Malvin Avram Ruderman (born March 25, 1927) is an American physicist and astrophysicist.

Education

Mal Ruderman received his A.B. degree from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1945. His MS degree (1947) and PhD (1951) are from the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

under the supervision of Robert Jay Finkelstein.American Institute of Physics, Physics History Network
"Malvin A. Ruderman"
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Career

In 1951–53, Ruderman worked at Berkeley's

Radiation Laboratory The Radiation Laboratory, commonly called the Rad Lab, was a microwave and radar research laboratory located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was first created in October 1940 and operated until 31 ...

. He became an assistant professor at UC Berkeley in 1953, rising by 1964 to the rank of full professor. He moved to

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

in 1964, and to Columbia University in 1969, becoming Centennial Professor in 1980. Ruderman served as chair of the Department of Physics at Columbia in 1973–75. With

Charles Kittel Charles Kittel (July 18, 1916 – May 15, 2019) was an American physicist. He was a professor at University of California, Berkeley from 1951 and was professor emeritus from 1978 until his death. Life and work Charles Kittel was born in New Yo ...

in 1954, Ruderman discovered the RKKY interaction for nuclear magnetic moments in certain metals (independently developed by Kasuya and Yosida, hence its name). His later research interests in astrophysics include collapsed objects in astrophysics, neutron stars, and gamma ray emission. In the early 1960s, Ruderman was a member of the committee that conceived the

Berkeley Physics Course The Berkeley Physics Course is a series of college-level physics textbooks written mostly (but not exclusively) by UC Berkeley professors. Description The series consists of the following five volumes, each of which was originally used in a one-s ...

. He developed the first draft of the first volume, ''Mechanics'', for use at Berkeley in 1963. With Charles Kittel and Walter D. Knight, he was co-author of the final published volume. In 1969, Ruderman and (independently)

Gordon Baym Gordon Alan Baym (born July 1, 1935) is an American theoretical physicist. Biography Born in New York City, he graduated from the Brooklyn Technical High School, and received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University in 1956. He earned hi ...

Christopher Pethick Christopher John Pethick (born 22 February 1942 in Horsham, UK) is a British theoretical physicist, specializing in many-body theory, ultra-cold atomic gases, and the physics of neutron stars and stellar collapse. Education and career Pethick st ...

, and

David Pines David Pines (June 8, 1924 May 3, 2018) was the founding director of the Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter (ICAM) and the International Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter (I2CAM) (respectively, United States-wide and international instit ...

, were the first to propose that discontinuous slowings observed in

neutron star A neutron star is the collapsed core of a massive supergiant star, which had a total mass of between 10 and 25 solar masses, possibly more if the star was especially metal-rich. Except for black holes and some hypothetical objects (e.g. w ...

s, so called starquakes, were due to the cracking of the star's solid crust, under increasing stress due to the gradual slowdown of the pulsar.

Honors

Ruderman was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1956. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1972, 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 1974, and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1996. He is a recipient of the Pregel Medal of the

New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (originally the Lyceum of Natural History) was founded in January 1817 as the Lyceum of Natural History. It is the fourth oldest scientific society in the United States. An independent, nonprofit organization wi ...

References

External links

Oral history interview transcript with John Cornwall and Malvin Ruderman in June 2004, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American astrophysicists 1927 births Columbia College (New York) alumni California Institute of Technology alumni University of California, Berkeley faculty New York University faculty Columbia University faculty Scientists from New York City Possibly living people Members of JASON (advisory group) Fellows of the American Physical Society {{Physicist-stub Members of the American Philosophical Society