Coming of Age As a Physicist in Postwar America by David Kaiser
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Research/Teaching Statement Gerard Awanou 1 Trivariate Splines
Research/Teaching statement Gerard Awanou I would like to describe in this statement the research I have done and comment on future directions. My work has been on trivariate splines for scattered data in- terpolation and numerical solution of partial differential equations, particularly, the Navier-Stokes equations. Another line of my research is mathematical finance. I have been interested in risk minimization in regime switching and two factor stochastic volatility models. I will describe my recent success in the construction of a family of mixed elements for three dimensional elasticity, a problem which was open for over 40 years. 1 Trivariate splines Let us assume that Ω is a three dimensional domain with a triangulation 4, i.e. the union of nonoverlapping tetrahedra with the property that the intersection of any two tetrahedra is either empty, a common vertex, a common edge or a common face. A spline function of degree d and smoothness r over Ω is a r times differentiable func- tion which is a polynomial of degree d when restricted to each tetrahedron. Finite elements are examples of spline functions. Scattered data interpolation A typical problem in surface design is the following: Given a set of scattered points in IR3, which are assumed to be at the vertices of a triangulation 4, find a spline with appropriate smoothness which interpolates the given data at the vertices. The resolution of this problem is by means of the construction of locally supported spline functions with high smoothness. I have implemented C1 spline functions in [6] on a special triangulation. -
NMD, National Security Issues Featured at 2001 April Meeting In
April 2001 NEWS Volume 10, No. 4 A Publication of The American Physical Society http://www.aps.org/apsnews NMD, National Security Issues Featured Phase I CPU Report to be at 2001 April Meeting in Washington Discussed at Attendees of the 2001 APS April include a talk on how the news me- Meeting, which returns to Wash- dia cover science by David April Meeting ington, DC, this year, should arrive Kestenbaum, a self-described “es- The first phase of a new Na- just in time to catch the last of the caped physicist who is hiding out tional Research Council report of cherry blossom season in between at National Public Radio,” and a lec- the Committee on the Physics of scheduled sessions and special ture on entangled photons for the Universe (CPU) will be the events. The conference will run quantum information by the Uni- topic of discussion during a spe- April 28 through May 1, and will versity of Illinois’ Paul Kwiat. Other cial Sunday evening session at the feature the latest results in nuclear scheduled topics include imaging APS April Meeting in Washing- physics, astrophysics, chemical the cosmic background wave back- ton, DC. The session is intended physics, particles and fields, com- ground, searching for extra to begin the process of collect- putational physics, plasma physics, dimensions, CP violation in B me- ing input from the scientific the physics of beams, and physics sons, neutrino oscillations, and the community on some of the is- history, among other subdisci- amplification of atoms and light in The White House and (inset) some of its famous fictional sues outlined in the draft report, plines. -
Copyright by Paul Harold Rubinson 2008
Copyright by Paul Harold Rubinson 2008 The Dissertation Committee for Paul Harold Rubinson certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Containing Science: The U.S. National Security State and Scientists’ Challenge to Nuclear Weapons during the Cold War Committee: —————————————————— Mark A. Lawrence, Supervisor —————————————————— Francis J. Gavin —————————————————— Bruce J. Hunt —————————————————— David M. Oshinsky —————————————————— Michael B. Stoff Containing Science: The U.S. National Security State and Scientists’ Challenge to Nuclear Weapons during the Cold War by Paul Harold Rubinson, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2008 Acknowledgements Thanks first and foremost to Mark Lawrence for his guidance, support, and enthusiasm throughout this project. It would be impossible to overstate how essential his insight and mentoring have been to this dissertation and my career in general. Just as important has been his camaraderie, which made the researching and writing of this dissertation infinitely more rewarding. Thanks as well to Bruce Hunt for his support. Especially helpful was his incisive feedback, which both encouraged me to think through my ideas more thoroughly, and reined me in when my writing overshot my argument. I offer my sincerest gratitude to the Smith Richardson Foundation and Yale University International Security Studies for the Predoctoral Fellowship that allowed me to do the bulk of the writing of this dissertation. Thanks also to the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy at Yale University, and John Gaddis and the incomparable Ann Carter-Drier at ISS. -
Physics Nobel Prize 1975
