Transcript 60th anniversary of Eugene Chudnovsky Presentation in Coma-Ruga on 8 July 2008 Producer: Dmitry Garanin (Lehman College CUNY) Drawing: Marina Garanin (Uni Heidelberg) Artistic Director:

60th anniversary of
Eugene Chudnovsky
Presentation in Coma-Ruga on 8 July 2008
Producer: Dmitry Garanin (Lehman College CUNY)
Drawing: Marina Garanin (Uni Heidelberg)
Artistic Director: Elena Kuschnerova (Hall of Fame)
Eugene Chudnovsky’s AUTOBIOGRAPHY:
Born: December 12, 1948 in Leningrad (currently Sankt-Petersburg)
Father: Michael Chudnovsky, WW-II hero, colonel of Russian Air Force
Mother: Sofia Chudnovsky-Matusov, Professor of Roman languages
Twin Brother: Alexander
1953: Father with family transferred to Kharkov, Ukraine
1966: EC graduated from high-school, entered Kharkov University
1971: M.S. in Physics and Engineering, Summa cum Laude
1973: Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics, Research Professor
1979: Applied for exit visa, forced to resign
1979-1987: Dark years under KGB surveillance, published in western journals.
1987: Family allowed to leave, teaches at the U. of Rome on the way to U.S.
1987: Assoc. Prof. at Tufts University, Boston
1988: Full Prof. at City U. of NY
1999-present: Distinguished Prof. at City U. of NY
1998-present: Scholar of Institute for Theoretical Physics, U. of California, Santa
Barbara
(continued)
APS Fellow since 1995 elected “For seminal contributions to theory of random
ferromagnetism, macroscopic quantum tunneling, and hexatic order in high
temperature superconductors”
Human Rights: Chair of Committee on International Freedom of Scientists of the
APS, Chair of Human Rights of Scientists Committee of the NY Academy of
Sciences, member of the Board of Governors of the Committee of Concerned
Scientists
Major accomplishments:
Theory of Amorphous Ferromagnets
Theory of Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling of the Magnetic Moment
Theory of Orientational Order in Flux Lattices of Superconductors
The end.
Editor‘s comment on Eugene Chudnovsky‘s bio:
The Russian State agency KGB has found something about Eugene that was not kosher..
.. Or about his parents..
.. Or about his grand parents..
.. As well as about many other people..
Thus after the university graduation he was not allowed to work. And he was not allowed
to look for work abroad during 9 years.
Eugene has not complied. He worked inofficially and became what he is now.
His personal story is the source of his Human Rights committment.
What the colleagues think about Eugene
1) Eugene‘s main contributions
- Macroscopic quantum tunneling in magnetic systems (Myriam Sarachik, Ilya
Krive, Rolf Schilling, Wayne Saslow, Bernard Barbara, Leon Gunther)
- Theory of random-anisotropy magnets (David Sellmyer, Wayne Saslow)
- Spin-Hall effect (Wayne Saslow)
- Universal mechanism of decoherence in solids (Jonathan Friedman)
- The proof that a scientist can productively work under most adverse conditions.
This is a kind of proposition that needs to be proved at least once a century in
order to remain true. Naturally, only a few were able to do that (Yuri Tarnopolsky)
Editor‘s comment: Eugene has many faces, as an icosahedron or dodecahedron. Tell
me what face you see and I tell you who you are. I like all above;-) Plus most
recent yet little known things, and everything we have collaborated on, such as the
universal spin-lattice coupling
2) What do you mostly like in him as a scientist?
- Eugene has always impressed me because of his deep and elegant treatments of novel
physical phenomena (David Sellmyer)
- He is one of the most original scientists I know. Excellent feeling for physically interesting
questions which he attacks with careful analytical tools (Rolf Schilling)
- The ability to solve complex (and always realistic) physical problems by using simple models
and mathematical methods. He is always very clear and physical in
his considerations (Ilya Krive)
- He‘s exciting to work with - new, unexpected, fascinating physics continually bubbles out of his
head (Myriam Sarachik)
- He is like Einstein (but with better hair): He thinks deeply about physics and fundamental issues
(Jonathan Friedman)
- His excellent knowledge of the literature and his creativity based on simple ideas (Bernard
Barbara)
- I had the great pleasure of working with Eugene when he arrived at Tufts University - research
that led to our producing two seminal papers on Quantum Tunneling of Magnetization. Eugene's
fresh and clear Landau style of doing physics was an utter delight for me (Leon Gunther)
- The ability to make most complicated things understandable to a novice (Yuri Tarnopolsky)
3) What do you mostly like in him as a person?
- His contributions to the Program for Refugee Scientists There are many colleagues here now
who owe their career success to Eugene's wonderful work. He has been in particular the leading
advocate for many scholars in Cuba who are imprisoned because of their peaceful expression
about freedom in that country. (Pierre Hohenberg, Joel Lebowitz)
- Intelligence. By sharing with me his intellect, he made the most difficult years of my life in a way
enjoyable. Those were his most difficult years, too (Yuri Tarnopolsky)
- In my opinion patience and firmness (in Russion "stojkost'") are two main features that formed
his character (Ilya Krive)
- He is an extremely pleasant collaborator, who explains complex magnetic phenomena with
utmost patience and grace (David Sellmyer)
- He is a rather relaxed and very friendly person. I like very much that he is enthusiastic in flying
small airplanes (Rolf Schilling)
- His contagious enthusiasm and open generosity. He‘s interesting and great fun (Myriam
Sarachik)
- He's upbeat. He knows how to turn lemons into lemonade (Wayne Saslow)
- Eugene has a very playful personality. He seems to take great joy in life (Jonathan Friedman)
- His is a very pleasent person with a sense of humor that I like very much. He can also be a
good friend (Bernard Barbara).
