Daniel Stein

Daniel L. Stein is Professor of Physics and Mathematics at New York University. From  2006-2012 he served as NYU Dean of Science. Prior to coming to NYU, he served on  the faculties at Princeton University and at the University of Arizona, where he was Head of the Department of Physics for a decade. He received his Ph.D. In Physics from  Princeton University in 1979. 

His current research is in the fields of theoretical condensed matter physics, statistical  mechanics and mathematical physics, social networks, and biological physics. It focuses  primarily on randomness and disorder in condensed matter systems, with an emphasis on  spin glasses and on stochastic processes leading to rare nucleation events; nonequilibrium  dynamical processes in discrete spin systems; micromagnetic systems used as magnetic  oscillators and for nonvolatile memory storage; belief spread in social networks; and  cellular control mechanisms in protein production. In the past he has worked on topics as  diverse as protein biophysics, biological evolution, amorphous semiconductors,  superconductors and superfluids, liquid crystals, neutron stars, and the interface between  particle physics and cosmology. 

His awards include a Princeton University C.E. Proctor Fellowship, an Alfred P. Sloan  Fellowship, University of Arizona College of Science Distinguished Teaching Award,  Commission on the Status of Women Vision 2000 Award, election as a Fellow of the  American Physical Society, election as a Fellow of the American Association for the  Advancement of Science, the U.S. Air Force Exemplary Civilian Service Medal, and a  John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.

Select Publications

• “A Model of Protein Conformational Substates”, D.L. Stein, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 82, 3670 – 3672 (1985).
• “Effect of Focusing and Caustics on Exit Phenomena in Systems Lacking Detailed Balance”, R.S. Maier and D.L. Stein, Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 1783 – 1786 (1993).
• “Thermodynamic Chaos and the Structure of Short-Range Spin Glasses”, C.M. New man and D.L. Stein, in Mathematical Aspects of Spin Glasses and Neural Networks, 8 eds. A. Bovier and P. Picco (Birkh¨auser, Boston, 1997), pp. 243 – 287.
• “Statistical Physics Models of Belief Dynamics: Theory and Empirical Tests”, Mirta Galesic and D.L. Stein, Physica A 519, 275-294 (2019).
• “Free Energy Fluctuations in Short-Range Spin Glasses”, C.M. Newman and D.L. Stein, J. Stat. Phys. 191, 128 (2024). 

Education

• PhD, Physics
  Princeton University