Biographical Memoirs Volume 88 (2006) / Chapter Skim
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Herbert Friedman
Herbert Friedman
Pages 90-109
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From page 91... ...
Friedman retired from the Naval Research Laboratory in 1980 but maintained an active association with the laboratory and the scientific community until his death. In 1996, on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, he received the NRL Lifetime Achievement Award and was 91
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From page 92... ...
In an autobiographical note, as an example of an interest in science, Friedman mentions only having traveled to upper Manhattan in 1925 when he was nine years old to observe a total eclipse of the sun, although he did admit an interest in mathematics. No one else in the Friedman family developed any special skills as an artist, even though Samuel Friedman developed close associations with artists as part of his business.
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From page 93... ...
Bearden, a master experimenter, had built a new instrument for studying X rays using their Bragg reflection characteristics. To detect the X rays, Bearden used an ionization chamber.
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From page 94... ...
O Hulburt offered Friedman a position in his own Optics Division at NRL as the head of a newly formed section dedicated to exploiting electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis.
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From page 95... ...
In 1945 Friedman received the Navy's Distinguished Civilian Service Award for his wartime development of a technique for cutting and tuning RF crystals for radios by using their Bragg reflection characteristics. Up until Friedman's development, crystals were examined visually in order to find the correct orientation for installation in radio circuits.
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From page 96... ...
Friedman's first rocket experiment in 1949 was designed to observe solar X-ray and ultraviolet radiation using Geiger counters. At that time fewer than half the launch attempts were successful, but with beginner's luck Friedman's rocket performed satisfactorily and he was able to obtain results up to an altitude of 150 km.
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From page 97... ...
The key to Friedman's rocket instrument was the small rugged gas detectors that he developed for his laboratory work, along with the associated electronics. The basic science involved in the rocket investigations, the production of X rays and their interaction with matter, were subjects he had been studying since his graduate student days.
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From page 98... ...
As a follow-up to his 1955 rocket flight, his group began a program of ultraviolet photometry of hot stars and obtained a startling observation of an apparent associated ultraviolet halo. Meanwhile part of the group that had worked with Friedman, including Albert Boggess and James Kupperian, left for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, where they pursued their own program of rocket astronomy, although neither the NRL nor the Goddard group were able to confirm the observation of the haloes.
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From page 99... ...
Friedman himself was offered a senior position at the Goddard Space Flight Center, but he declined. Another effect was that NASA provided support for a broad range of programs; indeed, one
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From page 100... ...
Friedman argued that "there can be little doubt that major advances in astrophysics can be achieved in the immediate future through the use of observatories in space, yet in spite of substantial funding by NASA for space science in the universities, the opportunities to enter directly into rocket and satellite astronomy programs are very limited." He further noted that the principal focus of NASA, satellite projects such as the Orbiting Solar Observatory and the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory, "are inappropriate for graduate students and in any case are too inflexible as testing grounds for unconventional and radically new ideas." He argued that because of its history of excellence in space science, by then into its second decade and the breadth of laboratory support services, the Naval Research Laboratory was uniquely situated for training scientists to participate in space research and technology. Friedman was aware of discussions that had been taking place at the President's Science Advisory Committee
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From page 101... ...
At this time the NSF was dealing with the issue of balance between supporting the large national centers such as the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, and support for individual investigators. After Waterman left NSF in 1963, funding for the E
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From page 102... ...
. A superb book." In 1973 Friedman wrote an article, "Undirected Research," for an internal NRL publication in which he noted that when he joined NRL in 1940, he "discovered a world of problems that had never penetrated my academic consciousness." In the article he went on to describe his work on converting quartz crystals into precise crystal oscillators, the detection of Soviet nuclear bomb explosions, and his other applied activities.
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From page 103... ...
As Frank Press said at a memorial ceremony at the American Philosophical Society, "When Herb spoke, everyone listened." Friedman also took increasing interest in helping scientists from countries with closed bordersa, especially from the former Soviet Union. He was a close friend of the Russian astrophysicist Joseph Shklovsky and arranged for translation into English of Shklovsky's autobiographical essays "Five Billion Vodka Bottles to the Moon." Friedman was a great friend of the geophysics community and played a major role in the formation of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program, a term that he coined.
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From page 104... ...
The net result has been an astonishing number of programs and even an act of Congress, the Global Change Research Act of 1990. Richard Goody has been called the grandfather of the IGBP, but Friedman is generally regarded as its principal architect.
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From page 105... ...
Among these were the President's Distinguished Federal Civilian award, the National Medal of Science, the Wolf Foundation Prize in Physics, the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, and the Bowie Medal of the American Geophysical Union. Friedman's principal scientific contributions, having to do with his observations of solar and cosmic X rays, were highlighted in the 2002 Nobel Prize in physics awarded to Riccardo Giacconi for his pioneering role in the development of X-ray astronomy.
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From page 106... ...
Solar X-ray emission and the height of D-layer during radio fadeout. In Report of the Physical Society Confer ence on the Physics of the Ionosphere, pp.
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From page 107... ...
X-ray pulsar in the Crab Nebula. Science 164:709-712.
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From page 108... ...
Blifford. Detecting the Soviet bomb: Joe-1 in a Rain Barrel.
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