Biographical Memoirs Volume 54 (1983) / Chapter Skim
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Leonard Isaac Schiff
Leonard Isaac Schiff
Pages 300-323
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From page 301... ...
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 onesiclecI, his special interest and talent in mathematics soon became evident; he later belongecl to a small group of volunteers who received additional instruction from their mathematics teacher after school hours.
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From page 302... ...
Leonard's investigation concerned the quantum 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 proceecIing systematically from there to the derivation of new results.
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From page 303... ...
It is significant 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 mathematics can be noticed here in that the potential is chosen to allow a rigorous analytical solution of the Schrodinger equation.
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From page 304... ...
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 Charlotte Serber, Date and Nelle Carson, Art Kipp, and Bill Steinhoff. He greatly enjoyocl the evenings of chamber music in the home of Martin Kamen where he sometimes joined the fine players with his clarinet.
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From page 305... ...
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 glassblowing required for the apparatus. Neither of them could anticipate that they were later to be colleagues at Stanford,
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From page 306... ...
Research in this group led Walter Meyerhof, his former student and a future colleague at Stanford, to the discovery of surface states and to a Ph.D. thesis on the subject.
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From page 307... ...
At Stanford the principal 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 acceleration 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.
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From page 308... ...
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 Accelerator Center as a national laboratory; both events were accompanied by the transfer of some members of the department who became the core of a greatly enlarged staff.
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From page 309... ...
In a talk entitled "The Education of a Scientist," he warned against premature specialization and concentration on techniques—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 greatest 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 personal feelings.
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From page 310... ...
His attention to the subject received a fresh stimulus through the development of the linear electron accelerator at Stanford. 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 scattering as a probe of nuclear and nucleon structure.
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From page 311... ...
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 confirmed basis of general relativity, he showed that it imposed powerful constraints on the coupling of gravitation to systems of interacting particles.
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From page 312... ...
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.
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From page 313... ...
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.
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From page 314... ...
USA, 25:391. (The asterisk denotes publications that do not report original research.)
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From page 315... ...
Rev., 59:751. On the phase transition in liquid helium.
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From page 316... ...
Spontaneous decay rate of heavy mesons.
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From page 317... ...
Rev., 86:856. Radiative correction to the angular distribution of nuclear recoils from electron scattering.
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From page 318... ...
New York: McGraw-Hill. Nuclear multipole transitions in inelastic electron scattering.
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From page 319... ...
Seara Nova, 36:205. 1958 Quantum Mechanics Japanese translation)
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From page 320... ...
Rev., 130:458-64. nves~ganon ot time reversal invariance through measurement of a nuclear electric dipole moment.
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From page 321... ...
Electromagnetic form factors of H3 and He3. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on High Energy Physics, August 1964 (Dubna, USSR, 1964)
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From page 322... ...
In: Cargese Lectures in Theoretical Physics, High Energy Electromagnetic Interactions and Field Theory, pp.1-39. New York: Gordon & Breach.
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From page 323... ...
In: Great Men of Physics: The Humanistic Element in Scientific Work, University of California Letters and Science Extension Series, pp.
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