Walter Kohn
E645116
Walter Kohn was an Austrian-born American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate renowned for revolutionizing quantum chemistry and condensed matter physics through the development of density functional theory.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Walter Kohn canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7150598 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Walter Kohn Context triple: [density functional theory, introducedBy, Walter Kohn]
-
A.
Elliott H. Lieb
Elliott H. Lieb is an American mathematical physicist renowned for his foundational contributions to statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, and condensed matter physics.
-
B.
Robert S. Mulliken
Robert S. Mulliken was an American physicist and chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his pioneering work on molecular orbital theory and the electronic structure of molecules.
-
C.
Lars Onsager
Lars Onsager was a Norwegian-born physical chemist and theoretical physicist best known for his Nobel Prize–winning work on nonequilibrium thermodynamics and the Onsager reciprocal relations.
-
D.
Erich Bethe
Erich Bethe was a German classical philologist known for his scholarly work on ancient Greek literature and mythology.
-
E.
Wolfgang Pauli
Wolfgang Pauli was an Austrian-Swiss theoretical physicist renowned for formulating the Pauli exclusion principle and making foundational contributions to quantum mechanics.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Walter Kohn Target entity description: Walter Kohn was an Austrian-born American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate renowned for revolutionizing quantum chemistry and condensed matter physics through the development of density functional theory.
-
A.
Elliott H. Lieb
Elliott H. Lieb is an American mathematical physicist renowned for his foundational contributions to statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, and condensed matter physics.
-
B.
Robert S. Mulliken
Robert S. Mulliken was an American physicist and chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his pioneering work on molecular orbital theory and the electronic structure of molecules.
-
C.
Lars Onsager
Lars Onsager was a Norwegian-born physical chemist and theoretical physicist best known for his Nobel Prize–winning work on nonequilibrium thermodynamics and the Onsager reciprocal relations.
-
D.
Erich Bethe
Erich Bethe was a German classical philologist known for his scholarly work on ancient Greek literature and mythology.
-
E.
Wolfgang Pauli
Wolfgang Pauli was an Austrian-Swiss theoretical physicist renowned for formulating the Pauli exclusion principle and making foundational contributions to quantum mechanics.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Austrian American
ⓘ
Nobel laureate ⓘ chemist ⓘ human ⓘ theoretical physicist ⓘ |
| academicDegree | PhD in physics ⓘ |
| awardReceived |
Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
National Medal of Science ⓘ Nobel Prize in Chemistry NERFINISHED ⓘ Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| citizenship |
Austria
ⓘ
United States of America ⓘ |
| countryOfBirth | Austria NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| countryOfDeath | United States of America ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1923-03-09 ⓘ |
| dateOfDeath | 2016-04-19 ⓘ |
| doctoralAdvisor | Julian Schwinger NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| educatedAt |
Harvard University
ⓘ
University of Toronto ⓘ |
| employer |
Carnegie Mellon University
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
University of California, San Diego NERFINISHED ⓘ University of California, Santa Barbara NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| ethnicGroup | Jewish ⓘ |
| familyName | Kohn NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
condensed matter physics
ⓘ
materials science ⓘ quantum chemistry ⓘ theoretical physics ⓘ |
| givenName | Walter ⓘ |
| knownFor |
Kohn–Sham equations
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
contributions to condensed matter theory ⓘ density functional theory ⓘ |
| memberOf |
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
ⓘ
American Physical Society ⓘ National Academy of Sciences ⓘ |
| migration |
emigrated from Austria to Canada
ⓘ
emigrated from Canada to the United States ⓘ |
| name | Walter Kohn NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| NobelPrizeCategory | Chemistry ⓘ |
| NobelPrizeMotivation | for his development of the density-functional theory ⓘ |
| NobelPrizeYear | 1998 ⓘ |
| notableConcept | Kohn anomaly NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| notableStudent | Lu Jeu Sham NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth | Vienna ⓘ |
| placeOfDeath | Santa Barbara, California NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| positionHeld |
founding director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at UC Santa Barbara
ⓘ
professor of physics ⓘ |
| sharedNobelPrizeWith | John A. Pople NERFINISHED ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Walter Kohn Description of subject: Walter Kohn was an Austrian-born American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate renowned for revolutionizing quantum chemistry and condensed matter physics through the development of density functional theory.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.