National Academies Press: OpenBook

Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54 (1983)

Chapter: Leonard Isaac Schiff

« Previous: Rudolph Leo Bernhard Minkowski
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 300
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 301
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 302
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 303
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 304
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 305
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 306
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 307
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 308
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 309
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 310
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 311
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 312
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 313
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 314
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 315
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 316
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 317
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 318
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 319
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 320
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 321
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 322
Suggested Citation:"Leonard Isaac Schiff." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
×
Page 323

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

LEONARD ISAAC SCHI FF March 29, 1915-January 19, 1971 BY F. BLOCH LEONARD SCHIFF was born in Fall Aver, Massachusetts. His father, Edward, descended from a Lithuanian fam- ily of rabbinical scholars, had come to the United States as a young boy. An early ancestor was an apothecary who took the name "Schiff," the old German word for a vessel used in his tracle. His mother Mathilda (nee Brodsky), also of Lithuanian descent, was born in Brooklyn. She was an accomplished pianist and composer; her two sons and three daughters all began to receive musical education when they were still very young. She began to teach Leonard to play the piano when he was four years old, but two years later he took up the clarinet, an instrument that he loved anti came to master remarkably well. Leonard's school years were spent in Brooklyn after his family had moved there. This was a time of financial difficul- ties for Edward Schiff, who helped to alleviate them by free- lance writing. Leonard was a precocious child; therefore he was quickly advanced in school in order to remain sufficiently occupied with his classwork. Although by no means one- siclecI, his special interest and talent in mathematics soon became evident; he later belongecl to a small group of volun- teers who received additional instruction from their mathe- matics teacher after school hours. The knowlecige thus 301

302 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS acquired brought Leonarc! so far that he was well versect in calculus when he graduated from lames Madison High School in June ~ 929. Another family move brought Leonarc] to Columbus, where he entered Ohio State University at the age of four- teen. It was his desire to come closer to reality than he felt he could reach through pure mathematics that brought Leo- narcl Schiff to the study of physics. The subject was taught at the School of Engineering, and he received the bachelor's degree (B.E., physics) in 1933. His first piece of research was clone in the course of the next two years; it arose from close contact with L. H. Thomas, an outstanding member of the faculty and originator of the well-known Thomas factor in atomic physics. Leonard's investigation concerned the quan- tum theory of metallic reflection ancl analyzed the effect of surface properties. Published with Thomas as coauthor, it already shows the influence of Schiffs method, seen in much of his later work, of starting with funciamentals and proceecI- ing systematically from there to the derivation of new results. He once told his younger brother Dan, also a physicist: "Phys- ics is really simple you only have to know the few basic facts whereupon everything else just follows." After receiving the degree of master of science, Leonarc! left Columbus in 1935 to continue his graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Although much younger than his classmates, he surpassed most of them in training and knowledge. He and some fellow students, in- cluding Marvin Chodorow, who became a lifelong friend, soon formed a group of close companions who gathered for hikes or similar occasions to talk about physics and other matters of shared interest. Clearly a hard worker, Leonard appeared self-assured while totally free of arrogance; and he was also blessed with a fine sense of humor. From the beginning, Schiff enrollee! in the advanced

LEONARD ISAAC SCHIFF 303 courses offered at MIT, and it did not take long before he was also engaged in research. A course on statistical problems that he took from Robley D. Evans lecI to their collaboration on the statistics of counters and to a joint publication in 1 936. With Philip M. Morse ancl I. D. Fisk as coauthors, an earlier publication of the same year concerned an altogether differ- ent subject, the collision of protons and neutrons. It is signif- icant because it marks the beginning of SchifiPs association with Phil Morse, to whom he felt drawn by personality as well as by their shared inclination toward mathematical physics, meant in the more literal sense than in the old usage for the entire field of theoretical physics. An emphasis on mathemat- ics can be noticed here in that the potential is chosen to allow a rigorous analytical solution of the Schrodinger equation. The work is also significant because it represents the start of Leonarcl's occupation with problems of collision, a phenome- non which he later investigated in its many different aspects so that it runs as a strong thread through his life's work. In immediate continuation, he included the cleuteron as colli- sion partner and treated the related capture and binding process of neutrons, which yielded four more papers in 1937 and, by further extension, led in Tune of that year to his Ph.D. thesis unpiler the supervision of Morse, entitled "Theory of the Collision of Light Elements." He worked during the rest of the summer as a research physicist for the General Electric Company, whereupon a fellowship from the National Research Council for 1937 and 1938 enabled him to join the group of young theorists at the University of California in Berkeley and the California In- stitute of Technology in Pasadena. It was the presence of J. R. Oppenheimer, then a joint professor at these institu- tions, that had brought them together and greatly influenced their activities. Oppenheimer's quick grasp in the course of a iscussion was most impressive, but the ensuing comments

