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MIT Institute Archives & Special Collections. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. News Office (AC0069)

From the Office of Public Relations Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Massachusetta 0213c Telephone: UN 4-6900, Ext. 2701-5 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dr. John Clarke Slater, Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-

nology and one of the world's leading solid state physicists, will retire effective July 1 after

36 years of teaching and research at M.I.T.

Dr. Slater for the past several years has been dividing his time between M.I.T.

and the University of Florida at Gainesville where he holds appointment as Graduate Research

Professor of Physics. Following official retirement with the title of Institute Professor

Emeritus, Dr. Slater plans to continue both associations.

Always at the forefront of major scientific advances of his time, Dr. Slater as a

young scientist studied with the great physicists Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr and over

the years has been closely associated with the development of quantum theory and modern

physics. In his research, Dr. Slater made such fundamental contributions to the science

underlying the transistor that Dr. Mervin J. Kelly, former president of Bell Telephone Labora-

tories, was to say of him: "As organizer of the basic research program in semiconductors

at Bell Laboratories that led to the monumental invention of the transistor, may I say that had

it not been )or the prior work of M.I.T.'s Professor John C. Slater and a few other academi-

cians in solid state physics, the team of scientists at Bell Laboratories could not have made

the transistor invention."

Dr. Slater came to M.I.T. as Head of the Department of Physics in 1930, the same

year that the late Dr. Karl T. Compton became President. It was at this time, under Presi-

dent Compton, that the Institute began a major move to expand and strengthen its work in

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Dr. Slater--2

science and Professor Slater played a prominent part in the subsequent transformation of the

Institute .

During World War II, Dr. Slater made important contributions to radar development

at the M.I.T. Radiation Laboratory. His investigations early in the war led to a general under-

standing of the theory underlying the operation of the magnetron oscillator and the transmis-

sion of microwaves- -an uaderstanding that greatly increased the effectiveness of radar and

magnetron efficiency. One result was the emergence of so-called x- band radar that made

air-borne blind bombing possible. Dr. Slater's wartime book, "Microwave Transmission"

(1942), set forth the principles of microwaves primarily for the benefit of those then working

on radar, but it continues to stand as a standard work in the field.

Following the war, Dr. Slater was a prime mover in the establishment of both the

Research Laboratory of Electronics and the Laboratory for Nuclear Science, both of which

pioneered in new patterns of interdepartmental university research. He drafted and proposed

the original plans under which the Basic Research Division of the Radiation Laboratory, then

beirn- nclosed down, was transformed into the Research Laboratory of Electronics and there-

by retain intact the vast store of basic data, knowledge and equipment built up through the

wartime radar effort. Much of modern electronics has grown from the wartime work that was

thus preserved.

In 1951, Dr. Slater was promoted from department head to be M. I.T. 's first Insti-

tute Professor shortly after the post was created to recognize outstanding individuals whose

contributions have had broad effect throughout science and technology. He also was appointed

that year the Henry B. Higgins Professor of the Solid State (Physics) under a grant from the

Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. He spent the academic year 1951-52 on leave as a staff member

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at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and, upon his return, took the lead in forming the M.I.T.

Solid State and Molecular Theory Group concerned with applying modern theoretical methods, including wave mechanics and the use of digital computers, to the theory of atoms, molecules and solids.

As an associated activity, Dr. Slater guided the development of plans for the Insti- tute's new interdisciplinary Center for Materials Science and Engineering for the study of materials in the modern sense. This view includes traditional ideas of materials--such as- metals, concrete or textiles--for structural or other uses, but it also embraces studies of

unusual metals and alloys, single crystals, ceramics and compounds that have electrical,

magnetic and other properties. The Center was established in 1961 and just last year moved

into its new $6, 000, 000 Vannevar Bush Building.

Professor Slater was born in Oak Park, Ill., in 1900, and four years later the family

moved to Rochester, N.Y., where his father joined the staff of the University of Rochester,

later becoming professor and head of the Department of English for 34 years. His father, Dr.

John R. Slater, died last year at 93. Two years ago the University of Rochester presented

both the father and the son with honorary degrees at the same commencement.

M.I.T.'s Professor Slater was graduated from Rochester in 1920, then entered the

Harvard University graduate school, receiving the degrees of master of arts and doctor of

philosophy in 1922 and 1923 respectively. As a Sheldon traveling fellow from Harvard, he

studied overseas for a year, spending six months at Cambridge, England, and the other half

year working with Bohr in Copenhagen, Denmark.

He returned to Harvard as an instructor in physics. From that time until his appoint-

ment at M.1.T. in 1930, Professor Slater supplemented his teaching with considerable research,

particularly in the quantum theory. During the summer of 1926 he taught at Stanford Univer-

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sity and in 1928 at the University of Chicago. From June, 1929, to February of the following

year he studied abroad as a fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, working first in Zurich,

Switzerland, and later on in Leipzig, Germany, with Heisenberg and the physicist Friedrich

Hund.

Professor Slater has contributed numerous technical articles to scientific journals

and is the author of "Introduction to Chemical Physics" (1939), "Microwave Electronics" (19-

49), "Quantum Theory of Matter" (1951), "Modern Physics" (1955), the two-volume "Quantum

Theory of Atomic Structure" (1960), and the three- volume " Quantum Theory of Molecules and

Solids (1963-66). He is co-author with N .H. Frank of "Introduction of Theoretical Physics"

(1933), "Mechanics" (1947), and "Electromagnetism" (1947).

He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy

of Sciences, American Philosophical Society, American Physical Society, Phi Beta Kappa, and

Delta Upsilon.

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June 30, 1966