Boston College
Boston College Department of Physics
bc physics online





Physics Department Personnel

Kevin BedellDr. Kevin Bedell

Vice Provost for Research and Rourke Professor of Physics

617-552-3590
Higgins Hall 330E
bedell@bc.edu

Education

  • B.S. in Physics, Dowling College, Oakdale, NY, January 1971
  • M.S. in Applied Mathematics, SUNY at Stony Brook, NY, December 1972
  • Ph.D. in Physics, SUNY at Stony Brook, NY, August 1979

Areas of Research
Strongly correlated electron systems, including high Tc superconductors and heavy fermion materials; theory of local, marginal and other correlated Fermi liquids; properties of quantum fluids and solids; weak ferromagnetism and co-existence of superconductivity and ferromagnetism.


Society Membership, Honors, Committees, etc.

  • Appointed Rourke Professor of Physics at Boston College, September 1999.
  • Fellow, American Physical Society, 1993 - present.
  • Member, American Physical Society.
  • Member, APS Wheatley Award Committee, 1998 – 2000.
  • Editor, Advances in Physics, November 1995 – present.
  • Who’s Who in America.
  • Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.
  • Review Panelist for National Research Council Research Associateship Program, sponsored by The National Academies, January 2005 – present.

Professional Experience

  • Research Associate, University of Illinois Urbana, September 1979 – January 1982.
  • Research Fellow, Institute for Theoretical Physics, SUNY Stony Brook, September 1982 – August 1985.
  • Visiting Professor, Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory, Leiden, The Netherlands, September 1985 – September 1986.
  • Staff Member, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Theoretical Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics Group, T-11, September 1986 – January 1996.
  • Director, Program in Correlated Electron Theory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, November 1991 – December 1995.
  • Project leader for the Many-Body Theory effort in the Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics Group, T-11, Los Alamos National Laboratory, August 1990 – December 1995.
  • Co-Director, Many-Body Theory Program, Los Alamos National Laboratory, January 1996 – 2000.
  • Consultant, Los Alamos National Laboratory, February 1996 – present.
  • Professor of Physics, Boston College, September 1995 – present.
  • Chair, Department of Physics, Boston College, September 1995 – September 2006.
  • Vice Provost for Research, Boston College, October 2006 – present.

