Boris P. Stoicheff, ,
(June 1, 1924
– April 15, 2010
) was a
Macedonian Canadian physicist.
Stoicheff was born in
Bitola
Bitola (; mk, Битола ) is a city in the southwestern part of North Macedonia. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba, Nidže, and Kajmakčalan mountain ranges, north of the Medžitlija-Níki ...
, in the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia (present-day
North Macedonia). His family emigrated to
Canada 1931, and he grew up in
Toronto. He earned a degree in Engineering Physics from the
University of Toronto in 1947, and a PhD from the same institution in 1950.
He stayed for another year at Toronto on a fellowship, then went to the
National Research Council (Canada)
The National Research Council Canada (NRC; french: Conseil national de recherches Canada) is the primary national agency of the Government of Canada dedicated to science and technology research and development, research & development. It is the ...
in
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
to work as a
postdoctoral researcher in the
spectroscopy
Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation. Matter wa ...
laboratory headed by
Gerhard Herzberg, where he worked on
Raman scattering.
In 1953 he was promoted at the
National Research Council (Canada)
The National Research Council Canada (NRC; french: Conseil national de recherches Canada) is the primary national agency of the Government of Canada dedicated to science and technology research and development, research & development. It is the ...
to a permanent research position.
Stoicheff became well known for his
Raman spectroscopy
Raman spectroscopy () (named after Indian physicist C. V. Raman) is a spectroscopic technique typically used to determine vibrational modes of molecules, although rotational and other low-frequency modes of systems may also be observed. Raman sp ...
through the 1950s, publishing a number of previously unavailable high-resolution molecular spectra. In 1954, he married his wife Joan, and they had a son,
Peter Stoicheff
Richard Peter Stoicheff (born 1956) is a Canadian academic. He is the 11th and current president of the University of Saskatchewan, succeeding the interim president, Gordon Barnhart.
Born in Ottawa, Ontario, the son of the physicist Boris P. St ...
, in 1956 (who would go on to become the President of the
University of Saskatchewan). In the late 1950s, he became interested in
Brillouin scattering, and attempted to build a
laser, though
Theodore Maiman succeeded in doing so first. Stoicheff nonetheless soon built the first laser in Canada, and researched using it for spectroscopy. He spent a sabbatical year in 1963 at
MIT, working with
Charles Townes
Charles Hard Townes (July 28, 1915 – January 27, 2015) was an American physicist. Townes worked on the theory and application of the maser, for which he obtained the fundamental patent, and other work in quantum electronics associated wi ...
and some of Townes's graduate students on the same subject, and in 1964 took a professorship at the University of Toronto.
In the late 1970s he changed focus from Brillouin spectroscopy to
Rydberg spectroscopy
Rydberg ionization spectroscopy is a spectroscopy technique in which multiple photons are absorbed by an atom causing the removal of an electron to form an ion.
Resonance ionization spectroscopy
The ionization threshold energy of atoms and small ...
. He retired in 1989, though continued to perform research. By 2000, he was working on the origin of
diffuse interstellar bands.
Honors and awards
He was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society in 1975. He served as president of the
Optical Society of America in 1976 and was awarded their
William F. Meggers Award in 1981 and their
Frederic Ives Medal in 1983. He also received the
Henry Marshall Tory Medal, in 1989.
Tributes
Since 2011, the Optical Society of America and the
Canadian Association of Physicists sponsors a scholarship in his name that is awarded annually to an undergraduate or graduate student who has demonstrated both research excellence and significant service in either professional organizations.
See also
*
Inverse Raman effect
Raman scattering or the Raman effect () is the inelastic scattering of photons by matter, meaning that there is both an exchange of energy and a change in the light's direction. Typically this effect involves vibrational energy being gained by a ...
*
Stimulated Brillouin scattering
*
Singlet fission
*
Supercontinuum
References
External links
Articles Published by early OSA PresidentsJournal of the Optical Society of America
Fascination with light led scientist to build and operate Canada's first laserToronto Globe and Mail, 17 May 2010
Obituaryfrom
Canadian Association of Physicists
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stoicheff, Boris P.
1924 births
2010 deaths
Yugoslav emigrants to Canada
University of Toronto alumni
Presidents of Optica (society)
Canadian physicists
Macedonian physicists
University of Toronto faculty
Canadian people of Macedonian descent
Fellows of the Royal Society
Fellows of the American Physical Society
Optical physicists
Presidents of the Canadian Association of Physicists