Michael Berry (physicist)


Sir Michael Victor Berry, , is a mathematical physicist at the University of Bristol, England.
He is known for the Berry phase, a phenomenon observed e.g. in quantum mechanics and optics, as well as Berry connection and curvature. He specialises in semiclassical physics, applied to wave phenomena in quantum mechanics and other areas such as optics.

Education and early life

The son of a London taxi driver and a dressmaker, Berry has a BSc in physics from the University of Exeter and a PhD from the University of St. Andrews.

Career and research

He has spent his whole career at the University of Bristol: research fellow, 1965–67; lecturer, 1967–74; reader, 1974–78; Professor of Physics, 1978–88; Royal Society Research Professor 1988-2006. Since 2006 he is Melville Wills Professor of Physics at Bristol University.

Publications

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1982 and knighted in 1996. From 2006 to 2012 he was Editor of the journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society A.
Berry has been given the following prizes and awards: