physics

Mehran Kardar

Mehran Kardar 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 Mehran Kardar rather than just read about it. In short: Mehran Kardar (Persian: مهران کاردر; born August 1957) is an Iranian-American physicist and professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute (USA). He received his B.A. in physics from the University of Cambridge in 1979, and obtained his Ph.D. from MIT in 1983.

Key takeaways

Mehran Kardar belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mehran Kardar to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mehran Kardar from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mehran Kardar (Persian: مهران کاردر; born August 1957) is an Iranian-American physicist and professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute (USA). He received his B.A. in physics from the University of Cambridge in 1979, and obtained his Ph.D. from MIT in 1983. Kardar is particularly known for the Kardar–Parisi–Zhang (KPZ) equation in theoretical physics, which has been named after him and his two coauthors: the Nobel Prize laureate Giorgio Parisi, and Yi-Cheng Zhang. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2001.

Awards 1976–78 Exhibition – Senior Scholarship at King's College, Cambridge University 1978–79 Prizes based on performance in undergraduate (Tripos) exams 1981–82 IBM Predoctoral Fellowship 1983–86 Junior Fellowship, Harvard Society of Fellows 1987–91 A. P. Sloan Fellowship 1988 Fellow of Ashdown House (Graduate Dormitory), MIT 1988 Bergmann Memorial Research Award 1989 Presidential Young Investigator Award 1990 Graduate Student Departmental Teaching Award 1990–92 MIT Class of 1948 Professor (Career Development Chair) 1991 Edgerton Award for Junior Faculty Achievements at MIT 1992 The Beuchner Teaching Prize, Physics Department 1993 School of Science Prize in Graduate Teaching 2001 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship 2007 Fellow, American Physical Society 2008 School of Science Prize in Graduate Teaching 2009 APS Outstanding Referee 2009 Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2011 Francis Freidman Professor, Physics Department, MIT 2018 Elected member of the National Academy of Sciences 2020 Simons Fellow in Mathematics and Theoretical Physics 2025 the IUPAP Boltzmann Medal 2026 Lars Onsager Prize, American Physical Society

Courses at MIT OpenCourseWare His following courses are currently available on MIT OCW.

Statistical Physics in Biology Statistical Mechanics I: Statistical Mechanics of Particles Statistical Mechanics II: Statistical Physics of Fields

Bibliography

Books Statistical Physics of Fields. University of Cambridge Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-521-87341-3, Statistical Physics of Particles. University of Cambridge Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-521-87342-0, and of about 200 scientific papers

References

External links His homepage on the MIT website His homepage on the NECSI website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mehran Kardar

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mehran Kardar 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 Mehran Kardar 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 Mehran Kardar 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 Mehran Kardar

In research: Mehran Kardar 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 Mehran Kardar 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: Mehran Kardar is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1957 births, 20th-century Iranian physicists, Fellows of the American Physical Society, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mehran Kardar 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 Mehran Kardar in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mehran Kardar means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mehran Kardar out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mehran Kardar in simple terms?

Why does Mehran Kardar 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 Mehran Kardar?

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 Mehran Kardar.