Andrew D. Huxley

Of no relation to Sir Andrew F. Huxley (the English physiologist and biophysicist), Huxley is known in the field of condensed matter physics. While at the CEA laboratory in Grenoble, Huxley was involved in the revolutionary discovery of superconductivity in the ferromagnet UGe₂ under applied pressure, in collaboration with a team at the University of Cambridge. This was followed up by a series of breakthroughs in another ferromagnetic material, URhGe [3-5], which was found to turn superconducting under the application of an external magnetic field. This emergence of an unconventional superconducting state by the application of an external tuning parameter such as magnetic field or pressure is hypothesised to be closely related to a 'Quantum critical point' (QCP) - a special phase transition that occurs at temperatures approaching zero kelvins. Quantum fluctuations are enhanced at the QCP, destabilising the conventional phase that dominates under ambient conditions, making conditions propitious for the emergence of a novel unconventional phase such as superconductivity, or possibly even more exotic states.

Huxley graduated with a BA from Churchill College, Cambridge, an MS from the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He was subsequently a postdoctoral fellow and then a scientist at CEA, Grenoble before joining the University of Edinburgh as a Professor of Physics in 2006. Huxley is an alumnae of the Quantum Matter Group (formerly the Low Temperature Physics) of the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge that have gone on to become leading physicists.

• Huxley, Andrew; Rodière, Pierre; Paul, Donald McK.; van Dijk, Niels; Cubitt, Robert; Flouquet, Jacques (2000). "Realignment of the flux-line lattice by a change in the symmetry of superconductivity in UPt₃". Nature. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. 406 (6792): 160–164. doi:10.1038/35018020. ISSN 0028-0836.
• Saxena, S. S.; Agarwal, P.; Ahilan, K.; Grosche, F. M.; Haselwimmer, R. K. W.; et al. (2000). "Superconductivity on the border of itinerant-electron ferromagnetism in UGe₂". Nature. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. 406 (6796): 587–592. doi:10.1038/35020500. ISSN 0028-0836.
• Aoki, Dai; Huxley, Andrew; Ressouche, Eric; Braithwaite, Daniel; Flouquet, Jacques; Brison, Jean-Pascal; Lhotel, Elsa; Paulsen, Carley (2001). "Coexistence of superconductivity and ferromagnetism in URhGe". Nature. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. 413 (6856): 613–616. doi:10.1038/35098048. ISSN 0028-0836.
• Levy, F.; Sheikin, I.; Grenier, B.; Huxley, A. D. (26 August 2005). "Magnetic Field-Induced Superconductivity in the Ferromagnet URhGe". Science. American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). 309 (5739): 1343–1346. doi:10.1126/science.1115498. ISSN 0036-8075.
• Lévy, F.; Sheikin, I.; Huxley, A. (7 May 2007). "Acute enhancement of the upper critical field for superconductivity approaching a quantum critical point in URhGe". Nature Physics. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. 3 (7): 460–463. doi:10.1038/nphys608. ISSN 1745-2473.

• University of Edinburgh School of Physics and Astronomy