Andrzej Sołtan (25 October 1897 – 10 December 1959) was a Polish

nuclear physicist Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...

. He also worked on

spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets electromagnetic spectra. In narrower contexts, spectroscopy is the precise study of color as generalized from visible light to all bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Spectro ...

in the

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary * Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, ...

between far

ultraviolet Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of ...

and

X-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

s. During his visit to

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...

in 1932–33, together with H. Richard Crane and

Charles Christian Lauritsen Charles Christian Lauritsen (April 4, 1892 – April 13, 1968) was a Danish-American physicist. Early life and career Lauritsen was born in Holstebro, Denmark and studied architecture at the Odense Tekniske Skole, graduating in 1911. In ...

, he discovered a method for producing

neutron The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , that has no electric charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. The Discovery of the neutron, neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932, leading to the discovery of nucle ...

beams, by bombarding

lithium Lithium (from , , ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard temperature and pressure, standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the ...

beryllium Beryllium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Be and atomic number 4. It is a steel-gray, hard, strong, lightweight and brittle alkaline earth metal. It is a divalent element that occurs naturally only in combination with ...

nuclei with accelerated

deuteron Deuterium (hydrogen-2, symbol H or D, also known as heavy hydrogen) is one of two Stable isotope ratio, stable isotopes of hydrogen; the other is protium, or hydrogen-1, H. The deuterium atomic nucleus, nucleus (deuteron) contains one proton and ...

s. He was appointed professor at

Warsaw University The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well as 100 specializat ...

in 1947, a member of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...

in 1952, and in 1955 he became the first director of the in Świerk,

Otwock County __NOTOC__ Otwock County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Masovian Voivodeship, east-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. ...

near Warsaw, now known as the National Centre for Nuclear Research. He served as president of the

Polish Physical Society The Polish Physical Society (, PTF) is a professional scientific society of Polish physicists. History The Polish Physical Society was established during an organizational meeting on 11 April 1920 in Warsaw. Władysław Natanson was appointed the ...

between 1952 and 1955. He is buried (with his wife Marta, also a physicist) in the "Avenue of the Meritorious" of Warsaw's

Powązki Cemetery Powązki Cemetery (; ), also known as Stare Powązki (), is a historic necropolis located in Wola district, in the western part of Warsaw, Poland. It is the most famous cemetery in the city and one of the oldest, having been established in 179 ...

. The institute where he worked was renamed the Soltan Institute of Nuclear Studies in 1982.

References

1897 births 1959 deaths 20th-century Polish physicists Polish nuclear physicists Members of the Polish Academy of Sciences Burials at Powązki Cemetery

Andrzej Andrzej is the Polish form of the given name Andrew. Notable individuals with the given name Andrzej * Andrzej Bartkowiak (born 1950), Polish film director and cinematographer * Andrzej Bobola, S.J. (1591–1657), Polish saint, missionary and ...

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