physics

Karin M. Rabe

Karin M. Rabe is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Karin M. Rabe rather than just read about it. In short: Karin Maria Rabe (born April 1, 1961) is an American condensed matter and computational materials physicist known for her studies of materials near phase transitions, including ferroelectrics, multiferroics, and martensites. She also works on the theoretical design of new materials.

Key takeaways

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Reproduce the core statement of Karin M. Rabe from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Karin Maria Rabe (born April 1, 1961) is an American condensed matter and computational materials physicist known for her studies of materials near phase transitions, including ferroelectrics, multiferroics, and martensites. She also works on the theoretical design of new materials. She is a distinguished professor and Board of Governors Professor of Physics at Rutgers University.

Education and career Rabe was born in New York City and attended the Bronx High School of Science. She graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 1982, with a bachelor's degree in physics. She completed her Ph.D. in 1987 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; her dissertation Ab initio Statistical Mechanics of Structural Phase Transitions was supervised by John Joannopoulos. After postdoctoral research at AT&T Bell Laboratories, she joined Yale University as Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Applied Physics and Physics in 1989. She became full professor at Yale in 1999, and moved to Rutgers in 2000. At Rutgers, her doctoral students have included 2013 MacArthur "Genius" Award winner Craig Fennie. Rabe also served as chair of the board of the Aspen Center for Physics from 2018 to 2021, as president from 2013 to 2016, and as vice president from 2007 to 2013.

Recognition Rabe was named Board of Governors Professor by Rutgers in 2013. In 2002, she was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), after a nomination from the APS Division of Materials Physics "for fundamental contributions to the development and application of theoretical and computational methods for the study of structural phase transitions in solids". Rabe won the David Adler Lectureship Award in the Field of Materials Physics for 2008 "for research, writings and presentations on the theory of structural phase transitions and for the application of first-principles electronic structure methods to the understanding of technologically important phenomena in ferroelectrics". She was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2011, and elected to both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences in 2013.

Research Rabe’s research has focused on the computational analysis of the physics of crystalline solids using first-principles. She has examined material systems which are close to structural, electronic, and magnetic phase transitions. Such systems include ferroelectrics, antiferroelectrics, piezoelectrics, high-k dielectrics, multiferroics, shape-memory compounds, magnetic and nonmagnetic martensites. These materials exhibit properties which support a wide range of technological applications, including information and energy storage and conversion. Rabe’s research has also examined the effects of epitaxial strain and the properties of interfaces in thin films, superlattices, and other artificially structured systems. Finally, Rabe has applied first-principles approaches to theoretically design new materials with optimized or useful properties, as well as to discover new classes of functional materials.

References

External links Home page Karin M. Rabe publications indexed by Google Scholar

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Karin M. Rabe

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Karin M. Rabe claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Karin M. Rabe before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Karin M. Rabe ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Karin M. Rabe

In research: Karin M. Rabe appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Karin M. Rabe in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Karin M. Rabe is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1961 births, 20th-century American physicists, 20th-century American women physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Karin M. Rabe outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Karin M. Rabe in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Karin M. Rabe means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Karin M. Rabe in simple terms?

Why does Karin M. Rabe matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Karin M. Rabe?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Karin M. Rabe.