Marshall Luban

Marshall Luban, senior physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, received an honorary doctorate from the University of Osnabrück in Osnabrück, Germany, on June 22, 2006.

Luban, who is also an Iowa State University professor of physics and astronomy, is the first person ever to be awarded an honorary degree from the University of Osnabrück’s Department of Physics.

The award citation reads, “On the background of distinguished lifelong scientific achievements, Marshall Luban has substantially promoted the field of molecular magnetism by his own work as well as by initiating international cooperations.” A celebratory colloquium was also held by the University of Osnabrück in 2006 to honor Dr. Luban.

Luban received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Yeshiva University in New York and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago.  He has published 128 journal articles in his career, and since coming to Ames Lab and ISU in 1982 has won six awards for excellence in teaching. 

Luban’s current research focus is magnetic molecules, but he has also published in the areas of quantum many-body systems, phase transitions and critical point phenomena, statistical mechanics, electron localization, Bloch oscillations, semiconductor quantum nanostructures, and slit height correction methods in small angle X-ray scattering.