Frederick Sumner Brackett (August 1, 1896 – January 28, 1988), was 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 caus ...

and

spectroscopist 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 wav ...

. Born in Claremont,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, to

Frank Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Curr ...

and Lucretia Brackett, he graduated from

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became ...

and worked as an observer at

Mount Wilson Observatory The Mount Wilson Observatory (MWO) is an astronomical observatory in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The MWO is located on Mount Wilson, a peak in the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena, northeast of Los Angeles. The observat ...

until 1920. He observed the infra-red radiation of the Sun. Brackett received a doctorate in physics from the

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

in 1922. Applying a hydrogen filled

discharge tube A gas-filled tube, also commonly known as a discharge tube or formerly as a Plücker tube, is an arrangement of electrodes in a gas within an insulating, temperature-resistant envelope. Gas-filled tubes exploit phenomena related to electric d ...

, he discovered the

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...

Brackett series The emission spectrum of atomic hydrogen has been divided into a number of spectral series, with wavelengths given by the Rydberg formula. These observed spectral lines are due to the electron making transitions between two energy levels in an ...

, where an

electron The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no kn ...

jumps up from or drops down to the fourth fundamental level, in 1922. He then taught physics at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. He moved to the Washington area and joined the Department of Agriculture's Fixed Nitrogen Lab in 1927. He transferred to the

National Institute of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late 1 ...

(NIH) in 1936 as director of biophysics research. At NIH, he was a scientist in the

Division of Industrial Hygiene The Division of Industrial Hygiene was a division of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) with responsibility for occupational safety and health programs. It existed from 1914 until 1971, when it became the National Institute for Occupational Saf ...

, where he developed spectrometers to detect toxic substances in body fluids, including one containing two of the largest natural quartz prisms in the world. During World War II, he directed a research optics program at the Army. He was promoted to the rank of

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

and received the

Legion of Merit The Legion of Merit (LOM) is a military award of the United States Armed Forces that is given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements. The decoration is issued to members of the eight ...

for his work. Brackett returned to the NIH as chief of the

photobiology Photobiology is the scientific study of the beneficial and harmful interactions of light (technically, non-ionizing radiation) in living organisms. The field includes the study of photophysics, photochemistry, photosynthesis, photomorphogenesis, vis ...

section. He retired in 1961. The

lunar crater Lunar craters are impact craters on Earth's Moon. The Moon's surface has many craters, all of which were formed by impacts. The International Astronomical Union currently recognizes 9,137 craters, of which 1,675 have been dated. History The wor ...

Brackett was named after him in 1974. At the time, he was the only living person to have a Moon crater named for him.

References

General references

* Frederick Sumner Brackett, ''An Examination of the Infra-Red Spectrum of the Sun, lambda 8900 - lambda 9900'', Astrophysical Journal, vol. 53, (1921) p. 121; * Frederick Sumner Brackett, ''Visible and Infra-Red Radiation of Hydrogen''; Ph.D. dissertation, Johns Hopkins University, 1922 * Frederick Sumner Brackett, ''Visible and Infra-Red Radiation of Hydrogen''; Astrophysical Journal, vol. 56, (1922) p. 154; * Frederick Sumner Brackett, ''Graphic correlation of radiation and biological data'', City of Washington, The Smithsonian Institution, 1932, 1 p. l., 7 p. diagrs. 24½ cm * F. S. Brackett and Earl S. Johnston, ''The functions of radiation in the physiology of plants'', City of Washington, Smithsonian Institution, 1932, 2 v. illus., plates, diagrs. 25 cm. * ''The present state of physics''; a symposium presented on December 30, 1949, at the New York meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Arranged by Frederick S. Brackett. Freeport, N.Y., Books for Libraries Press 970, c1954vi, 265 p. illus. 24 cm. * Dr. John Andraos
''Named Concepts in Chemistry (A-K)''

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

, 2001 {{DEFAULTSORT:Brackett, Frederick Sumner 1896 births 1988 deaths 20th-century American physicists Pomona College alumni Recipients of the Legion of Merit Spectroscopists Fellows of the American Physical Society