Nicholas Constantine Christofilos ( el, Νικόλαος Χριστοφίλου; December 16, 1916 – September 24, 1972) was a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
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 caus ...
. The
Christofilos effect, a type of
electromagnetic shielding
In electrical engineering, electromagnetic shielding is the practice of reducing or blocking the electromagnetic field (EMF) in a space with barriers made of conductive or magnetic materials. It is typically applied to enclosures, for isolating ...
, is named after him.
Career
Christofilos was born in
Boston, Massachusetts and raised in
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
. He attended the
National Technical University of Athens
The National (Metsovian) Technical University of Athens (NTUA; el, Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο, ''National Metsovian Polytechnic''), sometimes known as Athens Polytechnic, is among the oldest higher education institution ...
at age 18, and graduated with a degree in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering in 1938. He remained in Greece during World War II, working for an
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
elevator
An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...
maintenance company during the Nazi occupation. He later founded his own elevator company. During all of this, he maintained an amateur interest in
accelerator physics
Accelerator physics is a branch of applied physics, concerned with designing, building and operating particle accelerators. As such, it can be described as the study of motion, manipulation and observation of relativistic charged particle beams ...
and high-energy
particle physics
Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) an ...
, and studied German and American texts on the subjects extensively.
In 1946 he independently developed ideas for a
synchrotron
A synchrotron is a particular type of cyclic particle accelerator, descended from the cyclotron, in which the accelerating particle beam travels around a fixed closed-loop path. The magnetic field which bends the particle beam into its closed p ...
and in 1949 he conceived the
strong-focusing principle. Rather than publishing in a journal he submitted a patent application in the US and Greece. His discovery went unnoticed for several years, and strong focusing was rediscovered by
Ernest Courant
Ernest Courant (March 26, 1920 – April 21, 2020) was an American accelerator physicist and a fundamental contributor to modern large-scale particle accelerator concepts. His most notable discovery was his 1952 work with Milton S. Livingston a ...
et al. in 1952 (who acknowledged his priority one year later), and applied to accelerators at
BNL,
Cornell
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
and
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
.
Christofilos was offered a position at Brookhaven in 1953. In 1956 he joined
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States. The lab was originally established as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch in 1952 in response ...
(LLNL) to continue his work on the
Astron Astron may refer to:
* Mitsubishi Astron engine
* ASTRON, the Dutch foundation for astronomy research, operating the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope and LOFAR
* Astron (comics), a fictional character, a member of the Marvel Comics group The Et ...
, a proposed
fusion reactor
Fusion power is a proposed form of power generation that would generate electricity by using heat from nuclear fusion reactions. In a fusion process, two lighter atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, while releasing energy. Devices des ...
under the
Sherwood Project. At LLNL, Christofilos worked on a number of military projects. He became a member of
JASON
Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea. He w ...
and was the principal behind
Operation Argus
Operation Argus was a series of United States low-yield, high-altitude nuclear weapons tests and missile tests secretly conducted from 27 August to 9 September 1958 over the South Atlantic Ocean. The tests were performed by the Defense Nucle ...
, a series of
high-altitude nuclear detonations intended to create a
radiation belt in the upper regions of the Earth's atmosphere as a defence against
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
ICBM
An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads). Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons c ...
s.
In 1958 Christofilos proposed
Extremely Low Frequency
Extremely low frequency (ELF) is the ITU designation for electromagnetic radiation ( radio waves) with frequencies from 3 to 30 Hz, and corresponding wavelengths of 100,000 to 10,000 kilometers, respectively. In atmospheric sc ...
(ELF) waves as a way to communicate with submerged submarines, and subsequently invented the
ground dipole
In radio communication, a ground dipole, also referred to as an earth dipole antenna, transmission line antenna, and in technical literature as a horizontal electric dipole (HED), is a huge, specialized type of radio antenna that radiates extre ...
, the only antenna that has proven practical for use at ELF frequencies. His ideas were implemented by the U.S. Navy in
Project Seafarer
A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular goal.
An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of even ...
, which constructed huge ELF transmitter facilities in Michigan and Wisconsin consisting of 56 miles (90 km) of electric transmission line. These were used from 1985 to 2004 for worldwide communication with U.S. nuclear submarines.
In 1963 he was awarded the
Elliott Cresson Medal
The Elliott Cresson Medal, also known as the Elliott Cresson Gold Medal, was the highest award given by the Franklin Institute. The award was established by Elliott Cresson, life member of the Franklin Institute, with $1,000 granted in 1848. The ...
.
Herbert York
Herbert Frank York (24 November 1921 – 19 May 2009) was an American nuclear physicist of Mohawk origin.http://www.edge.org/conversation/nsa-the-decision-problem. The Decision Problem He held numerous research and administrative positions a ...
described Christofilos as follows:
:Nick was a remarkable idea man. The ideas were usually not good,
[Barber Associates, loc. cit. "One of Christofilos' 'not good' ideas was to build a large aircraft runway across the entire U.S., coast to coast, so that the Soviets could never catch most of the SAC aircraft on the ground at the same time."] but they were really remarkable in that they were the kind of ideas that nobody else had. Nick really was a genius in a very important sense -- he often invented things that required two new ideas simultaneously, which is something that normally, hardly anyone ever does.
References
Footnotes
Sources
*
*
External links
Melissinos, A.C. (1993). "Nicholas C. Christofilos, His Contributions to Physics" (Talk), ''CERN Accelerator School Proceedings 1993'', Rhodes, GreeceColeman, Elisheva (2004). ''Greek Fire – Christofilos and the Astron Project in America's Fusion Program'', Princeton University Junior ThesisPictures of Nicholas Christofilos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christofilos, Nicholas
1916 births
1972 deaths
Accelerator physicists
Greek expatriates in the United States
20th-century Greek physicists
Scientists from Boston
Members of JASON (advisory group)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory staff
National Technical University of Athens alumni
Fellows of the American Physical Society