Photo: Vahram Mekhitarian derivative work: Jakob Gottfried / CC BY-SA 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Sir Michael Berry is the rare scientist whose name became a thing physicists actually say daily: the Berry phase, plus the Berry connection and curvature. That alone would make him remarkable to me, but the detail I love is that his trophy case holds both the Wolf Prize in Physics and an Ig Nobel. Winning a serious top award and a tongue-in-cheek one signals a mind that takes the work seriously without taking itself too seriously. Bristol's emeritus professor strikes me as the kind of theorist who finds deep physics hiding in everyday phenomena, and clearly enjoys the hunt as much as the proof.
Overview
Sir Michael Victor Berry (born 14 March 1941) is a British theoretical physicist. He is the Melville Wills Professor of Physics (Emeritus) at the University of Bristol. Berry is known for the Berry phase, a phenomenon observed in both quantum mechanics and classical optics, as well as Berry connection and curvature.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Michael Victor Berry
- Name (Japanese)
- マイケル・ベリー
- Reading
- まいける・べりー
- Born
- March 14, 1941 (age 85)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Pisces / Snake
- Origin
- Surrey, United Kingdom
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- mathematician / theoretical physicist / screenwriter / university teacher / physicist
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Ilford County High School
- University
- University of St Andrews
Awards & achievements
- 2000 Ig Nobel Prize
- Fellow of the Royal Society
- 1990 Royal Medal
- 2014 Lorentz Medal
- 2005 Pólya Prize
- 1998 Wolf Prize in Physics
- 1990 IOP Dirac Medal
- 2002 Josiah Willard Gibbs Lectureship
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Mathematician — see all → · More people from United Kingdom →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.