Daniel L. Stein
External Professor; Science Board Fellow
Daniel L. Stein is Professor of Physics and Mathematics at New York University. From 2006-2012 he served as NYU Dean of Science. Prior to coming to NYU, he served on the faculties at Princeton University and at the University of Arizona, where he was Head of the Department of Physics for a decade. He received his Ph.D. In Physics from Princeton University in 1979.
His current research is in the fields of theoretical condensed matter physics, statistical mechanics and mathematical physics, social networks, and biological physics. It focuses primarily on randomness and disorder in condensed matter systems, with an emphasis on spin glasses and on stochastic processes leading to rare nucleation events; nonequilibrium dynamical processes in discrete spin systems; micromagnetic systems used as magnetic oscillators and for nonvolatile memory storage; belief spread in social networks; and cellular control mechanisms in protein production. In the past he has worked on topics as diverse as protein biophysics, biological evolution, amorphous semiconductors, superconductors and superfluids, liquid crystals, neutron stars, and the interface between particle physics and cosmology.
His awards include a Princeton University C.E. Proctor Fellowship, an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, University of Arizona College of Science Distinguished Teaching Award, Commission on the Status of Women Vision 2000 Award, election as a Fellow of the American Physical Society, election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the U.S. Air Force Exemplary Civilian Service Medal, and a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.
Primary Institution: New York University
Role/Title: Professor of Physics and Mathematics
Topics of Interest: Agent-based Modeling - Mathematics/Computer Science - Physics
Other Affiliations and Institutions: Joint ECNU-NYUSH Physics Research Institute, NYU Shanghai (co-Director)
When and how you first got involved with SFI: Helped establish and was the first director of the Complex Systems Summer School (1988) and then co-Director through 1998.