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WikiHarold: Add Markus Buttiker portrait

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	{{Infobox scientist		{{Infobox scientist
	\| name = Markus Büttiker		\| name = Markus Büttiker
			\| image = Markus Buttiker.jpg
			\| caption = Markus Büttiker
	\| birth_date = 18 July 1950		\| birth_date = 18 July 1950
	\| birth_place = Wolfwil, Canton of Solothurn, Switzerland		\| birth_place = Wolfwil, Canton of Solothurn, Switzerland

WikiHarold: Fix Markus Büttiker infobox parameter

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	\| death_place = Collonge-Bellerive, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland		\| death_place = Collonge-Bellerive, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland
	\| fields = Theoretical physics; mesoscopic physics; semiconductor physics		\| fields = Theoretical physics; mesoscopic physics; semiconductor physics
	\| ~~institutions~~ = University of Geneva; IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center; University of Basel		\| work_institutions = University of Geneva; IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center; University of Basel
	\| alma_mater = ETH Zurich; University of Basel		\| alma_mater = ETH Zurich; University of Basel
	\| known_for = Landauer-Büttiker formalism; mesoscopic transport theory		\| known_for = Landauer-Büttiker formalism; mesoscopic transport theory

WikiHarold: Create translated Markus Büttiker biography

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Create translated Markus Büttiker biography

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{{Short description|Swiss theoretical physicist}}
{{Biography page}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Markus Büttiker
| birth_date = 18 July 1950
| birth_place = Wolfwil, Canton of Solothurn, Switzerland
| death_date = 4 October 2013
| death_place = Collonge-Bellerive, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland
| fields = Theoretical physics; mesoscopic physics; semiconductor physics
| institutions = University of Geneva; IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center; University of Basel
| alma_mater = ETH Zurich; University of Basel
| known_for = Landauer-Büttiker formalism; mesoscopic transport theory
}}

'''Markus Büttiker''' (18 July 1950 - 4 October 2013) was a Swiss theoretical physicist known for major contributions to mesoscopic physics, semiconductor physics, and quantum transport theory.<ref name="manep">{{Cite web |title=Markus Büttiker |url=https://manep.ch/news/people/markus-buttiker/ |website=MaNEP Switzerland Network |date=27 January 2014 |access-date=2026-05-24}}</ref><ref name="ictp">{{Cite web |title=In Memoriam: Markus Büttiker |url=https://www.ictp.it/news/2013/10/memoriam-markus-buttiker |website=International Centre for Theoretical Physics |date=22 October 2013 |access-date=2026-05-24}}</ref> The Landauer-Büttiker formalism, named for Rolf Landauer and Büttiker, describes conductance in coherent mesoscopic systems in terms of scattering and transmission between contacts.<ref name="ictp" /><ref name="prl1986">{{Cite journal |last=Büttiker |first=M. |date=1986 |title=Four-terminal phase-coherent conductance |journal=Physical Review Letters |volume=57 |issue=14 |pages=1761-1764 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.57.1761 |pmid=10033538}}</ref>

== Education and career ==
Büttiker received his diploma in theoretical physics from ETH Zurich in 1974 and earned his doctorate at the University of Basel in 1978.<ref name="manep" /> He then spent a year as an assistant to H. Thomas at the Physics Institute of the University of Basel.<ref name="manep" />

After Basel, Büttiker joined the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center as a postdoctoral researcher with Rolf Landauer. From 1981 to 1994 he worked in IBM's research division, where his work helped shape the modern theory of electron transport in small systems.<ref name="manep" /><ref name="ictp" />

In 1994 Büttiker became professor of theoretical physics at the University of Geneva. From 1998 to 2007 he also served as director of the university's Department of Theoretical Physics.<ref name="manep" /> He remained associated with the University of Geneva until his death in 2013.<ref name="ictp" />

== Research ==
Büttiker made pioneering contributions to mesoscopic semiconductor physics and quantum transport.<ref name="ictp" /> His work with Landauer connected the wave functions of noninteracting quantum systems to measurable conducting properties, providing a scattering-based framework for phase-coherent transport.<ref name="ictp" />

In the mid-1980s Büttiker, Yoseph Imry, Rolf Landauer, and S. Pinhas developed a generalized many-channel conductance formula and applied it to small rings, including Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in conductors.<ref name="prb1985">{{Cite journal |last1=Büttiker |first1=M. |last2=Imry |first2=Y. |last3=Landauer |first3=R. |last4=Pinhas |first4=S. |date=1985 |title=Generalized many-channel conductance formula with application to small rings |journal=Physical Review B |volume=31 |issue=10 |pages=6207-6215 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevB.31.6207}}</ref> Büttiker's 1986 paper on four-terminal phase-coherent conductance became one of the standard references for multi-terminal quantum transport.<ref name="prl1986" />

== Honors ==
In 1987 Büttiker, Yoseph Imry, Rolf Landauer, and Alfred Douglas Stone received an IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award for predicting the Aharonov-Bohm effect in small normal conductors.<ref name="manep" /> Two years later Büttiker received the same IBM award for the multi-terminal formulation of the quantum Hall effect and the prediction of simultaneously quantized longitudinal and Hall resistances.<ref name="manep" /> He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1990.<ref name="aps">{{Cite web |title=APS Fellow Archive |url=https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/archive-all.cfm |website=American Physical Society |access-date=2026-05-24}}</ref>

== Selected works ==
* ''Dynamical aspects in voltage-controlled current instabilities'', doctoral dissertation, University of Basel, 1978.
* "Generalized many-channel conductance formula with application to small rings", with Y. Imry, R. Landauer, and S. Pinhas, ''Physical Review B'' 31 (1985).<ref name="prb1985" />
* "Four-terminal phase-coherent conductance", ''Physical Review Letters'' 57 (1986).<ref name="prl1986" />

== References ==
{{reflist|3}}

== External links ==
* [https://manep.ch/news/people/markus-buttiker/ Markus Büttiker memorial page at MaNEP]
* [https://www.ictp.it/news/2013/10/memoriam-markus-buttiker In Memoriam: Markus Büttiker] at ICTP

{{Author|Harold Foppele}}

Biography:Markus Büttiker - Revision history

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