304 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS were often quite mystifying. One can see how Leonard's gen- erally positive attitude enabled him to reconcile this fact with his deep desire for clarity by quoting from a memorial talk that he gave in Berkeley after the (leash of Oppenheimer: "I think he enjoyed talking in ricIdIes; certainly there was an enigmatic quality to the choice of his words. Students and colleagues spent much time wondering about just what he hac] meant and often ended up with a much creeper un- clerstanding of the subject than they would have attained otherwise." An appointment as a research assistant after the expira- tion of Schiff~s fellowship extended this first period in Cali- fornia by two more years. The intimate contact with other highly gifted members in the group, among them W. E. Lamb and R. Serber, contributed no less than Oppenheimer's stimulating influence to his productivity during that time. The collaboration with Lamb lecl to their joint paper on the electromagnetic properties of nuclei arising from the meson exchange between their constituents. This started his interest in the role of mesons, which he continued to pursue through a series of investigations in the 1950's. The scope of his activ- ities was further enIarge(l, partly through work with H. Snycler and others, to encompass a variety of subjects as different as radiative capture of electrons, liquid helium, and the quadratic Zeeman effect, thus demonstrating anew Schiffs extraordinary versatility. Those three years, spent mostly in Berkeley, brought him enrichments not only through his scientific work but also through new friendships, particularly with Bob and Char- lotte Serber, Date and Nelle Carson, Art Kipp, and Bill Stein- hoff. He greatly enjoyocl the evenings of chamber music in the home of Martin Kamen where he sometimes joined the fine players with his clarinet. Last and most important, it was in Berkeley that he met Frances Ballard, then a student of

LEONARD ISAAC SCHIFF 305 history, and found in her the ideal companion of his future life. They married in 1941 after Leonard's move to Philadel- phia; complementing each other in many ways, they had in the course of time a daughter, Ellen, and a son, Lee. The academic career of Leonard Schiff began in 1940 with an appointment as instructor at the University of Penn- sylvania, followed at intervals of two years by promotion to assistant and associate professor. His exceptional gift for teaching immediately became evident; he impressed the stu- dents so much by his perfect clarity and his pedagogic skill that they regarded him as the best teacher at the University. Leonard was not the man, however, to earn such a reputation at the expense of his research. Continuing his interest in the properties of liquid helium, brought from Berkeley, he was able in his first year as instructor to publish several papers on the subject, aimed particularly at a better understanding of the phase transition to the superfluid state. He still found time to deal in two more papers with the performance of the electron microscope before his publications were brought nearly to a standstill until the end of the war. Like that of most American physicists, Schiffs research during this interval became directed towards the war effort and the announcement of results was restricted by security regulations. In contrast to the specialization common at this time, he sometimes served simultaneously on many different projects, several of them arranged through Gaylord Harn- well, the chairman of the Physics Department at PennsyI- vania. The first was initiated upon a request to develop a device for measuring the purity of helium in blimps. Leonard provided the analysis of the data, hut he also assisted his coworker Robert Hofstadter, who had entered the University six months before him, in ably performing some of the glass- blowing required for the apparatus. Neither of them could anticipate that they were later to be colleagues at Stanford,

306 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS where the friendship, cemented at that time, would lead to a most fruitful interplay of their common concern about elec- tron scattering at high energies. Schiff later participated in a number of projects that dealt with various aspects of submarine warfare. In close personal contact with the successive directors F. Seitz, A. W. Lawson, W. E. Stephens, and P. H. Miller he was associated with a group formed to study the operation of the crystal detectors used in radar systems. Research in this group led Walter Meyerhof, his former student and a future colleague at Stan- ford, to the discovery of surface states and to a Ph.D. thesis on the subject. It is most remarkable that all the activities described above did not prevent Leonard from carrying on some teaching and from serving in Harnwell's absence as acting chairman of the Physics Department from the summer of ~ 942 to April ~ 945. At that time he was granted a leave of absence to join the atomic bomb laboratory at Los Alamos, at Oppenheimer's request, and he was among those who witnessed in the Trin- ity Test at Alamogordo the first explosion of an atom bomb. Deeply impressed by this event and the subsequent destruc- tion of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he wrote a letter to the Forum of the Review of Scientific Instruments entitled "Atomic Energy and Physicists" shortly before leaving Los Alamos in January 1946. It warns with remarkable foresight that other nations would be able to make atomic bombs and that they could be made much more powerful than those used against Japan. The physicists were asked to use their special position not only to support international control of nuclear weapons, but also to make the public aware of the great benefits that atomic energy could bestow upon mankind. Alter his return to Philadelphia, he again carried out the normal teaching and research activities during his remaining year-and-a-half at the University of Pennsylvania. He further

