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Robert Ehrlich (physicist)

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 2603:6010:4e42:500:9869:b813:e466:894c (talk) at 18:07, 15 April 2021 (under Publications, completed this sentence "These citations are available via his Google Scholar page (see below under External Links)"). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

  • Comment: 'Inappropriate previous review. 'The standard is not WP:GNG, but WP:PROF, which requires deonstrating the impact o nthe profesion as measured by the person's book and journal articles. We need to see book reviews, and citation figures in orde to judge. DGG ( talk ) 09:17, 21 March 2021 (UTC)
For the former governor of Maryland, see Bob Ehrlich.
For the entrepreneur and businessman, see Robert Ehrlich (businessman).

Robert Ehrlich (born February 6, 1938) is a Fellow of the American Physical Society[1]. He has a Bachelor of Science from Brooklyn College (1959), where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa; and a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University (1964). He held a postdoctoral position at the University of Pennsylvania (1963-1966). From 1966 to 1974 he was Assistant Professor at Rutgers University. In 1974 he accepted a position as Associate Professor at SUNY New Paltz, where he served as acting chair of the Department of Physics. From 1977 until his retirement in 2013, he was Professor of Physics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, having served 15 years as department chair.[2].[3]

Ehrlich's primary area of scholarly interest is particle physics. He is also well known for his contributions to science education, particularly with computer applications in physics education starting in the early years (that is, the 1960s) of their development. Another aspect of his interests is environmental and energy scholarship, specifically nuclear arms control and renewable energy. Some of his books have been translated into various languages, and cataloged by the national libraries of other countries[4].

Publications

Other scholars have cited Ehrlich's published books and articles approximately 750 times. These citations are available via his Google Scholar page (see below under External Links).

Books

Ehrlich has 20 published books. These include:

Science Education

Turning the World Inside Out and 174 Other Simple Physics Demonstrations. Princeton University Press, 1991. Reviewed by Stewart E. Brekke.[5]. Also available in Japanese and Portuguese translations.

The cosmological milk shake: a semi-serious look at the size of things. New Brunswick, NJ : Rutgers University Press, 1995, ©1994. Also available in Finnish and Japanese translations.

What If?: Mind-Boggling Science Questions for Kids. John Wiley & Sons, 1998. Also available in a Japanese translation.

Nine Crazy Ideas in Science: A Few Might Even Be True. Princeton: Princeton University Press 2002. Reviewed by Andrzej Stasiak.[6]. Also available in Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, and Portuguese translations.

Eight Preposterous Propositions: from The Genetics of Homosexuality to The Benefits of Global Warming. Princeton University Press, 2003. Reviewed by Andrzej Stasiak[7] and by Walter Gratzer[8]. Also available in a Japanese translation.

Why Toast Lands Jelly-side Down: Zen and the Art of Physics Demonstrations. Princeton University Press, 1977. Review by Jim Jardine[9].

Computers in physics instruction

Physics and Computers: Problems, Simulation and Data Analysis. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1973. Reviewed by Harwood G. Kolsky.[10]

Together with his Mason colleague Maria Dworzecka and William M. MacDonald[11] of the University of Maryland, Ehrlich was a director of the NSF-funded project "Consortium for Upper-Level Physics Software (CUPS)"[12][13] The project generated nine books and 27 software programs. All nine books have been translated into Japanese, and one has been translated into Italian. Three of the software programs have won awards[14][15][16]. At the invitation of UNESCO, workshops on the CUPS software were conducted in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates[17].

Environmental and energy scholarship

Renewable Energy: A First Course. Boca Raton: CRC Press: Taylor & Francis Group, 2012. Reviewed by Cameron Reed[18]. Also available in a second edition (jointly with Harold Geller), 2018. Third edition (with Harold Geller and J. Robert Cressman) expected in 2022.

Perspectives on Nuclear War And Peace Education. New York : Greenwood Press, 1987.

(With Lyle Roelofs, Ronald Stoner and Jaroslav Tuszynski) Electricity and magnetism simulations. New York : Wiley, 1994. Reviewed by Frances Hellman and Pat Diamond[19].

