James Stark Koehler (10 November 1914 in

Oshkosh, Wisconsin Oshkosh is a city in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, of which it is the county seat. The city had a population of 66,816 in 2020, making it the ninth-largest city in Wisconsin. It is also adjacent to the Town of Oshkosh. History Oshkosh was ...

– 19 June 2006 in

Urbana, Illinois Urbana ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, Urbana had a population of 38,336. As of the 2010 United States Census, Urbana is the List of municipalities in Illinois, 38th-most pop ...

) was an American physicist, specializing in metal defects and their interactions. He is known for the eponymous Peach-Koehler stress formula.

Career

Koehler received in 1935 his bachelor's degree from Oshkosh State Teachers College (now called the

University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

). In 1940 he received from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

his PhD under

David M. Dennison David Mathias Dennison (April 26, 1900 in Oberlin, Ohio – April 3, 1976) was an American physicist who made contributions to quantum mechanics, spectroscopy, and the physics of molecular structure. Education In 1917, Dennison entered Sw ...

with thesis ''Hindered rotation in methyl-alcohol''. After a postdoc fellowship in 1940–1941, supervised by

Frederick Seitz Frederick Seitz (July 4, 1911 – March 2, 2008) was an American physicist and a pioneer of solid state physics and lobbyist. Seitz was the 4th president of Rockefeller University from 1968–1978, and the 17th president of the United States Nat ...

, at the University of Pennsylvania and then another fellowship for about six months in 1941–1942 at the

Westinghouse Electric Company Westinghouse Electric Company LLC is an American nuclear power company formed in 1999 from the nuclear power division of the original Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It offers nuclear products and services to utilities internationally, includi ...

in Pittsburgh, he became a physics instructor at Carnegie Tech in early 1942. Koehler supervised 7 doctoral dissertations at Carnegie Tech (now called Carnegie Mellon University) and 38 doctoral dissertations at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he was a faculty member from 1949 until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1981. He was elected in 1949 a Fellow of the American Physical Society. For the academic year 1956–1957 he was a Guggenheim Fellow at the

Cavendish Laboratory The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is named ...

. Koehler is also known for the Cooper-Koehler-Marx experiment, the Magnuson-Palmer-Koehler experiment, and the Bauerle-Koehler experiment.

Students

Several of Koehler's doctoral students were elected Fellows of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

References

External links

Oral history interview with James Koehler on 6 March 1981, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koehler, James Stark 1914 births 2006 deaths University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh alumni University of Michigan alumni Carnegie Mellon University faculty University of Illinois faculty People from Oshkosh, Wisconsin Fellows of the American Physical Society Manhattan Project people