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Paul Marmet

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Paul Marmet
OC FRSC
President of the
Canadian Association of Physicists
In office
1981–1982[1]
Preceded byCecil Costain
Succeeded byA.R. Crawford
Personal details
Born(1932-05-20)20 May 1932
Lévis, Quebec, Canada
Died20 May 2005(2005-05-20) (aged 73)
Ottawa, Ontario
Paul Marmet
Alma materUniversité Laval
Known forLow-energy Monoenergetic Electron Spectrometer
SpouseJacqueline Marmet
ChildrenDr. Louis Marmet
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
Institutions
Academic advisorsLarkin Kerwin

Paul Marmet, OC FRSC (20 May 1932 – 20 May 2005) was a Canadian physicist, inventor, author, and professor at Laval University in Quebec City, Canada, who served as the President of the Canadian Association of Physicists.

Marmet is notable for developing a novel high-resolution electron velocity selector, a scientific instrument which became widely used by scientists around the world.

Inventions

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Early in his career, Marmet developed a high-resolution electron selector with his mentor Larkin Kerwin, a scientific instrument for studying ionic electronic states.[6]

Along with a mass spectrometer Marmet developed, the novel instrument had an energy resolution superior to then-available instruments and has been used widely by scientists studying electron scattering, which led to the discovery of enhanced vibrational excitation in nitrogen and of Feshbach resonances.[7][8]

Research

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Using the Marmet-Kerwin electron selector, Marmet and his research group discovered atomic and molecular states excited by electron impact but not by photons, such as doubly excited states that disobey spectroscopic selection rules. The group also found negative-ion resonances in which the incident electron temporarily attaches to the target molecule.[9][10]

Career

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After receiving his physics BSc in 1956 and DSc in 1960 from Laval University and entering the Physics faculty as an assistant professor at his alma mater school in 1961, Marmet became a full professor in 1967 at age 34.[11]

Starting in 1967, he was director of the Laboratory for Atomic and Molecular Physics at Laval University, serving until 1982.

Between 1981 and 1982, Marmet served as President of the Canadian Association of Physicists.

From 1983 to 1990, he was a senior researcher at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics of the National Research Council Canada in Ottawa. While there, Marmet helped the University of Ottawa modernize its Physics education program.[12]

In addition to the prominent role he played in developing the Canadian Space Program, Paul Marmet also served on the executive committee of the Atomic Energy Control Board of Canada (now the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission).

Opposition to quantum mechanics, relativity, and the Big Bang

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In his later years, Marmet became an outspoken critic of the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, the theory of relativity, and the Big Bang cosmological model. He maintained a website devoted to his view.[13]

Marmet was one of 34 signers of An Open Letter to the Scientific Community advocating against the Big Bang cosmology.[14]

He also held an opposing view on cosmological redshift[15] and advocated tired light cosmology.

Reaction

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Marmet's dissent about theoretical physics triggered a draconian reaction from the Canadian government, which immediately canceled all of his research grants, although they were not in theoretical but experimental physics.

The attack was followed by a reaction from the University of Ottawa administration, which evicted him from his office.[16]

Activism

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In addition to his activities as a member of the first Associate Committee on Astronomy of the National Research Council since 1971 and his playing a crucial role in negotiations for the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope,[17] Marmet was also promoting the development of Quebec's first astronomical research telescope.[2]

Bibliography

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Paul Marmet published more than 100 original research papers and numerous books, websites, and animated demonstrations for the teaching of Physics.[12]

  • Absurdities in Modern Physics – book[18] (free eBook)
  • Einstein's theory of relativity versus classical mechanics - book[19]
The aim of this book is to demonstrate that using "Conventional Wisdom" and "Conventional Logic", classical physics can explain all the observed phenomena attributed to relativity. The arbitrary principles of Einstein's relativity are thus useless. It is very important to recognize the fundamental importance of the principle of mass-energy conservation. It took thousands of years of development for scientific thought to finally reject the magic of witchcraft. During the nineteenth century, scientists became convinced that matter cannot be created from nothing. Conversely, matter cannot be destroyed into nothing. It seems that even Einstein believed this, since he is the one who, at the beginning of the twentieth century, introduced the equation E = mc2 implying mass-energy conservation. However, he later developed general relativity which is not compatible with that principle. Indeed, according to Straumann, the: "general conservation law of energy and momentum does not exist in general relativity". Twentieth century science moved backward in accepting again the magical creation of matter or energy from nothing, even if this is hidden in complicated mathematics. Contrary to what Einstein did, all the demonstrations in this book are compatible with the principle of mass-energy and momentum conservation.
— P. Marmet (1997) Einstein's theory of relativity versus classical mechanics., OCLC

Honours

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Professional and academic associations
Preceded by
Cecil Costain
 President of the Canadian Association of Physicists
1981–1982 		Succeeded by
A.R. Crawford

References

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  1. ^ CAP past presidents
  2. ^ a b c Mr. Paul Marmet – Officer of the Order of Canada. Awarded June 22, 1981, invested October 21, 1981.
  3. ^ a b "Paul Marmet". Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. 13 August 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2020. He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1981....He received the RASC Service Award in 1977.
  4. ^ a b "Prix Acfas Léo-Pariseau". Acfas PRIX. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  5. ^ a b "CAP Herzberg Medal – Current and Previous Winners". Canadian Association of Physicists Canadian Association of Physicists. Archived from the original on 22 May 2022. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  6. ^ Marmet, Paul; Kerwin, Larkin (June 1960). "An improved electrostatic electron selector". Canadian Journal of Physics. 38 (6): 787–796. Bibcode:1960CaJPh..38..787M. doi:10.1139/p60-084. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  7. ^ Biondi, Manfred A.; Herzenberg, Arvid; Kuyatt, Chris E. (October 1979). "Resonances in atoms and molecules". Physics Today. 32 (10): 44–49. Bibcode:1979PhT....32j..44B. doi:10.1063/1.2995241. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  8. ^ Marmet, Paul; Kerwin, Larkin (23 November 1987). "This Week's Citation Classic: Marmet P & Kerwin L An improved electrostatic electron selector" (PDF). Current Contents (47): 20. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  9. ^ Bolduc, E.; Quéméner, J. J.; Marmet, P. (1972). "Autoionizing 2s22p43s3l States of Ne and Related Ne− Resonances". Journal of Chemical Physics. 57 (5): 1957. doi:10.1063/1.1678515. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  10. ^ Valin, M; Marmet, P (1975). "Atomic structures in Kr between 22 and 32 eV". Journal of Physics B: Atomic and Molecular Physics. 8 (18): 2953–2967. Bibcode:1975JPhB....8.2953V. doi:10.1088/0022-3700/8/18/014. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  11. ^ "Marmet, Stoicheff head Canadian Association". Physics Today. 35 (8): 52. 1982. doi:10.1063/1.2915209.
  12. ^ a b Marmet, Paul. "About the Author". Newton Physics. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
  13. ^ Marmet, Paul. "Newton Physics".
  14. ^ Lerner, Eric (2004) Bucking the big bang. New Scientist, 22 May.
  15. ^ Marmet, P. (1988) [A New Non-Doppler Redshift https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1988PhyEs...1...24M/abstract]. Physics Essays 1(1), 24.
  16. ^ Paul Marmet, on his life.
  17. ^ Paul Marmet – Fellows Roster of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
  18. ^ Marmet, Paul (1993). Absurdities in Modern Physics. Éditions du Nordir. p. 144. ISBN 0921272154.
  19. ^ OCLC record
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