K. Wilson

Kenneth Wilson was a physicist renowned for revolutionizing our understanding of how physical systems behave at different scales, especially in the context of phase transitions like water boiling or magnets losing their magnetism. He developed a technique called the renormalization group, which allows scientists to analyze complex systems by studying how their properties change when viewed at various levels of detail. This approach helps explain why disparate systems can exhibit similar behavior near critical points, deepening our understanding of fundamental physics and critical phenomena. Wilson’s work earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1982.