Remembering David Thouless

David Thouless was the brilliant theoretical physicist who was awarded one-third of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz, for his work on topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter. Using the concepts of topology, a branch of mathematics, he described phase transitions in thin layers at low temperatures and stepwise shifts of electrical conductivity in thin layers. These concepts can be employed for applications in electronics including making computing more energy efficient.