Skip to main content

Biographical Memoirs Volume 66 (1995) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:

Joseph Oakland Hirschfelder
Pages 190-205

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 191...
... He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences at the relatively early age of forty-two and he was chosen to be a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at age forty-eight. At age sixty-five he received the National Medal of Science from President Gerald Ford "for his fundamental contributions to atomic and molecular quantum mechanics, the theory of the rates of chemical reactions, and the structure and properties of gases and liquicls." Despite his exalted standing in the field of chemical physics, he was a very approachable and gregarious individual.
From page 192...
... And when I was 15, I helped Dad determine the distribution of colloidal particles in a Zsigmundy ultramicroscope—my contr~bution was to suggest a correction factor for the convection currents produced by passing street cars. Joe was an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota from 1927 to 1929 and at Yale from 1929 to 1931.
From page 193...
... Then 28 years later, when I had to give a paper at a symposium in honor of Jack Kirkwood, I studied these doodles and found that I had discovered a generalization of the virial theorem! In 1937 he went to the University of Wisconsin as a Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation research associate; in 1940 he became an instructor in chemistry and physics, and in 1941 he was named an assistant professor in the Chemistry Department.
From page 194...
... In 1944-45 he was a group leader at the Los Alamos scientific laboratory. In 1945-46 he was head of theoretical physics at the Naval Ordinance Test Station at Inyokern, California, and in 1946 he served as the chief phenomenologist at the Bikini atomic bomb tests.
From page 195...
... By 1950 he had between eight and ten students doing theoretical work, a somewhat smaller number doing experimental work, and five or six "computresses" (a group of young women with mathematics degrees, whom he had trained to be extremely responsible and accurate in making numerical computations using electromechanical desk calculators, tables of tabulated functions, graph paper, and French curves)
From page 196...
... , one of the earliest publications dealing with what is now called singular perturbation theory. The UW Naval Research Laboratory was an exciting place to be a graduate student because of the tremendous stimulation provided by a very active professor, many other excellent students to interact with, and a constant stream of visitors; it was a wonderful experience to have the chance to meet such illustrious figures as lack Linnett (from Oxford)
From page 197...
... . ." or "Tohnnv von Neumann suggested that ,, · · — J J - <:7 c7 Joe was not regarded as a polished classroom lecturer and he clid not always prepare his lectures carefully; however, what he lacked in preparation and organization was more than made up for by his buoyant and boyish enthusiasm and his clear perspective of the direction of movement of the field as a whole.
From page 198...
... From 1963 to about 1970 TCT grew rapidly, with a large number of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scientists coming to Madison. In many ways the sheer magnitude of the effort firmly established theoretical chemistry as an essential component in all major chemistry departments.
From page 199...
... Intrigued by how the radiation could destroy the tumor without damaging his spinal cord, he asked the medical physicists about the equations used to focus the radiation. The equations reminded him of those used in weather satellite tracking, and consequently Joe put the medical physicists in touch with a former postdoctoral associate, Robert Pyzalski, then working in meteorology.
From page 200...
... He received the Debye Award of the American Chemical Society in 1966, the Edgerton Gold Medal of the Combustion Institute in 1966, the National Medal of Science in 1976, and the Silver Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1981. He also received honorary degrees from Marquette University (1978)
From page 201...
... on a hydrodynamic separation technique for optical isomers; this was prompted by his observation of the behavior of sea shells when he was hiking on the beach at Sanibe] Islancl, Florida, during a quantum chemistry conference.6 He wall long be thought of as one of the founding fathers of the field of theoretical chemistry.
From page 202...
... Some new directions in molecular quantum mechanics.
From page 203...
... Some quantum mechanical considerations in the theory of reactions involving an activation energy.
From page 204...
... Hypervirial theorems applied to molecular quantum mechanics..J.
From page 205...
... Dion. New partitioning perturbation theory.


This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More information on Chapter Skim is available.