Herman Feshbach (February 2, 1917, in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
– 22 December 2000, in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...
) 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 cau ...
. He was an Institute Professor Emeritus of physics at
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
. Feshbach is best known for
Feshbach resonance
In physics, a Feshbach resonance can occur upon collision of two slow atoms, when they temporarily stick together forming an unstable compound with short lifetime (so-called resonance). It is a feature of many-body systems in which a bound state i ...
and for writing, with
Philip M. Morse, ''Methods of Theoretical Physics''.
Background
Feshbach was born in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
and graduated from the
City College of New York in 1937. He was a member of the same family as Dr.
Murray Feshbach, the
Sovietologist and retired Georgetown University professor. He then went on to receive his Ph.D. in
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
from
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
in 1942. Feshbach attended the
Shelter Island Conference of 1947.
Career
Feshbach was invited to stay at MIT after he received his doctorate. He remained on the physics faculty for over fifty years. From 1967 to 1973, he was the director of MIT's
Center for Theoretical Physics, and from 1973 to 1983, he was chairman of the physics department. In 1983, Feshbach was named as an Institute Professor, the highest faculty honor at MIT.
Activism
Feshbach was active in the
nuclear disarmament
Nuclear may refer to:
Physics
Relating to the nucleus of the atom:
*Nuclear engineering
*Nuclear physics
*Nuclear power
*Nuclear reactor
*Nuclear weapon
*Nuclear medicine
*Radiation therapy
*Nuclear warfare
Mathematics
* Nuclear space
* Nuclea ...
movement and was a founder and first chairman of the
Union of Concerned Scientists. In 1969, he participated in a protest against military research at MIT.
He became concerned about the condition of scientists behind the
Iron Curtain, and worked to establish contacts between Western scientists and their
Eastern Bloc counterparts. Prof. Feshbach also championed the cause of
Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for n ...
and other Soviet
refuseniks. He first met Sakharov in the mid-1970s; Feshbach wrote about meeting Sakharov after his release from internal exile, in an article that appeared in ''
Physics Today''.
Feshbach was a strong believer in equality of opportunity, especially within the scientific community. He worked to increase the number of women and minority members in both the physics department and at MIT in general. In the early 1990s, he was chairman of the MIT faculty's Equal Opportunity Committee, which made recommendations for recruiting and hiring more women and minority faculty members.
Death
Feshbach died of heart failure at Youville Hospital in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
. He was 83.
Awards and honors
Feshbach joined the
National Academy of Sciences in 1969 and was president of the
American Physical Society from 1980 to 1981. From 1982 to 1986, he was president of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
.
In 1986, Feshbach was awarded the
National Medal of Science
The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social scienc ...
.
In 1984, the physics department honored Feshbach for his decades of service by starting the annual Herman Feshbach Lectures. The physics department also has an endowed Herman Feshbach chair, established in 1999 to support theoretical physicists. It is currently held by
Frank Wilczek
Frank Anthony Wilczek (; born May 15, 1951) is an American theoretical physicist, mathematician and Nobel laureate. He is currently the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Founding Direct ...
.
The American Physical Society awards the
Herman Feshbach Prize in Theoretical Nuclear Physics
The Herman Feshbach Prize in Theoretical Nuclear Physics is a prize awarded annually by the American Physical Society to recognize and encourage outstanding achievements in theoretical nuclear physics. The $10,000 prize is in honor of Herman Feshb ...
; it is awarded annually and was inaugurated in 2014.
Books
*
*
See also
*
MIT Physics Department
The MIT Department of Physics has over 120 faculty members, is often cited as the largest physics department in the United States, and hosts top-ranked programs. It offers the SB, SM, PhD, and ScD degrees. Fourteen alumni of the department an ...
*
Feshbach resonance
In physics, a Feshbach resonance can occur upon collision of two slow atoms, when they temporarily stick together forming an unstable compound with short lifetime (so-called resonance). It is a feature of many-body systems in which a bound state i ...
*
Feshbach–Fano partitioning
In quantum mechanics, and in particular in scattering theory, the Feshbach–Fano method, named after Herman Feshbach and Ugo Fano, separates (partitions) the resonant and the background components of the wave function and therefore of the associat ...
References
External links
Obituary of Herman Feshbach from the MIT News OfficeFeshbach PublishingNational Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
{{DEFAULTSORT:Feshbach
1917 births
2000 deaths
20th-century American physicists
American nuclear physicists
City College of New York alumni
MIT Department of Physics alumni
National Medal of Science laureates
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
MIT Center for Theoretical Physics faculty
Fellows of the American Physical Society
Presidents of the American Physical Society