Nina Byers (January 19, 1930 – June 5, 2014) was a theoretical physicist, Research Professor and Professor of Physics emeritus in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA, and Fellow of

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

Contributions

Byers received a B.A. from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1950 and a Ph.D. from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in 1956. Byers made phenomenological analyses of experimental observations leading to theoretical advances in

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 the theory of

superconductivity Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in certain materials where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic flux fields are expelled from the material. Any material exhibiting these properties is a superconductor. Unlike ...

. In "Theoretical considerations concerning quantized magnetic flux in superconductors," she showed that observation of

flux quantization The magnetic flux, represented by the symbol , threading some contour or loop is defined as the magnetic field multiplied by the loop area , i.e. . Both and can be arbitrary, meaning can be as well. However, if one deals with the superconduct ...

in superconductors in units of hc/2e is experimental evidence for the Cooper pairing of electrons proposed by the

BCS theory BCS theory or Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer theory (named after John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and John Robert Schrieffer) is the first microscopic theory of superconductivity since Heike Kamerlingh Onnes's 1911 discovery. The theory describes sup ...

of superconductivity ( Byers-Yang theorem). In addition to scientific papers, Byers published papers and edited a book on original and important contributions to modern physics by 20th century female physicists. She developed the website ''Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics'' (CWP website), which documents original and important contributions to physics by over 80 female physicists of the 20th century. With Gary Williams, she edited a book based on data from the website that expands the biographies and describes more fully the scientific contributions of forty distinguished 20th century female physicists. Byers was elected to many offices in 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 ...

(APS) and

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

(AAAS), including President of the APS Forum on History of Physics (2004–2005), APS Forum on Physics and Society (1982), and APS Councilor-at-large of the Society (1977–81).

Works

Selected scientific publications

* * * Nina Byers
"Einstein and Women"
''APS News'' Jun 2005. * Nina Byers, "Physicists and the 1945 Decision to Drop The Bomb", ''CERN Courier'' Oct 2002. ( e-Print Archive
physics/0210058
* Nina Byers, Fermi and Szilard" in ed.

James Cronin James Watson Cronin (September 29, 1931 – August 25, 2016) was an American particle physicist. Cronin was born in Chicago, Illinois, and attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He and co-researcher Val Logsdon Fitch were aw ...

(ed) ''Fermi Remembered'', U. of Chicago Press 2004 ( e-Print Archive
physics/0207094
* Nina Byers, "E. Noether's Discovery of the Deep Connection Between Symmetries and Conservation Laws" Invited talk in Symposium on the Heritage of Emmy Noether, Ramat-Gan, Israel, 2-4 Dec 1996. 'Israel Mathematical Conference Proceedings'' Vol. 12, 1999 ( e-Print Archive
physics/9807044

Book

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Byers, Nina 1930 births 2014 deaths American women physicists University of California, Los Angeles faculty Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Chicago alumni 20th-century American physicists 20th-century American women scientists Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford Fellows of the American Physical Society 21st-century American women scientists 20th-century women physicists