Victor Weisskopf
Victor Weisskopf | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | April 22, 2002 | (aged 93)
Nationality | Austria, United States |
Alma mater | University of Göttingen |
Awards | National Medal of Science (1980) Wolf Prize (1981) Public Welfare Medal (1991) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Physicist |
Institutions | University of Leipzig University of Berlin ETH Zurich Niels Bohr Institute University of Rochester Manhattan Project MIT CERN |
Doctoral advisor | Max Born Eugene Wigner |
Doctoral students | Kerson Huang J. David Jackson Murray Gell-Mann Robert H. Dicke Kurt Gottfried |
Victor Frederick "Viki" Weisskopf (September 19, 1908 – April 22, 2002) was an Austrian-born American theoretical physicist. He did postdoctoral work with Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, Wolfgang Pauli and Niels Bohr.[2] During World War II he worked at Los Alamos on the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb, and later campaigned against the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Biography
Weisskopf was born in Vienna and earned his doctorate in physics at the University of Göttingen in Germany in 1931. His brilliance in physics led to work with the great physicists exploring the atom, especially Niels Bohr, who mentored Weisskopf at his institute in Copenhagen. By the late 1930s, he realized that, as a Jew, he needed to get out of Europe. Bohr helped him find a position in the U.S.[3]
In the 1930s and 1940s, 'Viki', as everyone called him, made major contributions to the development of quantum theory, especially in the area of Quantum Electrodynamics.[4] One of his few regrets was that his insecurity about his mathematical abilities may have cost him a Nobel prize when he did not publish results (which turned out to be correct) about what is now known as the Lamb shift.[5]
From 1937 to 1943 he was a Professor of Physics at the University of Rochester.
After World War II, Weisskopf joined the physics faculty at MIT, ultimately becoming head of the department.
Weisskopf was a co-founder and board member of the Union of Concerned Scientists. He served as director-general of CERN from 1961 to 1966.
Weisskopf was awarded the Max Planck medal in 1956 and the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca in 1972, the National Medal of Science (1980), the Wolf Prize (1981) and the Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences (1991).[6]
Weisskopf was a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He was president of the American Physical Society (1960–61) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1976–1979).
He was appointed by Pope Paul VI to the 70-member Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1975, and in 1981 he led a team of four scientists sent by Pope John Paul II to talk to President Ronald Reagan about the need to prohibit the use of nuclear weapons.
He married Ellen Tvede. He was survived at death by his second wife Duscha.
Decorations and awards
- 1956: Max Planck Medal
- 1972: Prix mondial Cino Del Duca
- 1976: Oersted Medal
- 1978: Pour le Mérite for Arts and Sciences
- 1980: National Medal of Science
- 1981: Wolf Prize
- 1982: Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
- 1984: Albert Einstein Medal
- 1990: Ludwig Wittgenstein Prize of the Austrian Science Foundation
- 1991: Public Welfare Medal (United States National Academy of Sciences)
- 2000: Grand Gold Medal with Star for Services to the Republic of Austria[7]
Quotes
Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; knowledge without compassion is inhuman.
Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution.
The computer understands the answer but I don't think you understand the answer.
Bibliography
- Weisskopf, Victor (1952). Theoretical Nuclear Physics. New York: John Wiley.
{{cite book}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) - Weisskopf, Victor (1963). Knowledge and Wonder: The Natural World as Man Knows It. New York: Anchor Books/Doubleday & Co. (Science Study Series S31).
- Weisskopf, Victor (1972). Physics in the Twentieth Century: Selected Essays. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
{{cite book}}
: Unknown parameter|forward=
ignored (help) - Weisskopf, Victor (1984). Concepts of Particle Physics, vol. 1. New York: Oxford University Press.
{{cite book}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) - Weisskopf, Victor (1986). Concepts of Particle Physics, vol. 2. New York: Oxford University Press.
{{cite book}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) - Weisskopf, Victor (1989). The Privilege of Being a Physicist. Essays. New York: W. H. Freeman.
- Weisskopf, Victor (1991). The Joy of Insight: Passions of a Physicist. New York: Basic Books.
References
- ^ "...Victor Weisskopf, who describes himself as an atheist Viennese Jew...." Quoting from page 14 of The Prism of Science, by Edna Ullmann-Margalit, Springer, 1986.
- ^ http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2002/weisskopf-0424.html Obituary of Victor Weisskopf from the MIT News Office
- ^ National Academy of Sciences (U.S.), Office of the Home Secretary. Biographical Memoirs, Volume 84. p. 375. Retrieved 30 Apr 2012.
- ^ See Mozart and Quantum Mechanics: An Appreciation of Victor Weisskopf http://www-theory.lbl.gov/jdj/VFW-Phy-Today.pdf
- ^ 'I might even have shared the Nobel Prize with Lamb' from Jackson & Gottfried, Victor Frederick Weisskopf 1908-2002 A Biographical Memoir, p. 16. http://www.nap.edu/html/biomems/vweisskopf.pdf
- ^ "Public Welfare Award". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 18 February 2011.
- ^ "Reply to a parliamentary question" (pdf) (in German). p. 1372. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
{{cite web}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|trans_title=
(help)
Sources
- V. Stefan (Editor). PHYSICS and SOCIETY. Essays in Honor of Victor Frederick Weisskopf by the International Community of Physicists. ISBN 1-56396-386-8
External links
- National Academy of Sciences biography
- Annotated bibliography for Victor Weisskopf from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
- "A Scientist's Odyssey": A Conversation with Victor Weisskopf, April 7, 1988, transcript and RealMedia webcast
- Victor Weisskopf, a Manhattan Project Physicist, Dies at 93 (New York Times obituary)
- Obituary of Victor Weisskopf from the MIT News Office
- Obituary of Victor Weisskopf by former CERN Council president Wolfgang Kummer published in the CERN Courier
- Jackson & Gottfried, Victor Frederick Weisskopf 1908-2002 A Biographical Memoir
- Oral history interview transcript with Victor Fredrick Weisskopf 10 July 1965, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
- Scientists from Vienna
- 1908 births
- 2002 deaths
- American nuclear physicists
- Anti–nuclear weapons movement
- Austrian nuclear physicists
- Austrian physicists
- American physicists
- Jewish American scientists
- ETH Zurich faculty
- Manhattan Project people
- CERN
- Austrian Jews
- American people of Austrian-Jewish descent
- Jewish atheists
- Guggenheim Fellows
- Prix mondial Cino Del Duca winners
- National Academy of Sciences laureates
- Foreign Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences
- Enrico Fermi Award recipients
- National Medal of Science laureates
- Albert Einstein Medal recipients
- Wolf Prize in Physics laureates
- Winners of the Max Planck Medal
- Recipients of the Pour le Mérite for Arts and Sciences
- Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
- Recipients of the Grand Decoration with Star for Services to the Republic of Austria