Behram Kurşunoğlu (14 March 1922 – 25 October 2003) was a Turkish

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and the founder and the director of the Center for Theoretical Studies, University of Miami. He was best known for his works on

unified field theory In physics, a unified field theory (UFT) is a type of field theory that allows all that is usually thought of as fundamental forces and elementary particles to be written in terms of a pair of physical and virtual fields. According to the modern ...

, energy and global issues. He participated in the discovery of two different types of

neutrino A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is a fermion (an elementary particle with spin of ) that interacts only via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass ...

s in late 1950s. During his

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

career, he hosted several

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

laureates, including

Paul Dirac Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (; 8 August 1902 – 20 October 1984) was an English theoretical physicist who is regarded as one of the most significant physicists of the 20th century. He was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the Univer ...

Lars Onsager Lars Onsager (November 27, 1903 – October 5, 1976) was a Norwegian-born American physical chemist and theoretical physicist. He held the Gibbs Professorship of Theoretical Chemistry at Yale University. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in C ...

and

Robert Hofstadter Robert Hofstadter (February 5, 1915 – November 17, 1990) was an American physicist. He was the joint winner of the 1961 Nobel Prize in Physics (together with Rudolf Mössbauer) "for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nucle ...

. He wrote several books on diverse aspects of physics, the most notable of which is ''Modern Quantum Theory'' (1962).

Early life and education

Behram Kurşunoğlu was born in

Çaykara Çaykara ( Romeika: ''Kadahor'', ''Κατωχώρι'') is a town and district of Trabzon Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. As of 2014, the District Mayor of Çaykara is Hanefi Tok ( AKP). Çaykara village lies in a V-shaped valley along t ...

district of

Trabzon Trabzon (; Ancient Greek: Tραπεζοῦς (''Trapezous''), Ophitic Pontic Greek: Τραπεζούντα (''Trapezounta''); Georgian: ტრაპიზონი (''Trapizoni'')), historically known as Trebizond in English, is a city on the B ...

. While he was a third year student in the Department of Mathematics and Astronomy of İstanbul Yüksek Öğretmen Okulu, he was sent to

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

through a scholarship of the Turkish Ministry of Education, in 1945. After graduating from the

, he completed his doctorate degree in physics at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

. During the period of 1956–1958, he served as the dean of the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Technology at Middle East Technical University and a counselor to the office of

Turkish General Staff , image = , image_size = 160px , caption = Emblem of the General Staff , dates = 3 May 1920 – present , country = , allegiance ...

. He held teaching positions at several universities in the United States, and starting from 1958, professorship at the

Career

University of Miami

In 1965, he acted as one of the founders of the Center for Theoretical Studies of the

, of which he became the first director. During this period, he also worked in counseling positions for several research organizations and laboratories in Europe. With the invitation of

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across ...

, he worked as a visiting professor in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

during 1968. He continued his work at the Center for Theoretical Studies of the University of Miami until 1992, after which he became the director of the Global Foundation research organization. Kursunoglu died on October 25, 2003, due to

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

, shortly before that year's Coral Gables Conference, which was a festschrift for Paul Frampton combined with a memorial for Kursunoglu in a conference series he had been organizing since 1964. He had three children, İsmet, Sevil and Ayda, from his wife Sevda Arif.

Publications

*In ''

Physical Review Letters ''Physical Review Letters'' (''PRL''), established in 1958, is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal that is published 52 times per year by the American Physical Society. As also confirmed by various measurement standards, which include the ''Journa ...

:'' #1951 On Einstein's Unified Field Theory #1953 Derivation and Renormalization of the Tamm-Dancoff Equations #1953 Expectations from a Unified Field Theory #1953 Unified Field Theory and Born-Infeld Electrodynamics *In '' Physical Review:'' #1952 Gravitation and Electrodynamics #1954 Tamm-Dancoff Methods and Nuclear Forces #1956 Transformation of Relativistic Wave Equations #1957 Proton Bremsstrahlung #1963 Brownian Motion in a Magnetic Field #1964 New Symmetry Group for Elementary Particles. I. Generalization of Lorentz Group Via Electrodynamics #1967 Space-Time and Origin of Internal Symmetries #1968 Dynamical Theory of Hadrons and Leptons *In ''

Physical Review D Physical may refer to: *Physical examination In a physical examination, medical examination, or clinical examination, a medical practitioner examines a patient for any possible medical signs or symptoms of a medical condition. It generally co ...

:'' #1970 Theory of Relativistic Supermultiplets. I. Baryon SpectroscopyElectrodynamics #1970 Theory of Relativistic Supermultiplets. II. Periodicities in Hadron Spectroscopy #1974 Gravitation and magnetic charge #1975 Erratum: Gravitation and magnetic charge #1976 Consequences of nonlinearity in the generalized theory of gravitation #1976 Velocity of light in generalized theory of gravitation *In '' Journal of Mathematical Physics:'' #1961 Complex Orthogonal and Antiorthogonal Representation of Lorentz Group #1967 Unitary Representations of U(2, 2) and Massless Fields *In ''

Reviews of Modern Physics ''Reviews of Modern Physics'' (abbreviated RMP) is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Physical Society. It was established in 1929 and the current editor-in-chief is Michael Thoennessen. The journal publishes r ...

:'' #1957 Correspondence in the Generalized Theory of Gravitation

Awards

* Fellow of the American Physical Society (1965) *

TÜBİTAK The Scientific and Technological Research Institution of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştırma Kurumu, TÜBİTAK) is a national agency of Turkey whose stated goal is to develop "science, technology and innovation" (STI) policies ...

Science Award (1972) * Award of

Phi Kappa Phi The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (or simply Phi Kappa Phi or ) is an honor society established in 1897 to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to area of study, and to promote the "unity and democracy of education ...

honor society * Award of the

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...

scientific research society *

Sigma Pi Sigma Sigma Pi Sigma (), founded at Davidson College on December 11, 1921, is the oldest and only American honor society for physics and astronomy. It is an organization within the Society of Physics Students and the American Institute of Physics and ...

award * "Science is Guidance" Award of the Atatürk Society of America (2001)

References

External links

The Work of Behram Kursunoglu
talk presented at the 2003 Coral Gables conference by Philip D. Mannheim.

webpage for the 2003 Coral Gables conference. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kursunoglu, Behram People from Çaykara Turkish emigrants to the United States Turkish physicists 1922 births 2003 deaths Alumni of the University of Edinburgh University of Miami faculty Middle East Technical University faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society Theoretical physicists Recipients of TÜBİTAK Science Award Members of the Turkish Academy of Sciences American academics of Turkish descent People from Bayburt