LEONARD ISAAC SCHIFF 307 used the partial removal of government restrictions to promptly publish, with his collaborators, some of the results previously reported only in classified documents. Leonard Schiff began the last and longest period in his academic life when he joined the Physics Department of Stan- ford University in the fall of 1947. Here, as elsewhere in the Uniter! States, the ways of physics had been greatly in- fluenced by clevelopments during the war, both in opening new avenues of research and through the generous support received from government agencies. At Stanford the prin- cipal new areas resulted from the vast improvements of radio anti microwave techniques in the development of radar, now channelle(1 into peace-time applications, the former used for the study of nuclear magnetism, the latter for the accelera- tion of electrons. Both developments were rooted in work done at Stanford before the war in a small department and with very modest means; now they were seen to have a much wider scope that pointed towards an extended period of promising future research. While a great increase in staff clid not seem to be indi- catecl, it was recognized that the new era called for additional qualified members of the department. Edward Ginzton and his wife Artemas, a cousin of Frances Schiff, had known Leonard intimately for a long time. Upon Ginzton's sugges- tion, it was quickly agreed, both for reasons of personality and in view of Schiff~s excellent record, that a position shouicI be offered to him; it boded well for his future in the depart- ment that he accepted the offer of an associate professorship without much hesitation. To do justice to his great influence during nearly a quarter of a century at Stanford, the role of Schiff has to be consiclered in several different, yet not un- connecte~l, aspects. To begin with his part in affairs of the university, it was with the promotion to a full professorship, just a year after

308 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS his arrival, that he succeecled Paul Kirkpatrick as executive heat! of the Physics Department. The following eighteen years, cluring which he remained in this position, were to give ample proof that a more fortunate choice could hardily have been made. Through strict adherence to democratic princi- ples, Leonard gained the complete confidence of his col- leagues and became their ideal spokesman in dealing with the administration of the University. The strengthening of the department by a number of excellent appointments and the move from inadequate quarters to a large new building with connected structures for administrative offices and auditoria were but two of the significant changes during the period of his chairmanship. Another major development re- sulted from the overgrowing scope and size of the clepart- ment's research activities. While gratifying in many respects, the expected consiclerable expansion of certain activities caused problems since it called for special arrangements to allow their independent operation. This gave rise to the installation of applied physics as a separate department of the University and to the creation of the Stanford Linear Accel- erator Center as a national laboratory; both events were accompanied by the transfer of some members of the depart- ment who became the core of a greatly enlarged staff. There followed a prolonged exchange of opinions about the rela- tion of these new entities to the physics department with the strong involvement of the chairman until the issues had been sufficiently cIarifiecl and agreements were reached that worked to the greatest mutual benefit. When Schiff decided in 1966 to give up the position as head of the department, he coup look back with satisfaction to the achievements reached over his many years of unselfish devotion to the task that had been entrusted to him. Far from ending his services to the University, however, he continued for another three years as chairman of the Advisory Board,

LEONARD ISAAC SCHIFF 309 the highest position for the faculty at Stanford, and was elected as the first chairman of the newly formed senate during the University's turbulent year of 1968. In these as well as in a number of other functions, he never hesitated to give freely of his time and greatly contributed by his wisdom and judgment to the general welfare of the institution. Coming now to his particular concern with education, Schiff realized the great importance of introductory courses for the development of a student and the experience re- quirecl for their being taught well. He therefore saw to it that these classes were assigned to senior members of the faculty, setting a high standard by his own participation. The quality of his teaching came not only from an innate pedagogic abil- ity but also from his having given a great deal of thought to the aims to be realized. He clevoted much of an article about science in general education to clarifying the difference be- tween pure science and technology and made a strong case for his conviction that the cultural rather than the utilitarian aspect of science should be the basis of scientific education. In a talk entitled "The Education of a Scientist," he warned against premature specialization and concentration on tech- niques—as aclvocated in the days of the Sputnik- arguing that a student of science will be best prepared for his future if he first acquires a broad knowledge. The talk ended with the following remark about the prospects of a scientist: "If he happens to become a university professor, perhaps his great- est ambition will be to develop a research student who will some day make a greater contribution to science than was within his own power" a touching revelation of Schiffs per- sonal feelings. In 1966, he receiver! the OerstecI Mecial of the American Association of Physics Teachers for his "notable contribution to the teaching of physics" and Stanforcl's an- nual Dinkelspie! Award "for outstanding service to un(ler- graduate education."

