Dr. Nigel Goldenfeld

Professor

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Biography

Nigel Goldenfeld is a Chancellor's Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), a position he took up in Fall 2021. Prior to this, he was a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1985 to 2021, where he held the Swanlund Endowed Chair and was involved with the Institute for Genomic Biology. He has made significant contributions to the fields of condensed matter theory, the theory of living systems, hydrodynamics, and non-equilibrium statistical physics. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1982 and served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Nigel also co-founded NumeriX, a company focused on high-performance software for the derivatives marketplace. His honors include being a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as receiving the Leo P. Kadanoff Prize in 2020.

Research Interests

Requirements for University of California, San Diego

Doctorate Program
Requirements
GPA Requirement
Required:3
TOEFL
Total
Required:85
IELTS
Overall
Required:7
Duolingo
Overall Score
Required:120
Overall
Required:120
Prerequisites
Bachelor's degree in physical, biological, or earth sciences, mathematics, or engineering. Differential and integral calculus. One year of calculus-based physics with laboratory. One year of chemistry with laboratory.
Application Checklist
  • Statement of Purpose (max 2 pages)
  • Unofficial transcripts
  • Three letters of recommendation
  • Curriculum Vitae (CV)
  • Application fee ($135 domestic / $155 international)
Specialization Notes

Administered by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Curricular groups include Climate-Ocean-Atmosphere (COAP), Geosciences (GEO), and Ocean Biosciences (OBP).