Kohn

Kohn is a surname of German and Ashkenazi Jewish origin. It is borne by various individuals and has several variant spellings, including Cohn, Cohen, and Kohen.

In science and mathematics, the name is associated with several concepts and results. Walter Kohn (1923–2011) was an Austrian-born American theoretical physicist whose work helped establish density functional theory. He and Lu Jeu Sham developed the Kohn-Sham formulation, a practical approach that makes quantum-mechanical calculations of electronic structure feasible for atoms, molecules, and solids. For these contributions, Kohn shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Related to his work, the Kohn anomaly refers to a characteristic feature in phonon dispersion arising from electron-phonon interactions in metals.

In mathematics, Joseph J. Kohn contributed to the theory of several complex variables. His name is attached to the Kohn algorithm, a method used in the analysis of the tangential Cauchy–Riemann equations and the ∂-Neumann problem, with implications for establishing subelliptic estimates in several complex variables.

Summary of significance: The surname Kohn appears in disciplines spanning physics, chemistry, and mathematics, most prominently through the Kohn-Sham approach in density functional theory, the Kohn anomaly in solid-state physics, and the Kohn algorithm in complex analysis. The name also intersects with broader discussions of scientific method and computational techniques used across the physical and mathematical sciences.