physics

Richard L. Greene

Richard L. Greene 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 Richard L. Greene rather than just read about it. In short: Richard L. Greene (born 1938) is an American physicist.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Richard L. Greene (born 1938) is an American physicist. He is a distinguished university professor at the University of Maryland. Greene is known for his experimental research related to novel superconducting and magnetic materials.

Career Greene served in the Navy at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard where he was an officer in charge of the construction of the USS Halsey (DLG 23). He was awarded a PhD at Stanford University, where he and his collaborators discovered the first optical signatures of spin waves in insulating antiferromagnetic materials. As a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford he and his collaborators invented the thermal relaxation method for measuring the specific heat of small samples, a technique now widely used commercially in the Quantum Design Physical Properties Measurement System. In 1970 he became a staff member (and later a group manager) at the IBM Research Laboratory in San Jose, CA where he and collaborators discovered the first known polymeric and two-dimensional organic superconductors. In 1989 he became a physics professor and founding director of the Center for Superconductivity Research at the University of Maryland in College Park. His group has made significant contributions to the physics of high temperature superconductors and novel magnetic and topological materials. His over 400 publications are cited over 36,000 times with an h-index of 98. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The American Physical Society Dissertation Award for Experiential Condensed Matter Physics is named in his honor. He is the recipient of the 2026 Kamerlingh Onnes Prize for his seminal research on unconventional superconductors. Greene is also a highly ranked amateur pickleball player. He has won many medals in 80+ events at national tournaments. For example, one gold and two silvers at the 2026 US Open Pickleball Championships in Naples, FL, one gold at the 2024 US Open and one gold and two bronzes at the 2025 Senior National Games in Des Moines, IA.

Awards and honors Elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences, 2026. H. Kamerlingh Onnes Prize, 2026. IBM Outstanding Contribution Award, August 1975. Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), 1980. Elected to Executive Committee of APS Division of Condensed Matter Physics, 1992–1995. Thomson - ISI 200 Most Highly cited Physicist, 1981–2001. Alford L. Ward Professorship of Physics, University of Maryland, 2007–2010. Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2010. Elected Vice-chair of APS Division of Condensed Matter Physics, 2020–21. Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland, 2022 .

References

External links Curriculum Vitae Google Scholar

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard L. Greene

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard L. Greene 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 Richard L. Greene 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 Richard L. Greene 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 Richard L. Greene

In research: Richard L. Greene 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 Richard L. Greene 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: Richard L. Greene is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1938 births, 20th-century American physicists, Fellows of the American Physical Society, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard L. Greene 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 Richard L. Greene in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Richard L. Greene 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 Richard L. Greene out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard L. Greene in simple terms?

Richard L. Greene (born 1938) is an American physicist.

Why does Richard L. Greene 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 Richard L. Greene?

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 Richard L. Greene.