Steven Girvin obtained a B.S. in physics from Bates College in 1971 and master’s degrees in physics from the University of Maine and Princeton University, where he also received his Ph.D in 1977. He did his postdoctoral research at Indiana University and at Chalmers University in Göteborg, Sweden. After serving as a staff physicist at the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) from 1979 to 1987, Girvin joined the faculty of Indiana University. Girvin moved to Yale in 2001 where he is now Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics and Professor of Applied Physics. In 2007 he was appointed by Yale to the position of Deputy Provost for Science and Technology. In that role, he has broad oversight for multiple natural sciences departments and programs within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Throughout his career, Professor Girvin’s research has focused on theoretical studies of collective quantum behavior in many particle systems. Since coming to Yale, his interests have extended to quantum optics and quantum computation. In recognition of his research and contributions to the field, Dr. Girvin has been elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and the US National Academy of Sciences. In 2007 he was awarded the Buckley Prize of the American Physical Society.
