Anderson was born inIndianapolis, Indiana, and grew up inUrbana, Illinois. His father, Harry Warren Anderson, was a professor of plant pathology at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; his maternal grandfather was a mathematician atWabash College, where Anderson's father studied; and his maternal uncle was aRhodes Scholar who became a professor of English, also at Wabash College. He graduated fromUniversity Laboratory High School in Urbana in 1940. Under the encouragement of a math teacher by the name of Miles Hartley, Anderson enrolled atHarvard University to study under a fully-funded scholarship. He concentrated in "Electronic Physics" and completed his B.S. in 1943, after which he was drafted into the war effort and built antennas at theNaval Research Laboratory until the end of theSecond World War in 1945. As an undergraduate, his close associates included particle-nuclear physicistH. Pierre Noyes, philosopher and historian of scienceThomas Kuhn and molecular physicist Henry Silsbee. After the war, Anderson returned to Harvard to pursue graduate studies in physics under the mentorship ofJohn Hasbrouck van Vleck; he received his Ph.D. in 1949 after completing a doctoral dissertation titled "The theory of pressure broadening of spectral lines in the microwave and infrared regions."[9]
Anderson spent a year as lecturer atCambridge University in 1961–1962, and recalled that havingBrian Josephson in a class was "a disconcerting experience for a lecturer, I can assure you, because everything had to be right or he would come up and explain it to me after class."[18]
From 1967 to 1975, Anderson was a professor of theoretical physics at Cambridge. In 1977 Anderson was awarded theNobel Prize in Physics for his investigations into the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems, which allowed for the development of electronic switching and memory devices in computers. Co-researchersSir Nevill Francis Mott andJohn van Vleck shared the award with him. In 1982, he was awarded theNational Medal of Science. He retired from Bell Labs in 1984 and wasJoseph Henry Professor Emeritus of Physics atPrinceton University.[19]
Anderson's writings includedConcepts in Solids,Basic Notions of Condensed Matter Physics andThe Theory of Superconductivity in the High-Tc Cuprates. Anderson served on the board of advisors ofScientists and Engineers for America, an organization focused on promoting sound science in American government.[20]
In response to the discovery of high-temperature superconductors in the 1980s, Anderson proposedResonating valence bond (RVB) theory to explain the phenomenon. While many found the idea unconvincing, RVB theory proved instrumental in the study ofspin liquids.[21]
Anderson also made conceptual contributions to the philosophy of science through his explication ofemergent phenomena, which became an inspiration for the science of complex systems. In 1972, he wrote an article called "More is Different" in which he emphasized the limitations of reductionism and the existence of hierarchical levels of science, each of which requires its own fundamental principles for advancement.[22]
In 1984, he participated in the founding workshops of theSanta Fe Institute, a multidisciplinary research institute dedicated to the science of complex systems.[23] Anderson also co-chaired the institute's 1987 conference on economics withKenneth Arrow andW. Brian Arthur, and participated in its 2007 workshop on models of emergent behavior in complex systems.[24]
In 1987, Anderson testified to the US Congress, "against the construction of theSuperconducting Super Collider (SSC), a 40 TeV proton-proton collider in Texas that would have been the biggest experiment in particle physics. Anderson's opposition to the SSC did not directly lead to its cancellation in 1993—spiralling costs were the main factor—but he was perhaps its most high-profile opponent."[25] He was, "skeptical of the supposed boost it would provide to science in the US and the claim that the spin-offs would provide great return on investment."[26]
A 2006 statistical analysis of scientific research papers by José Soler, comparing the number of references in a paper to the number of citations, declared Anderson to be the "most creative" amongst ten most cited physicists in the world.[27] In 2021, Oxford University Press published the biographyA Mind over Matter: Philip Anderson and the Physics of the Very Many by Andrew Zangwill.[28][29][30]
Anderson was anatheist and was one of 22 Nobel Laureates who signed theHumanist Manifesto.[34][35] Anderson was also interested in Japanese culture, living there for a time and becoming a 1stDan master of the board gameGo.[36] TheNihon Ki-in awarded him a lifetime achievement award in 2007, and Anderson joked that there were only four people in Japan who could beat him.[2]
Anderson married Joyce Gothwaite in 1947 and they had a daughter, Susan.[2] He died inPrinceton, New Jersey, on March 29, 2020, at the age of 96.[37][38][39]
Anderson, Philip W. (1954).Notes on theory of magnetism. Tokyo: University of Tokyo.OCLC782103851.
Anderson, Philip W. (1997) [1963].Concepts in solids: lectures on the theory of solids. Singapore River Edge, New Jersey: World Scientific.ISBN9789810232313.
Anderson, Philip W. (1997) [1984].Basic notions of condensed matter physics. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.ISBN9780201328301.
Anderson, Philip W.;Arrow, Kenneth J.;Pines, David, eds. (1988).The economy as an evolving complex system: the proceedings of the Evolutionary Paths of the Global Economy Workshop, held September, 1987 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Redwood City, California: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.ISBN9780201156850.[40]
Anderson, Philip W. (2004) [1994].A career in theoretical physics. World Scientific Series in 20th Century Physics, volume 35. Singapore Hackensack, New Jersey: World Scientific Pub. Co.ISBN9789812567154.
Anderson, Philip W. (1997).The theory of superconductivity in the high-TC cuprates. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.ISBN9780691043654.
^Horgan, J. (1994)Profile: Philip W. Anderson – Gruff Guru of Condensed Matter Physics,Scientific American271(5), 34-35.
^Anderson, P.W. (1997).THE Theory of Superconductivity in High- Cuprates. Princeton: Princeton University Press.ISBN978-0-691-04365-4.
^Anderson, P.W. (1997).Basic Notions of Condensed Matter Physics. Reading: Addison-Wesley.ISBN978-0-201-32830-1.
^Anderson, P.W. (1998).Concepts in Solids: Lectures on the Theory of Solids. Singapore: World Scientific.ISBN978-981-02-3231-3.
^Bernstein, Jeremy (1987).Three degrees above zero: Bell Laboratories in the information age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-32983-5.
^Anderson, Philip W. (1949).The theory of pressure broadening of spectral lines in the microwave and infrared regiona (PhD).University of Harvard.OCLC1035302001.
^Clason, Lauren."Philip W. Anderson". National Science & Technology Medals Foundation. RetrievedMarch 30, 2020.
^"Notable Signers".Humanism and Its Aspirations. American Humanist Association. RetrievedSeptember 15, 2012.
^Anderson, Philip W. (2011). "Imaginary Friend, Who Art in Heaven".More and Different: Notes from a Thoughtful Curmudgeon. World Scientific. p. 177.ISBN9789814350129.We atheists can, as he does, argue that, with the modern revolution in attitudes toward homosexuals, we have become the only group that may not reveal itself in normal social discourse.