310 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS Schiffs widest influence as a teacher and scholar, how- ever, has been achieved through his book, Quantum Mechan- ics. Although it cleats with the very basis of modern physics, discovered twenty-five years earlier, there existec! nothing comparable to this text before the first edition in 1949, anal nothing like this volume was to appear for many years to come. Translated into many languages, among them Russian and Japanese, it is found today on most scientific bookshelves all over the world and has been instrumental in bringing up a whole generation of physicists. The second edition ap- peared in 1955 and the third in 196S, enriched each time to keep up with recent developments. It is research, however, that was always of primary im- portance to Leonarct, whose well-organizecI system of work- ing enablecl him to remain highly productive in the pursuit of his investigations without neglecting other activities. The variety of topics he chose again reflects a wicle range of inter- ests, but two major groups stancl out: the recurrent occupa- tion with the theory of collisions and with general relativity. The collision and scattering of particles was mentioned before to be of particular significance in the work of Schiff. His attention to the subject received a fresh stimulus through the development of the linear electron accelerator at Stan- ford. As early as 1949 he discussed in an extended report the type of information that could be obtained with the new accelerators, and he emphasized the utility of electron scat- tering as a probe of nuclear and nucleon structure. The im- portant results of the experiments carried out by Hofstadter and his collaborators were to amply fulfill his expectations. In close contact with the progress of their work during the fol- lowing years, he significantly contributed to the analysis of the (lata and investigated relatecl problems concerning the treatment of scattering processes. He reviewed the research activities in high energy physics that bear on nuclear struc-

LEONARD ISAAC SCHIFF 3 tore in 1955, and once more in 196S, under the title "Low Energy Physics from a High Energy Standpoint," aptly chosen to characterize a field in which he can be truly said to have been one of the founders. Except for the application of Mach's principle to a prob- lem of rotating charges, suggested in 1939 by Oppenheimer, Leonard's many contributions to general relativity were made almost entirely during the last decade of his life. The first of them was motivated by certain arguments in favor of the idea that the gravitational mass of antimatter might be negative. Schiff showed in a careful analysis that this is in- compatible with the virtual presence of positrons in an atom, demanded by the formalism of quantum electrodynamics. A corresponding negative contribution to the gravitational mass would result in so large a difference from the inertial mass that it is ruled out by the high accuracy with which the equality of these two masses has been experimentally established. The decision to base this conclusion on empirical evidence rather than to simply state it as a necessary consequence of general relativity characterizes the principal concern of Schiff~s later work in that field. While fully aware of the depth and internal consistency of Einstein's theory, he felt that it was supported by a somewhat slender body of observations which, furthermore, had yielded most of the relevant data only within a consiclerable margin of error. The equality of inertial and gravitational mass being the most accurately con- firmed basis of general relativity, he showed that it imposed powerful constraints on the coupling of gravitation to systems of interacting particles. In the same context he argued that this equality might suffice to establish Einstein's much more far-reaching principle of equivalence, the "Schiff conjec- ture," which has stimulated a great amount of research in that area.

312 ~ . BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS Another important contribution to general relativity was his proposal of a new test, with results to be obtained by measuring the rate at which the axis of an orbiting gyroscope would change its direction with respect to the fixed stars. He calculated that for an orbit at 500 miles altitude it would amount to about seven seconds of arc per year, caused mainly by orbital motion, but with a correction of the order of one percent due to the Lense-Thirring effect of the earth's rota- tion upon the gravitational field. The development of the apparatus for this delicate measurement by Fairbank and his collaborators at Stanford is still in progress, and the perfor- mance of the test is awaited with great interest. A close connection between experimental undertakings Ally OU111115 C~ntrl~UUonS [0 one theory manifested itself in many of his other investigations as well. As an example, he discussed the measurability of nuclear electric dipole moments when the possibility of such a measurement in Helium-3 was brought to his attention. Another example is his treatment of the gravitation-induced electric field near a metal, motivated by an experiment to observe the free fall of electrons in a hollow metallic cylinder. His willingness and ability to be of help to the experimentalists was greatly appre- ciated while at the same time providing him with a good deal of personal pleasure. "I like to solve problems" was one of his sayings, and it is not surprising that he had a special admira- tion for Rayleigh, a man whose work encompassed nearly all the physics of his time and whose biography he planned to write after retirement. Beyond his prolific activities at Stanford, Schiff showed a great concern through his engagement in numerous prob- lems concerning science at large. As a member of the council of the American Physical Society, in early 1956 he sent a memorandum to the director of the American Institute of Physics in which he advocated the establishment of a journal, tentatively to be named the [ournaZ of Mathematical Physics. He _1 ~ 1 · I/ . · 1 · ~ .

