Sidney Nagel, Ph.D.

Nagel is the Stein-Freiler Distinguished Service Professor in Physics at the University of Chicago. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University. Nagel’s broad research goals have been to understand the physics of disordered systems that are far from equilibrium. This work has led him in a variety of unconventional directions, such as the science of drops, granular materials, and jamming. His research group delves into the physics of why drops splash and how materials can remember the way they have been trained. Some of the photographs taken as part of his research projects are currently in the collection of the Smart Museum on the University of Chicago campus