RIP David Pines

This is another one of the physicist who is a giant in his field, but relatively unknown to the general public.

Renowned condensed matter theorist David Pines passed away on May 3, 2018 at the age of 93. I practically read his text (co-authored by Nozieres) on Fermi Liquid from cover to cover while I was a graduate student. In fact, he was on the cusp of a Nobel Prize when he was working with John Bardeen at UIUC. They published a paper on the electron-phonon interaction in superconductors in 1955, a paper that many thought was the precursor to the subsequent BCS Theory paper in 1957. Unfortunately, he left UIUC, and Bob Schrieffer took over his work on this, which ultimately led to the BCS theory and the Nobel prize.

This did not diminished his body of work throughout his life. He certainly was a main figure during the High-Tc superconductivity craze of the late 80's and 90's. His 1991 PRL paper with Monthoux and Balatsky and the 1992 PRL paper with Monthoux, both on the spin-fluctuation effect as the possible "glue" in the cuprate superconductors, where ground-breaking and highly cited.

His contribution to this body of knowledge will have a lasting impact.

Zz.