Physics Nobel Prize 1975 Nobel prize winners, left to right, A. Bohr, B. Mottelson and J. Rainwater. 0. Kofoed-Hansen (Photos Keystone Press, Photopress) Before 1949 every physicist knew that mooted, it was a major breakthrough from 1943-45. From December 1943 the atomic nucleus does not rotate. in thinking about the nucleus and he was actually in the USA. Back in The reasoning behind this erroneous opened a whole new field of research Denmark after the war, he obtained belief came from the following argu• in nuclear physics. This work has for his Ph. D. in 1954 for work on rota• ments. A quantum-mechanical rotator years been guided by the inspiration tional states in atomic nuclei. His with the moment of inertia J can take of Bohr and Mottelson. thesis was thus based on the work for up various energy levels with rota• An entire industry of nuclear which he has now been recognized at tional energies equal to h2(l + 1)| research thus began with Rainwater's the very highest level. He is Professor /8TC2J, where h is Planck's constant brief contribution to Physical Review at the Niels Bohr Institute of the ^nd I is the spin. As an example, I may in 1950 entitled 'Nuclear energy level University of Copenhagen and a nave values 0, 2, 4, ... etc. If the argument for a spheroidal nuclear member of the CERN Scientific Policy nucleus is considered as a rigid body, model'. Today a fair-sized library is Committee. then the moment of inertia J is very needed in order to contain all the Ben Mottelson was born in the USA large and the rotational energies papers written on deformed nuclei and in 1926 and has, for many years, become correspondingly very small. -
Appendix E Nobel Prizes in Nuclear Science
Nuclear Science—A Guide to the Nuclear Science Wall Chart ©2018 Contemporary Physics Education Project (CPEP) Appendix E Nobel Prizes in Nuclear Science Many Nobel Prizes have been awarded for nuclear research and instrumentation. The field has spun off: particle physics, nuclear astrophysics, nuclear power reactors, nuclear medicine, and nuclear weapons. Understanding how the nucleus works and applying that knowledge to technology has been one of the most significant accomplishments of twentieth century scientific research. Each prize was awarded for physics unless otherwise noted. Name(s) Discovery Year Henri Becquerel, Pierre Discovered spontaneous radioactivity 1903 Curie, and Marie Curie Ernest Rutherford Work on the disintegration of the elements and 1908 chemistry of radioactive elements (chem) Marie Curie Discovery of radium and polonium 1911 (chem) Frederick Soddy Work on chemistry of radioactive substances 1921 including the origin and nature of radioactive (chem) isotopes Francis Aston Discovery of isotopes in many non-radioactive 1922 elements, also enunciated the whole-number rule of (chem) atomic masses Charles Wilson Development of the cloud chamber for detecting 1927 charged particles Harold Urey Discovery of heavy hydrogen (deuterium) 1934 (chem) Frederic Joliot and Synthesis of several new radioactive elements 1935 Irene Joliot-Curie (chem) James Chadwick Discovery of the neutron 1935 Carl David Anderson Discovery of the positron 1936 Enrico Fermi New radioactive elements produced by neutron 1938 irradiation Ernest Lawrence -
APS News, August-September 2019, Vol. 28, No. 8
STEP UP Preparing for Careers Leroy Apker Back Page: Openness and 02│ for Change 03│ with PIPELINE 05│ Award Finalists 08│ Security in Research Aug./Sept. 2019 • Vol. 28, No. 8 aps.org/apsnews A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY HONORS JOURNALS 2020 APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Physical Review Research Research Awarded to Myriam P. Sarachik Publishes its First Papers BY DAVID VOSS o launch its inaugural issue, Physical Review Research has hysicist Myriam P. Sarachik electron systems. I am very pleased has been selected to receive that she will receive the APS Medal T published its first content the 2020 APS Medal for for Exceptional Achievement in less than two months since opening P for submissions in June. Exceptional Achievement in Research. I’m especially pleased Research for her “fundamental that this honor goes to someone Demonstrating the journal’s contributions to the physics of who has also been so active in broad, multidisciplinary scope electronic transport in solids and promoting the core values of APS. covering all of physics and related molecular magnetism.” Not only is Myriam a past President fields of interest to the physics An APS Fellow, Sarachik is of the Society; she is also well- community, the first release of Distinguished Professor of Physics known for her efforts to defend peer-reviewed research articles at City College of New York. She human rights and the principles of includes advances in the areas of was President of APS in 2003 and diversity and inclusion in physics.” materials science, quantum infor- received the APS Oliver E. -
Physics Newsletter 2019
