Herch Moysés Nussenzveig (16 January 1933 – 5 November 2022) was a Brazilian physicist, professor at
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and member of the
Brazilian Academy of Sciences
Brazilian commonly refers to:
* Brazil, a country
* Brazilians, its people
* Brazilian Portuguese, its dialect
Brazilian may also refer to:
* "The Brazilian", a 1986 instrumental music piece by Genesis
* Brazilian Café, Baghdad, Iraq (1937)
* Bra ...
. He authored several textbooks, notably the collection ''Curso de Física Básica'' (''Course of Basic Physics''), winner of the
Prêmio Jabuti in 1999 on the category ''Ciências Exatas, Tecnologia e Informática'' (Exact Sciences, Technology and Informatics).
He was president of the
Brazilian Physical Society from 1981 to 1983.
Nussenzveig was born in
São Paulo
São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
on 16 January 1933. He was a PhD student of
Guido Beck. He was known, among other things, for explaining effects such as the
glory, an optical phenomenon.
In 1986, he was the recipient of the
Max Born Award. The prize citation reads: "For distinguished and valuable contributions to the theory of
Mie scattering
In electromagnetism, the Mie solution to Maxwell's equations (also known as the Lorenz–Mie solution, the Lorenz–Mie–Debye solution or Mie scattering) describes the scattering of an electromagnetic plane wave by a homogeneous sphere. The sol ...
and to the theories of the
rainbow
A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...
and the glory."
His two brothers, wife, and three children are all scientists or physicians; one of his children is the mathematician
Helena J. Nussenzveig Lopes. Nussenzveig died on 5 November 2022, at the age of 89.
References
External links
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1933 births
2022 deaths
Brazilian Jews
Brazilian people of Polish-Jewish descent
Brazilian physicists
Academic staff of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Academic staff of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
University of Rochester faculty
Recipients of the Great Cross of the National Order of Scientific Merit (Brazil)
Members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences
Presidents of the Brazilian Physical Society
Textbook writers
Optical physicists
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