Spiritual father
The Chudnovsky family, 1962
Michael, Eugene, Sophia, and Alexander
Eugene‘s Human Rights visit to Cuba
Eugene the Adventurer
Eugene roaming Africa
Ostap (Gustavo) Bender, the Great Combinator
(Literary character, Eugene‘s prototype,
active in South Russia)
Eugene was planning to escape to the US by boat with some scientific treasures.
Later he changed his mind and got pilot‘s licence.
After landing. Well, it took some time. Eugene is somewhat older and has another
and very promising kid (next slide)
Eugene with Michael Rambo Chudnovsky
Although Eugene is American now,
he is still European in his heart.
(Photo made by a surveillance camera in
the Olite region in Spain, 1997, the year
of the famous Tudela Conference)
Finally the truth about professor Eugene Chudnovsky
Most of the colleagues do not know Eugene very well and they exaggerate his
contribution. I (left) work with him every day and I know him much better. Eugene (right
bottom) is an ordinary distinguished college professor in NYC, my collaborator. This is a
group meeting, nothing special. How we work together is shown in the next slide.
This is how we are collaborating at Lehman College:
Telescope & Microscope
!
Eugene Chudnovsky with his brother Alexander
(nome de guerre Albine Steinovsky),
the actual owner of the most of „main achievements“
Albert Einstein
(spiritual father,
for reference purposes)
Eugene Chudnovsky
(our celebree)
Albine Steinovsky
(his legendary brother, a statistically average look)
Albine is very volatile, permanently in transition. At some moments he looks just
like his brother Eugene, with good hair. But when inspiration comes, he
transforms into his spiritual father.
Or like this, getting closer to experiment.
Albine Steinovsky
if famous for his explanation
of spin tunneling
as Brownian motion
under the barrier
in molecular magnets
Steinovsky‘s idea found its confirmation in pioneering experiments
carried out by the Don Quixada group in Catalucia.
Javier Don Quixada,
Albine‘s best friend and collaborator,
as well as his age mate, is honored in
a separate presentation.
He is fearless in defending his
scientific visions in the fight against
blind mediocracy, overblown
goatskins, and windmills.
Dmitry
The team
Elena
Appendices
A letter from Wayne Saslow
I must confess that I don't know Eugene very well at all, despite the fact that we have collaborated at a distance.
It all started in the mid-1980s, when Chris Henley, knowing of my interest in random anisotropy magnets, told me
about the work of Eugene and Slava Serota. I met Slava one summer in Cambridge (I have relatives there), and
we discussed the idea of writing a paper that would summarize what Eugene had done and would add a few
things to it. That paper, on magnets with random anisotropy, has received more citations (over 250) than any other
of mine, including one with Bert Halperin on the hydrodynamics of spin glasses. This work was done while Eugene
was a refusenik. I believe we corresponded a little, but my memory is not clear on this. I have since met Eugene at
a few APS meetings. On only one occasion did we spend any extended time together. This was in the mid-1990's,
when I visited CUNY and gave a talk. Afterward we went to his apartment and discussed physics and daughters.
Somehow I learned that he had gathered yellow amber on the Baltic Sea, and had many pieces. Since at that time
I was in the thick of writing an introductory textbook on Electricity and Magnetism, it was wonderful for me to see
this yellow amber. The Greek word for sun - helios – had morphed into the word for amber - electron - but until I
saw this sun-yellow amber I had no idea why that morphing had occurred. I used this tidbit for my textbook.
Since then I have not really kept up on his research. I certainly know of his work on quantum mechanical tunneling
of spins. I think his recent non-specialist's work on the Spin Hall Effect is quite lovely, since it cuts to the core
using simple ideas, and avoiding the obfuscation that occurs in most of the specialist works on this subject. What
can I say about Eugene as a person? I like him! He's upbeat. He knows how to turn lemons into lemonade. He
works hard. He knows how to laugh. He's adventuresome enough to learn how to fly a plane. All good things.
And I look forward to a visit from him this Fall at Texas A&M; perhaps a collaboration will develop.
Wayne
Prof. Wayne Saslow | 521 ENPH | Department of Physics | Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-4242
Dear Eugene,
Congratulations on turning 60!
Clearly, for me, your work on molecular nanomagnets has had
the greatest influence on my own career. If I had to pick out
one or two papers (of many), I would pick the following:
E. M. Chudnovsky and D. A. Garanin, Spin Tunneling via Dislocations
in Mn12 Acetate Crystals, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 187203 (2001).
and
E. M. Chudnovsky and D. A. Garanin, First- and second-order
transitions between quantum and classical regimes for the escape rate
of a spin system, Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 4469-4472 (1997).
The first has had such an influence on my own studies, and the
second I simply find very beautiful.
But I cannot ignore your influence on the beaches of Comaruga,
where your salmon-like agility saved so many goals for the ‘rest of
the world’ team. It is little known that I was once a goal keeper, but
your dominance allowed me to evolve (like a fish out of water) to an
outfield role. However, with two left feet, and rules that do not
allow me use of my hands, I was forced to use only my head (imagine
that!), even when the ball was only 6” (12.7cm) above the sand!!
Best wishes and Happy Birthday!
I hope that we may spend more
afternoons playing football on the
beach at Comaruga, and that we
may continue to find new wonders
in this beautiful field of singlemolecule magnets.
Hill
Cheers, Steve
Photos made after the presentations
to the honor of Eugene Chudnovsky & Javier Tejada
Eugene Chudnovsky with Viktor Moshchalkov
The End or the „Bad lion“ Michael