P. M. Etxenike, honorary researcher and driver
P. M. Etxenike, honorary researcher and driver
Pedro Miguel Etxenike was born in Isaba in 1950. Degree in Physics from the University of Navarra, she won the Extraordinary Bachelor's Degree Award from 1972 and the National End of Career Award from 1973. He carried out doctoral theses at the Universities of Cambridge and Barcelona in 1977 and 1978 respectively. He was subsequently professor at the University of Barcelona until his appointment as Minister of Education and Culture of the Basque Government in 1980.
Since leaving the Basque Government in 1984, he has worked in cutting-edge research at the most prestigious universities and laboratories in the world. He is currently professor of physics at the University of the Basque Country at the Faculty of Chemistry of San Sebastián.
Professor Etxenike has published nearly 200 articles in international research journals, with more than 70 articles published in the prestigious journals "Physical Review" and "Physical Review Letters". He is also the author of the only article that Spanish Physics has been able to publish in the prestigious magazine "Solid State Physics".
Although the scientific contributions of this prestigious physicist cover different fields, the main contributions are placed in the field of interactions between charged particles and matter, as well as in the field of surface physics. Etxenike has sometimes developed the theoretical bases of some physical phenomena and has performed computational calculations, sometimes maintaining the relationship between theory and experiment.
Professor Etxenike developed the theory of reflectance of the superfluid helium atoms during the realization of the Cambridge doctoral thesis. Also at that time it invented a famous formula that explains the dependence of the energy loss of the electrons that are moving on the outside of a surface with respect to the distance of the surface, a formula that has become essential when it comes to carrying out an analysis of the experiments carried out in the enclosure of electron microscopy.
The greatest international recognition among Etxenike's scientific achievements is perhaps the model of image situations he launched in the 1970s. It predicted the existence of electronic surface states created by the image potential of metal surfaces, developing a theory as simple as subtle to achieve the density, life time, union energy, and effective mass of these electronic states. Several years after Etxenike made his prediction, these special surface states could be found experimentally using the reverse photoemission technique. At present, the imaging situations predicted by Etxenike are measured in a large number of laboratories in the world, a prediction that has decisively influenced the development of surface physics.
He also carried out pioneering research in the field of interactions between charged particles and matter, analyzing the properties of the dynamic response of the internal and superficial electrons forming matter. In fact, Etxenike developed the theory of the fluctuations of the potential and density induced by the ions that move through the electron gas, which has become an essential reference in this field.
Likewise, after the theories of energy losses of the ions made by Bohr and Bethe, Etxenike carried out the first non-linear quantum theory of the energy losses of the ions whose velocity is inferior to that of the electrons forming the electron gas, being able to predict the values of energy losses of protons, antiprotons and alpha particles. Moreover, the new theory of Etxenike revealed the oscillations that the experimental measures of energy loss of the inert ions show regarding the value of the ion charge, since until then it was not possible to explain the origin of these oscillations.
Following the pioneering research carried out in collaboration with prestigious researchers worldwide and who became a professor at the University of the Basque Country, Etxenike began to form a leading research group at the Faculty of Chemistry of San Sebastian. In fact, by consolidating its international relations and creating new relationships, Etxenike managed to create a group of great prestige today, benefiting our university.
In the last decade, under the direction of Etxenike, numerous studies have been carried out in different fields of condensed matter physics. Among other things, the first complete ab initio theory of the energy loss of hydrogen and helium ions has been carried out through the material, including with great precision the processes of load transfer. Likewise, during this decade, a detailed quantum mechanical study has been carried out, which explains exactly the difference of energy losses between protons and antiprotons through matter, measured experimentally, using the theory of multiple bodies.
This treatment combines elegance and luminosity, with a great mathematical and numerical complexity, and has become a great step in investigating the interaction in multiple bodies of electron gas, with the appearance for the first time of compact expressions for the quadratic response of electron gas as those that Lindhard did in his day for the linear response.
Those of us who have had the opportunity to work with him in research work know that the reputation Etxenike has earned as a researcher for years has been deserved and has shown an excellent ability to form and lead a research team.
Zorionak Peter!
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