Peter Littlewood

Peter Littlewood
Born	(1955-05-18) May 18, 1955
Nationality	British
Alma mater	University of Cambridge
Known for	polariton condensation, correlated oxides
Scientific career
Fields	Condensed matter physics
Institutions	Argonne National Laboratory University of Chicago University of St Andrews
Doctoral advisor	Volker Heine
Notable students	Pinaki Majumdar Meera Parish
Website	www.anl.gov/contributors/peter-b-littlewood

Peter Brent Littlewood, FRS (born 18 May 1955) is a British physicist and Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago. He was the 12th Director of Argonne National Laboratory. He previously headed the Cavendish Laboratory as well as the Theory of Condensed Matter group and the Theoretical Physics Research department at Bell Laboratories. Littlewood served as the founding chair of the board of trustees of the Faraday Institution from 2018 to 2024.

Career

He gained a first-class degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge in 1976, and was then awarded a Kennedy Scholarship to work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for two years. He returned to Cambridge in 1977 to complete his PhD.

Beginning in 1980, he worked at Bell Labs, finishing his time there as head of the theoretical physics research after assuming the position in 1992. He continued to be a member of technical staff until 2001.

In 1997, he became a professor at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, and was head of the Theory of Condensed Matter group, and served as Matthias Scholar at Los Alamos National Laboratory during a 2003-04 sabbatical. In 2005, he returned to Cambridge to become head of the Cavendish Laboratory, before being named in 2011 the Associate Laboratory Director for Physical Sciences and Engineering at the Argonne National Laboratory. On March 25, 2014, Littlewood was named to the director's post. In January 2017, he retired as director to resume his research at the University of Chicago. Since 2022, he also holds a partial appointment at the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews of the University of St Andrews in Scotland, UK.

Littlewood holds six patents, has published more than 200 articles in scientific journals and has given more than 200 invited talks at international conferences, universities and laboratories.

Honours and positions

From his curriculum vitae, 2010.

• Fellow, Royal Society of London, 2007
• Fellow, Institute of Physics, 2005
• Matthias Scholar, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 2003-2004
• Consultant, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 2004-
• Consultant, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, 2004-
• Fellow, Trinity College Cambridge, 1997
• Fellow, American Physical Society, 1989
• Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, AT&T Bell Laboratories, 1989
• Professeur Associé and visiting scientist, CNRS, Grenoble, 1986
• Denman Baynes Student, Clare College, Cambridge 1979-80
• Kennedy Scholar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1976–77
• Senior Scholar, Trinity College Cambridge, 1974–76

Work

Littlewood's research has variously included studying the phenomenology and microscopic theory of high-temperature superconductors, transition metal oxides and other correlated electronic systems, and the optical properties of highly excited semiconductors. He has applied his methods to engineering, including holographic storage, optical fibers and devices, and new materials for particle detectors.