Harvard University Department of Physics Newsletter FALL 2019 A Microscopic Look At Quantum Materials it takes many physicists to solve quantum many-body problems CONTENTS Letter from the Chair ............................................................................................................1 Letter from the Chair ON THE COVER: An experiment-theory collaboration PHYSICS DEPARTMENT HIGHLIGHTS at Harvard investigates possible Letters from our Readers.. ..................................................................................................2 Dear friends of Harvard Physics, While Prof. Prentiss has been in our department since 1991 (she was theories for how quantum spins (red the second female physicist to be awarded tenure at Harvard), our and blue spheres) in a periodic The sixth issue of our annual Faculty Promotion ............................................................................................................... 3 next article features a faculty member who joined our department potential landscape interact with one Physics Newsletter is here! In Memoriam ........................................................................................................................ 4 only two years ago, Professor Roxanne Guenette (pp. 22-26). another to give rise to intriguing and Please peruse it to find out about potentially useful emergent Current Progress in Mathematical Physics: the comings and goings in our On page 27, Clare Ploucha offers a brief introduction to the Harvard phenomena. This is an artist’s -
The Titans of the Cosmos
FALL 2018 Titans of the Cosmos Exploring the Mysteries of Neutron Star Mergers & Supermassive Black Holes 10 | Educating the next generation of innovators in science and industry 16 | Berkeley leads the way in data science education Research Highlights, Department News & More CONTENTS CHAIR’SLETTER RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS2 Recent breakthroughs in faculty-led investigations PHOTO: BEN AILES PHOTO: TITANS OF THE COSMOS Fall classes are underway, our introductory courses ON THE COVER: Exploring the Mysteries of are packed, and we have good news on several fronts. Berkeley astrophysicist Daniel Kasen's research group uses Neutron Star Mergers and On July 1 we welcomed our newest faculty member, supercomputers at the National Supermassive Black Holes condensed matter theorist Mike Zalatel. In August the Energy Research Scientific Com- puting Center at LBNL to model 2018 Academic Rankings of World Universities were cosmic explosions. See page 4. announced, with Berkeley Physics second, between MIT CHAIR and Stanford – fine company. In September we learned Wick Haxton 4 that Professor Barbara Jacak will be awarded the 2019 MANAGING EDITOR & Tom Bonner Prize of the American Physical Society for DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT her leadership of the PHENIX detector at Brookhaven’s Rachel Schafer Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, and new graduate stu- CONTRIBUTING EDITOR & dent Nick Sherman will receive the LeRoy Apker Award SCIENCE WRITER for outstanding undergraduate research in theoretical Devi Mathieu PHYSICS INNOVATORS condensed matter and mathematical physics. Most re- DESIGN 10INITIATIVE cently, Assistant Professor Norman Yao has been named Sarah Wittmer Educating the Next a Packard Fellow, one of the most prestigious awards CONTRIBUTORS Generation of Innovators available in STEM disciplines. -
Heisenberg's Visit to Niels Bohr in 1941 and the Bohr Letters
Klaus Gottstein Max-Planck-Institut für Physik (Werner-Heisenberg-Institut) Föhringer Ring 6 D-80805 Munich, Germany 26 February, 2002 New insights? Heisenberg’s visit to Niels Bohr in 1941 and the Bohr letters1 The documents recently released by the Niels Bohr Archive do not, in an unambiguous way, solve the enigma of what happened during the critical brief discussion between Bohr and Heisenberg in 1941 which so upset Bohr and made Heisenberg so desperate. But they are interesting, they show what Bohr remembered 15 years later. What Heisenberg remembered was already described by him in his memoirs “Der Teil und das Ganze”. The two descriptions are complementary, they are not incompatible. The two famous physicists, as Hans Bethe called it recently, just talked past each other, starting from different assumptions. They did not finish their conversation. Bohr broke it off before Heisenberg had a chance to complete his intended mission. Heisenberg and Bohr had not seen each other since the beginning of the war in 1939. In the meantime, Heisenberg and some other German physicists had been drafted by Army Ordnance to explore the feasibility of a nuclear bomb which, after the discovery of fission and of the chain reaction, could not be ruled out. How real was this theoretical possibility? By 1941 Heisenberg, after two years of intense theoretical and experimental investigations by the drafted group known as the “Uranium Club”, had reached the conclusion that the construction of a nuclear bomb would be feasible in principle, but technically and economically very difficult. He knew in principle how it could be done, by Uranium isotope separation or by Plutonium production in reactors, but both ways would take many years and would be beyond the means of Germany in time of war, and probably also beyond the means of Germany’s adversaries. -
The Atomic Energy Commission
