CONTENTS - L'Oréal

L’ORÉAL-UNESCO FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE 2005
L’ORÉAL-UNESCO AWARDS 2005: The Laureates
physics and many people think that this discovery and its
explanation were worth a Nobel recognition.
A large spectrum of creativity
Myriam Sarachik has been interested in the behavior of
systems as they transform from one “phase” to another.
For example, materials can be in the solid, liquid or gas
phase, and the transitions between them are called
“phase transitions” (e. g. ice melts to become water,
water boils to become steam). Another example is the
“metal-insulator” transition between a metallic phase
(where a material conducts electricity) and an insulating
phase (where it does not). Professor Sarachik has
investigated “metal-insulator” transitions in semiconductors,
and more recently in two-dimensional layers. It has been
believed for many years that a metallic phase cannot
exist in two dimensions (in contrast to the three
dimensional world we live in). With coworkers, she has
shown that there is an apparent transition to a metallic
phase, where the electrons are free to move in the plane
of the layer. Whether a true metallic phase can exist in
two dimensions is currently a matter of great interest
that is being hotly debated.
Myriam Sarachik has been interested in many subjects
and has changed fields of interest many times. She is
now also investigating an interesting class of materials
called molecular nanomagnets, or “single molecule
magnets”. These are insulating solids that contain a very
large number of identical molecules that are tiny little
magnets regularly arranged on a crystal structure.
These materials are fascinating because they display
behavior that straddles the classical (macroscopic)
world we are all familiar with, and the bizarre world of
quantum mechanics which dominates at very small
distances. Professor Sarachik’s group demonstrated
quantum mechanical flipping of these tiny magnets at
low temperatures, a major finding in the field. Molecular
magnets are also interesting because of their potential
for high density storage of information, a nanomagnet
pointing up or down representing a “0” or “1”; and
possibly as an element (or “qubit”) for a quantum
computer. Although no one has yet succeeded in
implementing it on a useful scale, quantum computation
is under investigation as a novel computational
paradigm. Instead of the two states, “1” and “0”, of
classical physics, qubits deal with combinations (or
“superpositions”) of “1” and “0”, thereby taking
advantage of the much broader, rich complexity of
quantum mechanics.
Beyond doubt, Myriam Sarachik has maintained a high
level of creativity and open mindedness throughout her
life.
Portrait
Myriam P. Sarachik is an experimental condensed
matter physicist with almost 150 published articles to
her name. She has been President of the American
Physical Society, and is Distinguished Professor of
Physics at the City College of the City University of New
York, where she has been teaching since 1964.
Born in Antwerp, Belgium, Myriam P. Sarachik was