© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
It was Christmas of 1988 when Jainendra K. Jain found himself musing over an idea that would reshape the landscape of theoretical physics. Holed up in the quiet solitude of his study, the young Indian-American physicist was contemplating a strange phenomenon in quantum systems, one that had puzzled scientists for years.
He would later recount the moment as if it were both startling and inevitable, a revelation that quietly commandeered his intellectual life for the next four decades. “When the idea of composite fermions first struck me during the Christmas break of 1988, I did not know that these particles would occupy my mind every day for the next 37 years,” Jain recalled.
In the years since, Jain’s work has become central to our understanding of quantum matter. His discovery of composite fermions — a theoretical framework that allows electrons to behave as if they were quasi-particles — has been nothing short of revolutionary.
It is a contribution that has redefined the way physicists comprehend complex quantum systems and has earned Jain the 2025 Wolf Prize in Physics, one of the most prestigious honours in the field.
Jain’s story, in many ways, is one of improbable trajectories.
Born in a small, rural village in Rajasthan, India, his early life seemed worlds away from the abstract realms of high-level physics. There was little in the way of formal academic guidance or modern conveniences in his village.
But an early accident changed the course of Jain’s life in unexpected ways. As a child, he was involved in a severe incident that left him with a lifelong disability.
After completing his studies at Maharaja College in Jaipur, where he excelled in physics, he went on to attend IIT Kanpur, one of India’s premier institutions. It was at IIT that Jain first glimpsed the boundless potential of physics. By the time Jain completed his Ph.D. in physics at Stony Brook University in 1985, he was poised to make significant contributions to the field.
Jain’s breakthrough came at a time when the physics community was grappling with the intricacies of the quantum Hall effect.
In 1980, the German physicist Klaus von Klitzing had discovered that electrons confined to a two-dimensional surface and subjected to low temperatures and strong magnetic fields could exhibit strange, quantized behaviour. This work earned von Klitzing the Nobel Prize in 1985, but the phenomenon remained only partially understood.
In 1982, American physicists Robert Laughlin, Horst Störmer, and Daniel Tsui took the research a step further, discovering the fractional quantum Hall effect, which would earn them the Nobel Prize in 1998.
But the puzzle was still incomplete.
While the quantum Hall effect was now recognized as one of the cornerstones of condensed matter physics, the underlying mechanisms remained elusive. Jain’s contribution was to propose a new framework, one that explained these strange behaviours by introducing the idea of composite fermions. In his theory, electrons in a magnetic field could be reimagined as quasi-particles — composite fermions — that moved through the system as if they were free, despite the strong interactions that bound them.
The idea bridged the gap between the integer and fractional quantum Hall effects and provided a unified explanation for a wide range of phenomena that had long puzzled researchers.
After completing his postdoctoral research at Yale University and the University of Maryland, Jain returned to Stony Brook University as a faculty member in 1989. It was here that his ideas on composite fermions began to take shape, and his work quickly garnered attention in the scientific community. In 1998, Jain accepted a position at Penn State University, where he has since become the Evan Pugh University Professor, Erwin W. Müller Professor of Physics, and Eberly Family Chair in Physics.
At Penn State, Jain has not only continued his groundbreaking research but also mentored a generation of young physicists, many of whom have gone on to make their own significant contributions to the field. His book Composite Fermions (2007) remains a foundational text for students and researchers alike, and he has authored over 250 scientific papers, many of which have become cornerstones of modern condensed matter physics.
Over the years, Jain has accumulated an impressive array of accolades, cementing his place as one of the most respected figures in his field. In 2002, he was awarded the Oliver E. Buckley Prize, the highest honor in the United States for condensed matter physics.
He has since been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (2021) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2008), two of the highest recognitions for scientific achievement.
Most recently, in 2024, Jain was named a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy.
(With inputs from Penn State University)
