Daniel L. Stein (born August 19, 1953) is an American physicist and Professor of Physics and Mathematics at New York University.
His early research covered diverse topics, including theoretical work on protein biophysics, biological evolution, amorphous semiconductors, quantum liquids, topology of order parameter spaces, liquid crystals, neutron stars, and the interface between particle physics and cosmology.
His research on these topics was cited by the American Association for the Advancement of Science as "pioneering work on the statistical mechanics of disordered and noisy systems".
He is best known for work on hierarchical dynamics (in collaboration with Elihu Abrahams, Philip Warren Anderson, and Richard Palmer);[1] for observing that protein fluctuational conformations can be modeled using spin glass techniques;[2] for constructing a theory of fluctuation-driven transitions in the absence of detailed balance (in collaboration with Robert Maier);[3] for applying stochastic methods to determine lifetimes, stability, and decay of nanowires[4] and nanomagnets[5] (with a variety of collaborators); and for a series of rigorous and analytical results (largely with Charles M. Newman) on short-range spin glasses,[6][7] including the introduction of the Newman-Stein metastate as a general mathematical tool for analyzing the thermodynamic properties of disordered systems.
He currently serves as co-chair of the Santa Fe Institute Science Board[9] and is a General Member of the Aspen Center for Physics.