Alexandre Bouzdine

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Alexandre Buzdin, Cambridge, 2013

Alexandre Bouzdine (Buzdin) (in Russian - Александр Иванович Буздин; born March 16, 1954) is a French and Russian theoretical physicist in the field of superconductivity and condensed matter physics. He was awarded the Holweck Prize in physics in 2013.

Biography

After graduating from the Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1977, Bouzdine received his Ph.D. in 1980 for the theory of magnetic and electronic properties of inhomogeneous systems and then his Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences degree (Habilitation) for a thesis on superconductivity. He worked as a leading scientist at the Institute for High Pressure Physics of the Russian Academy of Science, headed by the future Nobel Prize in Physics Alexei Abrikosov. In addition, Bouzdine became a professor at Moscow State University in 1988.

Since 1996, Alexandre Bouzdine has been working in the University of Bordeaux in France, where he has become a professor of the exceptional class in 2009. He is a condensed matter physics theory group leader at the Laboratory of Waves and Materials. Bouzdine is known for his theoretical contributions into the theory of condensed matter physics, mostly to superconductivity, magnetism and low-dimensional systems. He elaborated a theory of twinning planes' superconductivity, predicted elementary ("pancakes") vortices discovered further on experimentally in layered superconductors. With his colleagues he created a comprehensive description of the Peierls and spin-Peierls transition in magnetic field, predicted the possibility of multi-quanta vortices attached to columnar defects, demonstrated the possibility of tilted vortex attraction in layered superconductors which has received an experimental confirmation. These findings open perspectives for the nano-fabricated superconducting materials and present an important contribution to the general theory of superconductivity .

Bouzdine contributed into the theory of the inhomogeneous Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov phase(FFLO) in the superconducting state. In his pioneering theoretical studies of superconductor-ferromagnet (S-F) multilayer systems he found a damped oscillatory behaviour of the superconducting order parameter in the ferromagnetic layer. This unusual S/F proximity effect leads to many interesting phenomena predicted by Bouzdine: the formation of the S-F-S Pi Josephson junction; the oscillations of the density of states with thickness in an F-layer being in contact with a superconductor; the spin-valve effect in F-S-F structures. All these observations are of a major importance for the superconducting spintronics and dynamic interaction between magnetic and superconducting subsystems.

Honours and awards

Bouzdine was awarded the 2013 Holweck Prize, a joint award by the British Institute of Physics and the Société Française de Physique for his pioneering theoretical studies of the multilayer systems of ferromagnetic superconductors,. In 2004 he has been elected a Senior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France and holds the Chair “Physics of Superconductivity”. Bouzdine is an expert for European programs as INTAS, for ANR and AERES, for Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK), for COST, for German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development, National Science Foundation (USA), an expert of Programme Metusalem with the Belgium government, and expert for the Netherland Science Foundation. Other awards include:

• 2013 Chevalier of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques, French Minister of Education
• 2007 Senior scientist fellowship of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science'.
• 2004 Election as Senior Member in the Institut Universitaire de France.
• 1991 Nomination for the Fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
• 1987 The All-Union Award for Young Scientists (Lenin Komsomol Prize).
• 1986 The First Prize for Young Scientists of Moscow State University .

Interest in popularisation of science

Bouzdine has contributed to the popularization of physics: he was a President of Olympiads in Physics in Russia and later in France, the Editor of the series of popular books in physics:, the Editor of the Russian popular magazine in physics "KVANT" and one of the founders and a field Editor of the American - Russian students magazine on physics and mathematics "Quantum". He gives public popular lectures on physics, participates in the festival of Sciences in France, Italy, Belgium and Russia.

Selected publications

Bouzdine is the author of more than 250 articles published in Nature, Nature Materials, Physical Review B, Physical Review Letters, Physica C, Physica B, Europhysics Letters, Advances in Physics, Review of Modern Physics. He is a member of Editorial Committee of the journal Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences. Physique. He was an invited speaker on many International and National Conferences on Low Temperature Physics, Superconductivity and Magnetism.