Renate Wiener Chasman (January 10, 1932 – October 17, 1977) was a physicist. She was born Renate Wiener to German Jewish parents in Berlin. Her father, Hans Wiener, was a founder of the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the ...

. In 1938, the Wiener family fled Nazi Germany through the Netherlands to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, where Wiener grew up and attended school in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

. Wiener and her sister Edith went to Israel to attend

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

. Wiener graduated in 1955 with a

M.Sc. A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

in physics with minors in

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

and

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

. She earned her PhD in experimental physics in 1959. Her doctoral thesis demonstrated that a pseudoscalar component was not involved in

parity Parity may refer to: * Parity (computing) ** Parity bit in computing, sets the parity of data for the purpose of error detection ** Parity flag in computing, indicates if the number of set bits is odd or even in the binary representation of the r ...

nonconservation In physics, a conservation law states that a particular measurable property of an isolated physical system does not change as the system evolves over time. Exact conservation laws include conservation of energy, conservation of linear momentum, ...

in beta decay.

Chien-Shiung Wu ) , spouse = , residence = , nationality = ChineseAmerican , field = Physics , work_institutions = Institute of Physics, Academia SinicaUniversity of California at BerkeleySmith CollegePrinceton UniversityColumbia UniversityZhejiang Unive ...

was doing similar work and invited Wiener to work at Columbia University as a research associate. There she met Wu's graduate student Chellis Chasman and together they investigated beta decay. They married in 1962. In 1962, the Chasmans went to Yale University to work with

David Allan Bromley David Allan Bromley (May 4, 1926 – February 10, 2005) was a Canadian-American physicist, academic administrator and science advisor to American president George H. W. Bush. His field of research was the study of low-energy nuclear reactions ...

in nuclear

spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation. Matter wa ...

. Chasman joined Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1963. Beginning in the department of physics at Brookhaven, she transferred in 1965 to the accelerator department. In the following years, she facilitated important contributions to the development of particle accelerators, redesigning the alternating-gradient proton synchrotron (AGS). Together with

George Kenneth Green George Kenneth Green (1911 – August 15th 1977) was an American accelerator physicist. Green studied at the University of California, Berkeley, where he belonged to the group of Ernest Lawrence. Later, he worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory ...

, she is known for the invention of the Chasman-Green lattice for synchrotron storage rings. She died in 1977 from melanoma. The Brookhaven National Lab has a scholarship named after Chasman.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chasman, Renate 1932 births 1977 deaths American women physicists Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Columbia University staff Brookhaven National Laboratory staff Yale University staff Accelerator physicists 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American physicists Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Sweden