Waging Nuclear Peace: The Technology and Politics of Nuclear Weapons. SUNY Press, 1985. Reviewed by Rick Sincere[20] Also reviewed by John D. Constable[21][22].

Articles

Ehrlich has published over 100 articles, principally on particle physics.[23]. Other areas include physics education, the environment, and nuclear arms control.

Videos

In retirement, and for amusement, Ehrlich has created various educational videos about tachyons and other subjects. These can be found on his web site “The Tachyon Nexus” [24] and also on YouTube[25]

Continuing Research

Ehrlich continues to investigate the possible existence of Tachyons, that is, particles that travel faster than the speed of light. He has already published extensively in this area, and he and others interested are eagerly awaiting results of observations in the currently ongoing KATRIN project. He has written a book on tachyons, under contract with CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. It is scheduled for publication in 2022.

Personal Life

Ehrlich has been married to his wife Elaine since 1961. They have two sons and two grandchildren. He is a founding member and Past President of Mason's Retired Faculty Association, and currently serves as their Webmaster and Program Planning Chair. [26]

References

  1. ^ https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/archive-all.cfm?initial=E
  2. ^ "George Mason Federated Login Service". login.gmu.edu.
  3. ^ "about me – The Tachyon Nexus".
  4. ^ https://viaf.org/viaf/64095526
  5. ^ The Science Teacher, v.58, no.3 (March 1991): p.71-72. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24145614
  6. ^ EMBO Reports 2 (2001): p.978-978. https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.1093/embo-reports/kve241
  7. ^ EMBO Reports 5 (2004): p.239 https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.embor.7400102
  8. ^ Nature (18/25 December 2003), p.426. https://www.nature.com/articles/426766b.pdf
  9. ^ Physics Education 32, 5 (September 1997) https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0031-9120/32/5/025
  10. ^ Physics Today https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.3128284
  11. ^ http://www.physics.umd.edu/rgroups/ripe/wmm/wmm.html
  12. ^ ^https://web.archive.org/web/20150304034759/http://physics.gmu.edu/~cups/
  13. ^ Described in "Software Consortium Develops Simulations for Nine Physics Courses", Computers in Physics v.6 no.1 (Jan/Feb 1992): p.90-96 https://aip.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1063/1.4823049
  14. ^ Fourth Annual Awards, Computers in Physics 7 (1993): p.648 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4823240, p.648
  15. ^ Sixth Annual Awards, Computers in Physics 9 (1995) https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4823449 p.595-6
  16. ^ Seventh annual award, Computers in Physics 10 (1996), p.534 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4822497
  17. ^ Ehrlich and Dworzecka, "On the Road to Damascus: Technology, Fear, and Fear of Technology", Journal of College Science Teaching v.27 no.3 (1998): p.179-182. Available via JSTOR https://www.jstor.org/stable/42993513?refreqid=excelsior%3Ae2a8d858d872183074f6bb25860b1fc3
  18. ^ American Journal of Physics v.82 no.6 (2014): p.625. https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1119/1.4863493
  19. ^ Computers in Physics 10 (1996): p.257 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4822395
  20. ^ Washington Times (May 2, 1985), with versions republished in the New York City Tribune (September 3, 1986) and in Strategic Review (spring 1985) http://rickreviewsbooks.blogspot.com/2010/01/waging-nuclear-peace-technology-and.html
  21. ^ New England Journal of Medicine (June 6, 1985) https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM198506063122326
  22. ^ An abstract by Jane M. Orient MD (JAMA v.254, no.5 (August 2, 1985): p.682-683 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/399849) confuses Ehrlich's book, which is the one about which she writes, with another book having a similar title but which was written by a different author.
  23. ^ https://ehrlich.physics.gmu.edu/index.php/publications/
  24. ^ https://ehrlich.physics.gmu.edu/index.php/links/
  25. ^ https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=robert+ehrlich+physics
  26. ^ "Officers". Retired Faculty Association. December 11, 2013.
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