Mark Bowick

Biography

Mark Bowick joined the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in August 2016. Bowick received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Caltech in 1983. Bowick was then at Yale for three years as the Research Associate in the Particle Theory Group, followed by a two-year postdoctoral position at the Center for Theoretical Physics at MIT. He received the First prize award in the 1986 Gravity Research Foundation Essay Competition. In 1987, he joined the faculty of the Physics Department at Syracuse University. From 1987-1994 he held an Outstanding Junior Investigator award from the Department of Energy. From 1987 to 1998 he was assistant and associate professor, becoming Full Professor of Physics in 1998. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society (Division of Condensed Matter Physics) in 2004, received the Chancellor's Citation for Exceptional Academic Achievement in 2006 (Syracuse University) and the William Wasserstrom Prize for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Advising in 2009 (Syracuse University. His career has been split between high energy theoretical physics and condensed matter physics. He is a member of the APS and the AAAS.

Research

I am interested in all aspects of symmetry, symmetry-breaking, geometry and topology across fields ranging from quantum field theory to soft and living matter, with a particular focus on topological defects. My recent work is on the statistical mechanics of thermalized 2D-metamaterials, such as graphene, the more general behavior of elastic and fluid membranes and the physics of active nematics.