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor in Physics, the James Franck Institute and the College, presently serves as the Provost of The University of Chicago. In addition to his responsibilities for academic and research programs across the University, Rosenbaum serves on the Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratory.

Rosenbaum is an expert on the quantum mechanical nature of materials - the physics of electronic, magnetic and optical materials at the atomic level - that are best observed at temperatures near absolute zero (minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit). He conducted research at Bell Laboratories and at IBM Watson Research Center before he joined the Chicago faculty in 1983.

He directed the University's Materials Research Laboratory from 1991 to 1994, the University's James Franck Institute from 1995 to 2001, and served as Vice President for Research and for Argonne National Laboratory from 2002 to 2006.

His honors include an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, a Presidential Young Investigator Award and the William McMillan Award for Outstanding Contributions to Condensed Matter Physics. Rosenbaum is an elected fellow and Centennial Lecturer of the American Physical Society and an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Rosenbaum received his bachelor's degree in physics with honors from Harvard University, and both an M.A. and Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University.