Selected Conferences and Invited Talks

  • Invited speaker at the Condensed Matter Meeting of the Brazilian Physical Society, "What Kind of Liquid Are the High Temperature Superconductors?" May 5 – 8, 1992.
  • Invited participant in the Aspen Center for Physics Summer Workshop on "Non-Fermi Liquid and Unconventional Metals," July 18 – August 6, 1994.
  • Invited speaker at the "Seventh Conference on Superconductivity and Applications," Buffalo, New York, "The Theory of High-Tc: Are We There Yet?" September 7 – 9, 1994.
  • Invited lecturer at the National Center for Theoretical Physics in Canberra, Australia, "Microscopic Foundations of Fermi Liquid and Non-Fermi Liquid Theories of High Temperature Superconductors," November 1 – 11, 1994.
  • Invited speaker at “Spectroscopies of Novel Superconductors” Conference,” Cape Cod, MA, speaking on "Reflections on the Conference: Spectroscopies of Novel Superconductors, 1997,” September 1997.
  • Invited participant in the Aspen Center for Physics Summer Workshop on "Superconductivity in Unconventional Metals," July 17 – August 2, 1999.
  • Invited participant in the Los Alamos National Laboratory Workshop on "Complex Adaptive Matter," August 23 – 28, 1999.
  • Invited speaker at the "Workshop on the Nuclear Standard Model: Ieri, Oggi, Doani: A celebration of Vijay Pandharipande's sixtieth birthday," Elba, Italy, speaking on "New Collective Modes in Ferromagnetic Metals: Are there lessons to be learned for nuclear matter?" June 26 – 30, 2000.
  • Invited speaker at the "Workshop on Superconductivity and Emergent Behavior in Correlated Electron Systems," Los Alamos, NM, speaking on "S-Wave Superconductivity in Weak Ferromagnets,” September 9 – 11, 2000.
  • Invited participant in the Institute for Theoretical Physics Workshop on "High Temperature Superconductivity,” September 12 – October 9, 2000.
  • Invited speaker at the "Tradeline Conference on New Cost-Effective Planning Models and Building Programs for College and University Learning Facilities," Hilton Head, SC, speaking on "Space: The final frontier," November 9 – 10, 2000. (This was a talk I presented with two architects from Shepley Bulfinch, Richardson & Abbott.)
  • Invited participant in the Aspen Center for Physics Summer Workshop on “Emergent Behavior in Correlated Electron Superconductors,” July 2 – 15, 2001.
  • Invited participant in "From Superconductivity to Magnetism: A Symposium to honor Professor J. R. Schrieffer, Nobel Laureate,” Santa Fe, NM, October 18 – 19, 2001.
  • Invited lecturer at the March 2002 American Physical Society Annual Meeting, speaking on "Superconductivity and the Normal State Near Ferromagnetic Quantum Criticality," March 20, 2002.
  • Invited speaker and breakout group leader at "Shaping the Physics Agenda for the Next Decade: A conference for physics department chairs," sponsored by APS and AAPT, College Park, MD, speaking on "How to Increase the Number of Physics Majors," June 7 – 9, 2002.
  • Invited speaker at “Quantum Criticality in Correlated Matter” Conference, Columbia University, New York, NY, speaking on “Quantum Fluctuation Driven First Order Phase Transitions in a Weak Ferromagnetic Metal,” March 2003.
  • Invited participant in the Aspen Center for Physics Workshop on “Competing Orders and Quantum Criticality in Correlated Electrons, Bosons, and Spin Systems,” July 7 – August 10, 2003.
  • Invited participant in “Nuclear Energy and Science for the 21st Century: Atoms for peace plus fifty” Conference, Washington, D.C., October 22, 2003.
  • Invited speaker at “Spectroscopies of Novel Superconductors, 2004” Conference, Sitges, Spain, speaking on “Quantum Fluctuation Driven First Order Phase Transitions in Weak Ferromagnetic Metals,” July 2004.
  • Invited participant in the Aspen Center for Physics Workshop on “Pseudogaps in Strongly Correlated Metals,” August 30 – September 10, 2004.
  • Invited speaker at “Shaping Environments for Undergraduate Learning in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Fields” Conference, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, speaking on “Space Matter: The Boston College story,” September 10 – 12, 2004. (Of note: This was a meeting involving architects, administrators, faculty, and building planners who have or who will be building science facilities.)
  • Invited participant in the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics Workshop on “Quantum Phase Transitions,” February 13 – March 5, 2005.
  • Invited participant in the Aspen Center for Physics Workshop on “Interactions, Coherence & Control in Mesoscopic Systems,” July 11 – 31, 2005.