LEONARD ISAAC SCHIFF 313 reasoned that the ever increasing bulk of the Physical Review called for one or more new journals and delineated the scope of this particular one "to include any paper that applies established methods of mathematics or theoretical physics to a problem of physical interest, where the novelty lies in the mathematical procedure rather than in the physical un- derstanding which is attained." His proposal initiated the actions that led to the start of the journal of Mathematical Physics in 1960. Because of his prominent part in the preced- ing deliberations, he was asked to become the chairman of the editorial board; he declined but served as associate editor during the first two years of the Journal. His services were further sought, and Schiff freely con- sented for extended periods to join the editorial staffs of the Physical Review, the Reviews of Modern Physics, and several other journals. He was a fellow or officer in many learned societies, inclucling the American Academy of Arts and Sci- ences and the National Acaclemy of Sciences, where he was chairman of the Physics Section at the time of his death. The extraordinary variety of Leonard's professional pur- suits, indicated in the preceding account, and his careful attention to each of them might invoke the image of a man under constant severe pressure. Yet such was the wealth of his personality that he never lost his quiet and considerate way with others, nor was he forced to sacrifice the enjoyment of his family, the company of his friends, or his love of music and nature to devote himself to his equally beloved science. There was much that Leonard Schiff still had to give and wanted to give when a heart failure brought his life to a sudden encl. THE AUTHOR iS greatly indebted to Marvin Chodorow, Robert Hofstadter, Walter Meyerhof, Robert Wagoner, Dirk Walecka, Frank Yang, and particularly Frances Schiff for much valuable information provided to him in the writing of this biography.

314 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS BIBLIOGRAPHY 1935 With L. H. Thomas. Quantum theory of metallic reflection. Phys. Rev., 47:860. 1936 Statistical analysis of counter data. Phys. Rev., 50:88. With R. D. Evans. Statistical analysis of the counting rate meter. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 7:456. With P. M. Morse and I. B. Fisk. Collision of neutron and proton. Phys. Rev., 50:748. With }. B. Fisk and W. Shockley. On the binding of neutrons and protons. Phys. Rev., 50:1090. 1937 With P. M. Morse and I. B. Fisk. Collision of neutron and proton. II. Phys. Rev., 51:706. Inelastic collision of deuteron and deuteron. Phys. Rev., 51:783. Scattering of neutrons by deuterons. Phys. Rev., 52: 149. On the capture of thermal neutrons by deuterons. Phys. Rev., 52:242. Modern ideas concerning the nucleus of the atom. Gen. Electr. Rev., 40:504. 1938 With W. E. Lamb, fir. On the electromagnetic properties of nuclear systems. Phys. Rev., 53:651. With M. E. Nahmias. Sur ['absorption des rayons beta des radio- elements. I. Phys. Radium, 9:140. Excited state of He3. Phys. Rev., 54:92. On the paths of ions in the cyclotron. Phys. Rev., 54:1114. 1939 With H. Snyder. Theory of the quadratic %eeman effect. Phys. Rev., 55:59. A question in general relativity. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 25:391. (The asterisk denotes publications that do not report original research.)

LEONARD ISAAC SCHIFF 1940 315 With H. Snyder and I. Weinberg. On the existence of stationary states of the mesotron field. Phys. Rev., 57:315. Scattering of light by liquid helium. Phys. Rev., 57:844. Field theories for charged particles of arbitrary spin. Phys. Rev., 57:903. With P. Morrison. Radiative K capture. Phys. Rev., 58:24. 1941 Theory of degenerate non-ideal gases. Phys. Rev., 59:751. On the phase transition in liquid helium. Phys. Rev., 59:758. Note on the structure of liquid helium. Phys. Rev., 59:839. Degenerate non-ideal gases and liquid helium. Phys. Rev., 60:362. With R. Hofstadter. Peak and null indicating circuit. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 12:448. With L. Marton. Determination of object thickness in electron mi- croscopy. T. Appl. Phys., 12:759. *Statistical mechanics (book review). Rev. Sci. Instrum., 12:493. 1942 Ultimate resolving power of the electron microscope. Phys. Rev., 61:721. 1944 With P. H. Miller. A simple high impedance A.C. voltmeter. Am. J. Phys.,12:173. 1945 With P. H. Miller and W. E. Stephens. *Contributed points of view. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 16:58. 1946 Production of particle energies beyond 200 Mev. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 17:6. Energy-angle distribution of betatron target radiation. Phys. Rev. 70:87. *Atomic energy and physicists. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 17:88. With E. C. Nelson. *What about energy in 1946? Look Magazine, 8 January:66.

