Biographical Memoirs Volume 85 (2004) / Chapter Skim
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William Aaron Nierenberg
William Aaron Nierenberg
Pages 196-215
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From page 196... ...
UCSD Oceanography, of Institution Scripps of Courtesy
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From page 197... ...
As a physicist, he worked on the Manhattan Project and contributed to molecular beam research and cascade theory. He helped to shape national policy in oceanography and to develop oceanography into a multidisciplinary, planetary science with a pivotal role to play in climate change research and earth science.
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From page 198... ...
He spent his free time at the Bronx Botanical Garden and developed an interest in science at the American Museum of Natural History. He went to high school with Herman Wouk and college with Bernard Feld, and he met Richard Feynman at an intercollegiate math contest.
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From page 199... ...
Bill listed Rabi first among those who influenced him, and Bill considered Rabi a great teacher, despite poor skills as a lecturer, because of the personal approach Rabi took with his students. He was always available to us in his office, singly or in groups of two or three, to work over some obscure or difficult point.
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From page 200... ...
His most important series was his seminar on advanced nuclear physics that concentrated heavily on slow neutron phenomena. It was in these lectures that he demonstrated the utility of the scattering length and the virtue of his version of the Born approximation in scattering calculations that became known as the Golden Rule after the war among the graduate students.
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From page 201... ...
Lawrence built huge and advanced physics laboratories by convincing the University of California and the federal government that research in physics strengthened the university and the country. Although Bill occasionally lamented the loss of community that resulted from postwar big physics, he agreed with Lawrence's vision.3 In 1958 Bill was selected as the first E
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From page 202... ...
His research included gaseous diffusion theory and experiment, cascade theory, atomic and molecular beams, the measurement of nuclear spins, magnetic moments, electric quadrupole moments, hyperfine anomalies with particular application to radioactive nuclei, and similar applications to atomic electronic ground states. He hoped to learn more about nuclear structure, and he became a leader in his field.
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From page 203... ...
This work was cited when Bill was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1971. Bill built and flew model airplanes in Berkeley with his son, and Bill quickly moved to full-size aviation.
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He told friends that he found the huge imbedded bureaucracy of physics objectionable and the process of writing lengthy proposals for research support debilitating. The Free Speech Movement had altered the social ambience of Berkeley, and stimulated Bill to become active politically.
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Scripps was one of the best-known centers for oceanography in the United States, and the first to offer a curriculum in the discipline. It had begun as a small private marine biological station, and then became part of the University of California in 1912, but it didn't become prominent until World War II, when researchers in La Jolla made very significant contributions to the war effort in the area of underwater sound, antisubmarine warfare, the development of methods of surf forecasting, and other research in support of amphibious and naval operations.
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From page 206... ...
In particular, Walter Munk and Harry Hess had suggested a core-drilling program dubbed "Mohole" to answer key questions about the composition of the earth's mantle and the geological history of the planet. At Roger Revelle's initiative Charles David Keeling initiated measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide in 1956 during the International Geophysical Year.
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From page 207... ...
Bill negotiated the prime contract and oversaw the building of the drilling vessel Glomar Challenger, with its unique dynamic positioning technology. He fostered a strong science advisory structure and built the team that made the project operational.
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The climate program capitalized on Scripps's growing reputation in atmospheric science, which was based on the CO2 work that had been done for years at Scripps by Charles David Keeling and others. The precise measurements done by Keeling were something that Nierenberg understood, and he relished the growing debate within the scientific and political worlds about the possible consequences of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide and what, if anything, should be done.
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From page 209... ...
For instance, with Saul Alvarez Borrego, Bill strengthened the relationship between Scripps and science institutions in Mexico, particularly with the two Baja marine institutions, the Escuela Superior de Ciencias Marinas of the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, and the Centro de Investigaciones Cientifica y Educacion Superior de Ensenada. The interaction among these institutions strengthened them all, and Bill particularly enjoyed the soccer game that was a feature of the annual exchange visits.
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From page 210... ...
He served on the NASA Advisory Council and was its first chairman from 1978 to 1982. However, he may be best remembered for influential reports he prepared on the Santa Barbara oil spill, acid rain,5 and climate change.6 Bill delved seriously into scientific issues as the author of these reports, and never was this truer than his involvement with the climate change issue.
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From page 211... ...
Bill Nierenberg died of cancer at his home in La Jolla, California, on September 10, 2000. At the time of his death Bill was assembling a panel for the Marshall Institute in order to prepare a summary of the IPCC Third Assessment Report that would be more representative of the text itself.
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From page 212... ...
5. Acid Rain Panel Report, Report of the Acid Rain Peer Review Panel, William A
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From page 213... ...
Oct.:72-82. 1978 The deep sea drilling project after ten years.
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From page 214... ...
:354-361. 1990 Exaggerated global warming scenarios impede urgent climate research.
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