Selected Publications

  • "Short-Range Correlations in the Electron Gas," K.S. Bedell and G.E. Brown, Phys. Rev. B 17, 4512 (1978).
  • "Polarization Potentials and Transport Properties of normal 3He," K.S. Bedell and D. Pines, Phys. Rev. Lett. 45, 39 (1980).
  • "The Stability of the Roton Liquid in Superfluid 4He," K.S. Bedell, I.A. Fomin, and D. Pines, J. Low Temp. Phys. 48, 417 (1982).
  • "The Incompressibility of Neutron-Rich Nuclear Matter," M. Prakash and K.S. Bedell, Phys. Rev. C 32, 1118 (1985).
  • "One-Component Fermi Liquid Theory and the Properties of UPt3," C.J. Pethick, D. Pines, K.F. Quader, K.S. Bedell, and G.E. Brown, Phys. Rev. Lett. 57, 1955 (1986).
  • "Near-Metamagnetism of Liquid 3He at High Pressure," Carlos Sanchez-Castro and Kevin S. Bedell, Phys. Rev. Lett. 57, 854 (1986).
  • "New Results for Spin Waves and the Leggett-Rice Effect in 3He-4He Mixtures," K.S. Bedell, Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 16 (1989).
  • "Scaling Theory for Marginal Fermi Liquids," Gergely T. Zimanyi and Kevin S. Bedell, Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 228 (1991).
  • "Non-Analytic Contributions to the Thermodynamics of Two Dimensional Fermi Liquids," D. Coffey and K.S. Bedell, Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 1043 (1993).
  • "The Metal-Insulator Transition," M. Gulacsi and K.S. Bedell, Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 2765 (1994).
  • "Robustness of a Local Fermi Liquid Against Ferromagnetism and Phase Separation," J. Engelbrecht and K.S. Bedell, Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 4265 (1995).
  • "Charge and Spin Drude Weights in Fermi Liquids,” K.S. Bedell and P. Farinas, Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 4285 (1995).
  • "Luttinger Theorem in One Dimensional Metals," K. Blagoev and K. S. Bedell, Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 1106 (1997).
  • "Hidden Spin-Current Conservation in 2D Fermi Liquids," P. F. Farinas, K. S. Bedell, and N. Studart, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 3851 (1999).
  • "Effect of Ferromagnetic Spin Correlations on Superconductivity in Ferromagnetic Metals," K. B. Blagoev, J. R. Engelbrecht, and K. S. Bedell, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 133 (1999).
  • “Coexistence of Ferromagnetism and Superconductivity,” N.I. Karchev, K.B. Blagoev, K.S. Bedell, and P.B. Littlewood, Phys Rev. Lett. 86, 846 (2001).
  • “Quantum Spin Hydrodynamics and a New Spin Current Mode in Ferromagnetic Metals,” K.S. Bedell and K.B. Blagoev, Phil. Mag. Lett. 81, 511 (2001).
  • “Superconductivity Near Itinerant Ferromagnetic Quantum Criticality,” Z. Wang, W. Mao, and K.S. Bedell, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 257001 (2001).
  • “Quantum Fluctuation Driven First Order Phase Transition in Weak Ferromagnetic Metals,” J. Jackiewicz and K.S. Bedell, Phil. Mag. B 83, 3247 (2003).


Selected Recent Publications

  • "Zeeman-like Degeneracy of a Massive Ferromagnetic Mode: Charge Effects in the Spin Channel,” P.F. Farinas and K.S. Bedell, Physica B 329-33, 1119 (2003).
  • “Orbital Zeeman Effect: Signature of a Massive Spin Wave Mode in Ferromagnetism,” P.F. Farinas and K.S. Bedell, Phil. Mag. B 83, 789 (2003).
  • “A Model of Coexistent Superconductivity and Ferromagnetism,” J. Jackiewicz, K.B. Blagoev, K.S. Bedell, Phil. Mag. B 83, 3247 (2003).
  • “Physical Properties of Superconducting-Coexistent System from a Mean-Field Model,” H.P. Dahal, J. Jackiewicz, K.S. Bedell, Phys. Rev. B 71, 184518 (2005).
  • “Pairing Symmetry Signature of T1 in Superconducting Ferromagnets,” H.P. Dahal, J. Jackiewicz, and K.S. Bedell, Phys. Rev. B (2005).


Selected Books and Conference Proceedings Edited

  • High Temperature Superconductivity: The Los Alamos Symposium 1989, K.S. Bedell, D. Coffey, D.E. Meltzer, D. Pines and J.R. Schrieffer, editors (Addison-Wesley, Redwood City 1990).
  • Strongly Correlated Electronic Materials: The Los Alamos Symposium 1993, K.S. Bedell, Z. Wang, D. Meltzer, A. Balatsky, and E. Abrahams, editors (Addison-Wesley, Redwood City, 1994).

Return to Directory




Undergraduate | Graduate | Research | Facilities | Courses Offered
People | Course Web Pages | Seminars | Postions Available
Contact Us | Directions | Sitemap | Links

© 2009 Boston College, Department of Physics, 335 Higgins Hall
140 Commonwealth Ave, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
Phone (617) 552-3575    Fax (617) 552-8478
Report Site Problems - Webmaster