316 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS *Statistical thermodynamics (book review). Rev. Sci. Instrum. 17:439. With R. E. Marshak and E. C. Nelson. *OurAtomic World. Albuque~ que: University of New Mexico Press. Thresholds for slow neutron induced reactions. Phys. Rev., 70:562. Resonance fluorescence of nuclei. Phys. Rev., 70:761. Discussion of the fluorine-proton resonances. Phys. Rev., 70:891. 1947 With B. Goodman and A. W. Lawson. Thermal ionization of im- purity levels in semi-conductors. Phys. Rev., 71:191. With A. W. Lawson and P. H. Miller, tr. A device for plotting rays in a stratified medium. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 18:117. rim ~~ With K. S. M. Davidson. Turning and course-keeping qualities. Trans. Soc. Naval Arch. Mar. Eng., 54: 152. (Partially reprinted, The Shipbuilder and Marine Engine-Builder, 54:274.) With H. Feshbach. Thresholds for creation of particles. Phys. Rev., 72:254. 1948 Photo-effects in middle-weight nuclei. Phys. Rev., 73:1311. 1949 With M. Gimprich. Automatic steering of ships by proportional control. Trans. Soc. Naval Arch. Mar. Eng., 57:94. (Abstracted Pac. Mar. Rev. (May): 7 1. ) Radiation accompanying meson creation. Phys. Rev., 76:89. (Abstracted, Phys. Today (August) :34. ) Spontaneous decay rate of heavy mesons. Phys. Rev., 76:303. With D. L. Weisman. Spontaneous decay rate of heavy mesons. II. Phys. Rev., 76:1266. * Introduction to statistical mechanics (book review). Rev. Sci. Instrum., 20:687. 1950 *Stanford Meeting of the American Physical Society. Phys. Today (April) :30. *Introduction to theoretical physics. Science, 111:413. Deuteron photo-effect at high energies. Phys. Rev., 78:733. *Quantum Mechanics. New York: McGraw-Hill.

LEONARD ISAAC SCHIFF 317 ~ Quantum mechanics. In: Collier's Encyclopedia. New York: Collier. With R. F. Post. Statistical limitations on the resolving time of scinti- lation counters. Phys. Rev., 80: 1113. 1951 Thinking in quantum terms. Phys. Today (June):4. Energy-angle distribution of thin target Bremsstrahlung. Phys. Rev., 83:252. Meccanica Quantistica, trans. L. Radicati di Brozolo. Turin: Edizioni Scientif~che Einaudi. Reports on progress in physics (book review). Science, 114:370. Nonlinear meson theory of nuclear forces. I. Neutral scalar mesons with point-contact repulsion. Phys. Rev., 84: 1. Nonlinear meson theory of nuclear forces. II. Nonlinearity in the meson-nucleon coupling. Phys. Rev., 84:10. 1952 Neutral V-particle decay and the negative proton. Phys. Rev., 85:374. ~ Nonlinear physics. Phys. Today (June) :5. Nonlinear meson theory of nuclear forces. III. Quantization of the neutral scalar case with nonlinear coupling. Phys. Rev., 86:856. Radiative correction to the angular distribution of nuclear recoils from electron scattering. Phys. Rev., 87:750. Quantum effects in the radiation from accelerated relativistic elec- trons. Am. J. Phys., 20:474. 1953 With E. L. Chu. ~ Recent progress in accelerators. Annul Rev. Nucl. Sci., 2:79. With H. Motz. Cerenkov radiation in a dispersive medium. Am. i. Phys., 21:258. Lattice-space quantization of a nonlinear field theory. Phys. Rev., 92:766. (Preliminary report, Proc. Int. Conf. Theor. Phys., pp. 226-32.) interpretation of electron scattering experiments. Phys. Rev., 92:988. (Preliminary report, Proc. Int. Conf. Theor. Phys., pp. 327-33 )

318 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS 1954 On an expression for the total cross section. Prog. Theor. Phys., 11:288. Nuclear theory (book review). Phys. Today (June):24. * Atomic structure. In: Modern Physics for the Engineer. New York: McGraw-Hill. Nuclear multipole transitions in inelastic electron scattering. Phys Rev., 96:765. Paper representations of the noncubic crystal classes. Am. J. Phys.7 22:621. 1955 *Quantum mechanics. In: Fundamental Formulas of Physics. New York: Prentice-Hall. *Quantum Mechanics (second edition). New York: McGraw-Hill. With M. Chodorow, et al. Stanford high-energy linear electron accelerator. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 26:134. Nuclear dispersion contribution to high-energy electron scattering. Phys. Rev., 98:756. Electric monopole transitions in C~2 and 0~6. Phys. Rev., 98:1281. *Low-energy physics from a high-energy standpoint. Science, 121:881. 1956 Remarks at the URSI Symposium on Electromagnetic Wave Theory. IRE Trans. on Antennas and Propagation, vol. AP-4, no. 3 (July), pp. 541-42, 576-77. Approximation method for high-energy potential scattering. Phys. Rev., 103:443. Approximation method for short wavelength or high-energy scat- tering. Phys. Rev., 104: 1481. 1957 Optical analog of quantum-mechanical barrier penetration. Am. I. Phys., 25:207. Effect of proton correlations on the scattering of high-energy elec- trons from nuclei. Nuovo Cimento, 5:1223. With D. S. Saxon. Theory of high-energy potential scattering. Nuovo Cimento, 6:614.

