Eugene Hecht
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Eugene Hecht (born 2 December 1938 in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
) is an American
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 author of a standard work in
optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultrav ...
. Hecht studied at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...
(B.S. in E.P. 1960),
Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...
(M. Sc. 1963),
Adelphi University Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York. Adelphi also has centers in Manhattan, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County. There is also a virtual, online campus for remote students. It is the oldest institution of higher edu ...
(Ph.D. 1967). During his graduate study he worked at Radio Corporation of America. He became interested in optics in the 1960s and began writing about it in 1970, e.g., polarization.
Adelphi University Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York. Adelphi also has centers in Manhattan, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County. There is also a virtual, online campus for remote students. It is the oldest institution of higher edu ...
hired Hecht to teach and he became
professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...
in 1978 and he retired in 2021. Hecht challenged the notion of
potential energy In physics, potential energy is the energy held by an object because of its position relative to other objects, stresses within itself, its electric charge, or other factors. Common types of potential energy include the gravitational potenti ...
in 2003. The elusive nature of a universal definition of
energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of ...
was argued by Hecht in a letter to the editor of ''
The Physics Teacher ''The Physics Teacher'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by AIP Publishing on behalf of the American Association of Physics Teachers covering the history and philosophy of physics, applied physics, physics education (curriculum dev ...
'' in 2004. Then in 2006 he wrote "There is no really good definition of mass". He continued with the topic in 2011 and 2016. Eugene Hecht is also widely published authority on George E. Ohr and American art pottery as well as a founding member of the American Ceramic Arts Society.


Books

His first textbook on optics was co-authored with Alfred Zajac, a colleague at Adelphi, in 1974 For the second edition of ''Optics'' in 1987 Hecht was the sole author. * * * * * In 1975 Hecht wrote the text ''Theory and Problems of Optics'' for
Schaum's Outlines Schaum's Outlines () is a series of supplementary texts for American high school, AP, and college-level courses, currently published by McGraw-Hill Education Professional, a subsidiary of McGraw-Hill Education. The outlines cover a wide variety of ...
. Brooks/Cole published ''Physics:Calculus'' in 1996 in which reviewers "found something intriguing on every page". Hecht contributed to a celebrationof potter George Ohr after his workshop was consumed in fire.


References


Eugene Hecht
at
ResearchGate ResearchGate is a European commercial social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. According to a 2014 study by ''Nature'' and a 2016 article in ''Times Higher Education'' ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hecht, Eugene 1938 births Adelphi University faculty Optical physicists Living people New York University alumni Rutgers University alumni