The Atomic Energy Commission By Alice Buck July 1983 U.S. Department of Energy Office of Management Office of the Executive Secretariat Office of History and Heritage Resources Introduction Almost a year after World War II ended, Congress established the United States Atomic Energy Commission to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. Reflecting America's postwar optimism, Congress declared that atomic energy should be employed not only in the Nation's defense, but also to promote world peace, improve the public welfare, and strengthen free competition in private enterprise. After long months of intensive debate among politicians, military planners and atomic scientists, President Harry S. Truman confirmed the civilian control of atomic energy by signing the Atomic Energy Act on August 1, 1946.(1) The provisions of the new Act bore the imprint of the American plan for international control presented to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission two months earlier by U.S. Representative Bernard Baruch. Although the Baruch proposal for a multinational corporation to develop the peaceful uses of atomic energy failed to win the necessary Soviet support, the concept of combining development, production, and control in one agency found acceptance in the domestic legislation creating the United States Atomic Energy Commission.(2) Congress gave the new civilian Commission extraordinary power and independence to carry out its awesome responsibilities. Five Commissioners appointed by the President would exercise authority for the operation of the Commission, while a general manager, also appointed by the President, would serve as chief executive officer. To provide the Commission exceptional freedom in hiring scientists and professionals, Commission employees would be exempt from the Civil Service system. -
Release of Documents Relating to 1941 Bohr-Heisenberg Meeting
Release of documents relating to 1941 Bohr-Heisenberg meeting DOCUMENTS RELEASED 6 FEBRUARY 2002 The family of Niels Bohr has decided to release all documents deposited at the Niels Bohr Archive, either written or dictated by Niels Bohr, pertaining specifically to the meeting between Bohr and Heisenberg in September 1941. There are in all eleven documents. The decision has been made in order to avoid possible misunderstandings regarding the contents of the documents. The documents supplement and confirm previously published statements of Bohr's recollections of the meeting, especially those of his son, Aage Bohr. The documents have now been organised, transcribed and translated into English at the Niels Bohr Archive. Because of the overwhelming interest in the material, it has been decided that the material should be published in full instead of being made available to scholars upon individual application, as is normal practice at the Niels Bohr Archive. This has been done by placing facsimiles, transcriptions and translations on this website here. An illustrated edition of the transcriptions and translations is published in the journal Naturens Verden, Vol. 84, No. 8 - 9. Reprints can be obtained from the Niels Bohr Archive for USD8/EUR8/DKK50 (prepaid). Release of documents relating to 1941 Bohr-Heisenberg meeting. Document 1. Draft of letter from Bohr to Heisenberg, never sent. In the handwriting of Niels Bohr's assistant, Aage Petersen. Undated, but written after the first publication, in 1957, of the Danish translation of Robert Jungk, Heller als Tausend Sonnen, the first edition of Jungk's book to contain Heisenberg's letter. -
Absolute Zero, Absolute Temperature. Absolute Zero Is the Lowest
Contents Radioactivity: The First Puzzles................................................ 1 The “Uranic Rays” of Henri Becquerel .......................................... 1 The Discovery ............................................................... 2 Is It Really Phosphorescence? .............................................. 4 What Is the Nature of the Radiation?....................................... 5 A Limited Impact on Scientists and the Public ............................ 6 Why 1896? .................................................................. 7 Was Radioactivity Discovered by Chance? ................................ 7 Polonium and Radium............................................................. 9 Marya Skłodowska .......................................................... 9 Pierre Curie .................................................................. 10 Polonium and Radium: Pierre and Marie Curie Invent Radiochemistry.. 11 Enigmas...................................................................... 14 Emanation from Thorium ......................................................... 17 Ernest Rutherford ........................................................... 17 Rutherford Studies Radioactivity: ˛-and ˇ-Rays.......................... 18 ˇ-Rays Are Electrons ....................................................... 19 Rutherford in Montreal: The Radiation of Thorium, the Exponential Decrease........................................... 19 “Induced” and “Excited” Radioactivity .................................... 20 Elster