LEONARD ISAAC SCHIFF 319 Note on the elastic scattering of high-energy particles. Nucl. Phys., 4:632. PA Nao-Conserva~ao da Paridade nos Interac~oes Fracas. Seara Nova, 36:205. 1958 Quantum Mechanics Japanese translation), part I, 1957; part II, 1958. Kyoto: Yoshioka Shoten. *Statement before the Subcommittee on Research and Develop- ment of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, February 13, 1958, pp. 662-79. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. Electromagnetic structure of the neutron. Rev. Mod. Phys., 30:462. 1959 Quantum Mechanics (Russian translation). Moscow: Government Publishing House for Foreign Literature. Sign of the gravitational mass of a positron. Phys. Rev. Lett., 1:254. Gravitational properties of antimatter. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 45:69. 1960 Possible new experimental test of general relativity theory. Phys. Rev.Lett.,4:215. Interference effects in high energy bremsstrahlung from crystals. Phys. Rev., 117:1394. On experimental tests of the general theory of relativity. Am. J. Phys., 28:340. Motion of a gyroscope according to Einstein's theory of gravitation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 46:871. Equivalence principle "paradox" in the motion of a gyroscope. Nuovo Cimento, 17: 124. Note on the calculation of deuteron production in high-energy events. CERN Report 60-32, August 23. Nucleon structure and electromagnetic interaction theory. In: Ninth International Annual Conference on High Energy Physics, Kiev, fuly 15-25, 1959, vol. I, pp. 410-35. Moscow: Academy of Sci- ence USSR.

320 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS 1961 Report on the NASA Conference on experimental tests of theories of relativity. Phys. Today, 14 (11~:42-44, 46, 48. *Science in education. Stanford Rev., 63 (2~: 12-17. 1962 Particle theory approach to the two-pion and three-pion systems. Phys. Rev., 125: 777-81. Scattering of waves and particles by inhomogeneous regions. J. Opt. Soc. Am., 52: 140-44. *The humanities and the sciences. Stanford Today, 14~7~. Quantization of a self-coupled Boson field. In: Proceedings of the 1962 International Conference on High Energy Physics at CERN, Geneva, pp. 690-92. 1964 Proposed gyroscope experiment to test general relativity theory. (Presented at the International Conference on Relativity and Gravitation, Warsaw, July 1962.) In: Proceedings on Theory of Gravitation, pp. 71-77. Paris: Gauthier-Villars. General relativity: Theorv Inch e~nf~rimPnt ~ q~< ~,1 Al Math., 10:795-801. — , ~ ~ r ~ A A of_ J ~ ~ The experimental basis of general relativity. (Presented before the Physical Society of Japan, February 4, 1963, Tokyo, Japan.) Japanese translation, Buturi (August). Application of the variation method to field quantization. Phys. Rev., 130:458-64. nves~ganon ot time reversal invariance through measurement of a nuclear electric dipole moment. Presented at the Conference on the Nature of Time, Cornell University, May 1963. With H. Collard, R. Hofstadter, A. [ohansson, and M. R. Yearian. An analysis of tritium and helium-3 form factors. (Presented at the 1963 International Conference on Nucleon Structure.) In: I he Proceedings of the Conference on Nucleon Structure, pp. 385-86. Measurability of nuclear electric dipole moments. Phys. Rev., 132:2 1 94-2200. Nucleon Structure, coeditor with R. Hofstadter. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

