Biographical Memoirs Volume 84 (2004) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 373-398
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From page 373... ...
In the broader arena through his writings and actions he was an effective advocate for international cooperation in science and human affairs. In 1981 he shared the Wolf Prize for physics with Freeman Dyson and Gerhard `t Hooft for "development and application of the quantum theory of fields." In 1991 he was awarded the Public Welfare Medal of the National Academy of Sciences "for a half-century of unflagging effort to humanize the goals of science, acquaint the world with the beneficial potential of nuclear technologies, and to safeguard it from the devastation of nuclear war." As a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences he was instrumental in persuading the Pope to speak on the dangers of nuclear weapons.
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From page 374... ...
In April 1936 Weisskopf accepted a fellowship at Bohr's institute in Copenhagen. While there he completed an impressive analysis of the properties of the vacuum in the presence of electromagnetic fields, clarifying earlier work, giving physical arguments for the removal of certain infini
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His researches at MIT focused on nuclear reactions, with one major paper with J Bruce French on a complete calculation of the leading radiative correction to atomic energy levels (the Lamb shift)
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Together with John Blatt he authored an influential text on theoretical nuclear physics, published in 1952. That same year he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
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From page 377... ...
He was elected to numerous learned societies in addition to the National Academy of Sciences and received many honorary degrees. He received several prizes and medals, including the Max Planck Medal in 1956, the National Medal of Science in 1980, and the already noted Wolf Prize in 1981 and the Public Welfare Medal in 1991.
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From page 378... ...
Thirring, sensing Weisskopf's exceptional abilities and knowing that Vienna was not in the forefront in modern physics, recommended that he transfer to Göttingen for further studies. Göttingen at that time was the Mecca of theoretical physics, where Heisenberg, Born, and Jordan had invented quantum mechanics in 1925-26.
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From page 379... ...
This history speaks not only to how Viki's talents and promise were judged by the leaders of theoretical physics but also to the scarcity of long-term positions during the Great Depression. The job shortage was greatly compounded for Viki by the exclusion of Jews from numerous academic posts in Germany after the Nazis came to power in 1933.
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From page 380... ...
During his postdoc period Viki developed close friendships with many young colleagues who were rapidly becoming prominent physicists, especially Patrick Blackett, Felix Bloch, Hendrik Casimir, Rudolf Peierls, and George Placzek, as well as Max Delbrück, who left quantum field theory to become a great pioneer in molecular biology. And in 1932 on his second day in Copenhagen Viki met Ellen Tvede, who was soon to be his wife and constant companion until her death in 1989.
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From page 381... ...
.4 At the time, this work was viewed as a purely theoretical exercise for no "elementary'' spin zero particle was known. It was, however, an exercise that taught an important lesson, because it demonstrated that antiparticles are not a peculiarity of Dirac's theory for spin 1/2 fermions but are also an inevitable feature of a quantum field theory for charged
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From page 382... ...
. At the Bohr Institute nuclear physics was beginning to be emphasized in addition to basic problems in quantum mechanics and field theory.
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ROCHESTER AND LOS ALAMOS In the fall of 1937 Viki began a new phase of his career with a new country, a new language, and a largely new field. In his five and a half years at Rochester, nuclear physics became a major focus of his research, with studies of Coulomb excitation5 and radiative transitions (1941)
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Fission was discovered in Berlin in December 1938, and on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Nuclear physics was suddenly transformed from an esoteric intellectual pursuit into a potentially decisive factor in the war.
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The upshot was that French and Weisskopf published their year-old result (1949) only after a paper by Kroll and Lamb appeared with essentially the same calculation.6 The Kroll-Lamb theory paper contains a succinct statement about Viki's place in the firmament of theoretical physics: "[Our]
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From page 386... ...
Such regrets aside, Weisskopf stands among the leaders of twentieth-century theoretical physics and a key player in the development of quantum electrodynamics and field theory in the 1930s and 1940s, as was recognized by the Wolf Prize in 1981. NUCLEAR PHYSICS Viki often derided his own technical abilities in theoretical physics.
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From page 387... ...
. In addition to his own research he produced his magnum opus, the treatise on nuclear physics written in collaboration with John Blatt (1952)
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From page 388... ...
At CERN Viki is also remembered for his nighttime visits to the experimental halls and his down-to-earth seminars on particle theory for experimental physicists. A significant factor in Viki's decision to seek the CERN position had been his desire to learn particle physics -- a rather extravagant measure for satisfying so modest a wish, but quite typical of him.
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From page 389... ...
, the Public Welfare Medal of the National Academy of Sciences (1991) , as well as many honorary degrees and foreign memberships to prestigious academies.
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From page 390... ...
After his election in 1975 to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences Viki played a central role in convincing Pope John Paul II to speak out repeatedly against the nuclear arms race. Viki worked incessantly for control and reduction of nuclear weapons and for international cooperation in science.
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From page 391... ...
In his autobiography half of the final chapter ("Mozart, Quantum Mechanics, and a Better World") is devoted to discussion of his loves in music, both as a listener and a participant.
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From page 392... ...
Victor Weisskopf combined in himself two traits that are often in conflict and rarely coexist so harmoniously: On one side the sentimental and the romantic, on the other the rigorous intellectual discipline and judgment. As he liked to say, his favorite occupations were Mozart and quantum mechanics.
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From page 393... ...
Yevick (1947) , James Bruce French (1948)
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From page 394... ...
Mozart and quantum mechanics. An appreciation of Victor Weisskopf.
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On the yield of nuclear reactions with heavy elements.
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From page 396... ...
Theoretical Nuclear Physics. New York: John Wiley.
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From page 397... ...
Concepts of Particle Physics, vol.
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