John Torrence Tate Sr. (July 28, 1889 – May 27, 1950) was an American physicist noted for his editorship of ''

Physical Review ''Physical Review'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal established in 1893 by Edward Nichols. It publishes original research as well as scientific and literature reviews on all aspects of physics. It is published by the American Physical S ...

'' between 1926 and 1950. He is the father of mathematician

John Torrence Tate Jr. John Torrence Tate Jr. (March 13, 1925 – October 16, 2019) was an American mathematician, distinguished for many fundamental contributions in algebraic number theory, arithmetic geometry and related areas in algebraic geometry. He was awar ...

Biography

Tate was born on 28 July 1889 in Lenox, Iowa. He attended the

University of Nebraska 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 ...

, studying electrical engineering, earning a BS in 1910. He continued at the University of Nebraska, shifting his focus to physics and earning an MA in 1912. Like many American students interested in pursuing advanced degrees in physics, he departed for Germany to further his studies, earning a PhD under

James Franck James Franck (; 26 August 1882 – 21 May 1964) was a German physicist who won the 1925 Nobel Prize for Physics with Gustav Hertz "for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom". He completed his doctorate in ...

in 1914, with a dissertation on "The Heat of Vaporization of Metals." He returned to the University of Nebraska as a faculty member, where he stayed until 1916, when he was offered a post at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. With the exception of brief sabbaticals to conduct war-related work, Tate remained at Minnesota for the following 34 years. Tate Laboratory of Physics at the University of Minnesota is named in his honor.

Editor of ''Physical Review''

While a professor at the University of Minnesota, Tate presided over the growth of the ''Physical Review'' into a high impact journal. Physicist

John H. Van Vleck John Hasbrouck Van Vleck (March 13, 1899 – October 27, 1980) was an American physicist and mathematician. He was co-awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1977, for his contributions to the understanding of the behavior of electronic magnetism ...

, who was a colleague of Tate's at Minnesota from 1923 to 1928, recalled that in the early 20th century "''The Physical Review'' was only so-so, especially in theory, and in 1922 I was greatly pleased that my doctor's thesis was accepted for publication by the '' Philosophical Magazine'' in England . . . By 1930 or so, the relative standings of ''The Physical Review'' and Philosophical Magazine were interchanged."

Alfred Nier Alfred Otto Carl Nier (May 28, 1911 – May 16, 1994) was an American physicist who pioneered the development of mass spectrometry. He was the first to use mass spectrometry to isolate uranium-235 which was used to demonstrate that 235U could under ...

and John Van Vleck credited the rapid growth of the journal's size and influence in the 1920s to Tate's sensitivity to the importance of the emerging

quantum revolution In physics, a quantum (plural quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity (physical property) involved in an interaction. The fundamental notion that a physical property can be "quantized" is referred to as "the hypothesis of quantizati ...

, and in particular the rapidity with which he published papers relating to quantum phenomena.

Reviewing Einstein and Rosen

On the 1st of June 1936 Tate, as the editor of the ''Physical Review'', received a submission from

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

and

Nathan Rosen Nathan Rosen (Hebrew: נתן רוזן; March 22, 1909 – December 18, 1995) was an American-Israeli physicist noted for his study on the structure of the hydrogen atom and his work with Albert Einstein and Boris Podolsky on entangled wave functio ...

. Tate sent the submission to

H.P. Robertson Howard Percy "Bob" Robertson (January 27, 1903 – August 26, 1961) was an American mathematician and physicist known for contributions related to physical cosmology and the uncertainty principle. He was Professor of Mathematical Physics at the ...

, who made an anonymous critical peer review (correctly) questioning the basic conclusion of the paper. On the 23rd of July, Tate returned the submission with the anonymous review. On the 27th of July, Einstein replied:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tate, John Torrence Sr. 20th-century American physicists 1889 births 1950 deaths People from Lenox, Iowa Medal for Merit recipients Mass spectrometrists University of Nebraska alumni University of Minnesota faculty Presidents of the American Physical Society