LEONARD ISAAC SCHIFF 321 Theory of the electromagnetic form factors of H3 and He3. Phys. Rev., 133:B802-B812. With N. T. Meister and T. K. Radha. Slow neutron-deuteron cap- ture and the structure of H3 and He3. Phys. Rev. Lett., 12:509- 11. Observational basis of Mach's principle. Rev. Mod. Phys., 36:510- 11. Observational basis of Mach's principle. Ann. Univ. Sci. Budap., Rolando Eotvos Nominatae. With R. I. Oakes, T. K. Radha, N. T. Meister, B. F. Gibson, B. P. Carter, and T. A. Griffy. Electromagnetic form factors of H3 and He3. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on High Energy Physics, August 1964 (Dubna, USSR, 1964), vol. 1, pp. 983-84. 1965 Theoretical aspects of the space relativity-gyroscope experiment. In: Invited Lecture Series of the Space Technology Laboratories, vol. 2, pp. 47-50. *Gravitation and relativity. Trans. Am. Geophys. Union, 45:3. With B. F. Gibson. P and D state contributions to the charge form factors of H3 and He3. Phys. Rev., 138:B26-32. Structure of the three-nucleon system. In: Proceedings of the Third Nordic-Dutch Accelerator Symposium, Hanko, Finland, August 16-23, 1964 (Helsinki, 1964), pp. 163-69. Classical examples of space inversion and time reversal. Physics, 1:209-13. *The future role of high energy physics in interaction with other parts of physics. In:Nature of Matter, pp. 64-65. Brookhaven National Laboratory. On the electromagnetic structure of the Yukawa meson. Prog. Theor. Phys. (Suppl.~:400-405. With R. Hofstadter. *Felix Bloch A brief professional biography. Phys. Today (December):42-43. 1966 *Matrix mechanics. In: Encyclopedia of Physics, pp. 412-15. New York: Reinhold Publishing. With D. K. Ross. Analysis of the proposed planetary radar reflec- tion experiment. Phys. Rev., 141: 1215- 18.

322 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS *Some thoughts on classroom teaching. Am. J. Phys., 34:454. Also in: The Physics Teacher, 4:233. Lateral boundary mixing in a simple model of ocean convection. Deep-Sea Res., 13:621 -26. Nonrelativistic quark model. Phys. Rev. Lett., 17:612-13. Quarks and magnetic poles. Phys. Rev. Lett., 17:714-16. With M. V. Barnhill. Gravitation-induced electric field near a metal. Phys. Rev., 151: 1017- 1067. 1967 With T. A. Griffy. * Electromagnetic form factors. In: High Energy Physics, pp. 341-90. New York: Academic Press. *Electron scattering. In: Cargese Lectures in Theoretical Physics, High Energy Electromagnetic Interactions and Field Theory, pp.1-39. New York: Gordon & Breach. Comparison of theory and observation in general relativity. In: Relativity Theory and Astrophysics. 1. Relativity and Cosmology, pp. 105-16. Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society. *Gravitation and relativity. In: journeys in Science, pp. 148-66. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. ~ rl- *How perceptive is hindsight? Science, 155:397. * T. R. Oppenheimer scientist, public servant. Phys. Today (April): 110-11. Symmetries of Keplerian and harmonic ellipses and their quantum implications. Am. J. Phys., 35:670. On the electromagnetic structure of the Yukawa meson. II. Prog. Theor. Phys., 37:635-36. Quarks and magnetic poles. Phys. Rev., 160: 1257-62. *Gravitation and relativity. In: Journeys an Science, ed. David L. Arm, pp. 148- 66. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 1968 *Low-energy physics from a high-energy standpoint. II. Science, 161 :969-73. High-energy scattering at moderately large angles. Phys. Rev., 176: 1390-94. Some experiments on gravitation. Report presented at the 5th Int'l. Conf. on Gravitation and the Theory of Relativity, Tbilisi, U.S.S.R., September 1968.

LEONARD ISAAC SCHIFF 323 *Quantum Mechanics, 3d ea., xvii + 544 pp. New York: McGraw- Hill. 1969 Newton, Einstein, and gravitation. In: Great Men of Physics: The Humanistic Element in Scientific Work, University of California Letters and Science Extension Series, pp. 55-74. Los Angeles: Tinnon-Brown. With C. W. F. Everitt and W. M. Fairbank. Theoretical background and present status of the Stanford relativity-gyroscope experi- ment. Presented at the ESRO Colloquium on Significance of Space Research for Fundamental Physics, Interlaken, Switzer- land, September 4, 1969. Nongeodesic motion. In: In Honor of Philip M. Morse, ed. H. Fesh- bach and K. U. Ingard, pp. 164-69. Cambridge: MIT Press. 1970 Quark selection principle. Phys. Lett., 31B:79-81. Gravitation-induced electric field near a metal. II. Phys. Rev. B. 1 :4649-54.

Next: Adolph Hans Schultz »
Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54 Get This Book
×
Buy Hardback | $107.00
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

Biographic Memoirs: Volume 54 contains the biographies of deceased members of the National Academy of Sciences and bibliographies of their published works. Each biographical essay was written by a member of the Academy familiar with the professional career of the deceased. For historical and bibliographical purposes, these volumes are worth returning to time and again.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!