John Wettlaufer

John Wettlaufer's picture
A.M. Bateman Professor of Geophysics, Mathematics and Physics
+1 (203) 432-0892
Research Areas: 
Condensed Matter Physics
Research Type: 
Theorist
Current Projects: 
Stochastic processes, asymptotic analysis and other approaches and methods from modern applied mathematics and physics, along with numerical simulations to probe a broad range of problems including the microscopic theory of melting, the mechanisms underlying cosmogony, climate dynamics, information theory and turbulence. 
 
Biographical Sketch: 
Research: 

Overview

I am trained as a condensed matter theorist and have a wide variety of research interests in soft matter, statistical physics and applied mathematics.  I am interested in trying to construct simple but observationally constrained theories and analogue experiments for complex phenomena in nonlinear dynamics, fluid dynamics, astrophysics, biophysics and geophysics – particularly rapid climate change.  The scales of interest range from atomic to astronomical units.  I collaborate with a people from many disciplines and my students and post docs come to Yale from departments of engineering, physics and applied mathematics. 

Education: 
Ph.D. University of Washington, 1991
Honors & Awards: 

2021 -             Member, Nobel Committee for Physics                     

2021                Member, Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering

2019                Fellow of the American Geophysical Union

2015                Member, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Physics Class III)

2013                Royal Society of London Wolfson Research Merit Award

2014                Plenary Speaker, Inter’l Conference on the Physics & Chemistry of Ice

2013                John Carlson Lecturer, Lorenz Center, MIT

2012                Tage Erlander Professor 

2010-11           John Simon Guggenheim Fellow 

2010                OCCAM Visiting Fellow, Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford

2007                Houghton Lecturer, MIT

2005                Visiting Fellow Commoner, Trinity College, Cambridge

2003                Fellow of the American Physical Society

1999                The Japanese Society for Promotion of Science Visiting Professor

1996                Research Faculty Fellowship, University of Washington

1985                Sigma Pi Sigma; American Institute of Physics National Honor Society