Robert Jay Finkelstein (March 26, 1916 – August 27, 2020) was an American theoretical physicist, specializing in elementary particle physics. Finkelstein was born in

Pittsfield, Massachusetts Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfield� ...

in March 1916. After graduation from Pittsfield High School, he matriculated in 1933 at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

, graduating there as salutatorian in the class of 1937. He received his Ph.D. in 1941 from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

with dissertation ''The Energy Levels of Chrome Alum. II. Magnetic Susceptibility of Cerium Ethylsulfate'' under the supervision of

John Hasbrouck 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 in ...

. After completing his last doctoral examination, he went to Washington, DC to join

Francis Bitter Francis Bitter (July 22, 1902 – July 26, 1967) was an American physicist. Bitter invented the Bitter plate used in resistive magnets (also called Bitter electromagnets). He also developed the water cooling method inherent to the design of Bi ...

’s research group in the

Navy Department Navy Department or Department of the Navy may refer to: * United States Department of the Navy, * Navy Department (Ministry of Defence), in the United Kingdom, 1964-1997 * Confederate States Department of the Navy, 1861-1865 * Department of the Na ...

. Finkelstein worked briefly with an operational research group that included

Marshall Stone Marshall Harvey Stone (April 8, 1903 – January 9, 1989) was an American mathematician who contributed to real analysis, functional analysis, topology and the study of Boolean algebras. Biography Stone was the son of Harlan Fiske Stone, who wa ...

and

Joseph Doob Joseph Leo Doob (February 27, 1910 – June 7, 2004) was an American mathematician, specializing in analysis and probability theory. The theory of martingales was developed by Doob. Early life and education Doob was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, ...

but then transferred to a research group working on shockwaves and detonation theory. He found an analytic solution to a shockwave problem that

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (; ) (19 October 1910 – 21 August 1995) was an Indian-American theoretical physicist who spent his professional life in the United States. He shared the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics with William A. Fowler for "... ...

had previously solved numerically and also co-authored with

George Gamow George Gamow (March 4, 1904 – August 19, 1968), born Georgiy Antonovich Gamov ( uk, Георгій Антонович Гамов, russian: Георгий Антонович Гамов), was a Russian-born Soviet and American polymath, theoreti ...

the paper ''Theory of the Detonation Process''. Finkelstein recounted his experiences as a member of the group working on shockwaves and detonation theory: As a postdoc Finkelstein was at 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 ...

and then spent the academic year 1947–1948 at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

as part of a research group (including H. Lewis, S. Wouthuysen, and L. Foldy) under the leadership of

Robert Oppenheimer J. Robert Oppenheimer (; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist. A professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is often ...

. In 1948 Finkelstein joined the faculty of

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

as part of the high energy theory group. Several times he was on sabbatical at the Institute for Advanced Study. He was a Guggenheim Fellow for the academic year 1959–1960. He retired from UCLA in 1986 as professor emeritus. Finkelstein married in 1956. His doctoral students include

David Hestenes David Orlin Hestenes (born May 21, 1933) is a theoretical physicist and science educator. He is best known as chief architect of geometric algebra as a unified language for mathematics and physics, and as founder of Modelling Instructio ...

Malvin Ruderman Malvin Avram Ruderman (born March 25, 1927) is an American physicist and astrophysicist. Education Mal Ruderman received his A.B. degree from Columbia University in 1945. His MS degree (1947) and PhD (1951) are from the California Institute of T ...

, and Jan Smit. He died in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in August 2020 at the age of 104.UCLA: Robert Finkelstein memorial
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References

External links

Oral history interview transcript with Robert Finkelstein on 10 May 2020, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finkelstein, Robert 1916 births 2020 deaths 20th-century American physicists 21st-century American physicists American centenarians Dartmouth College alumni Harvard University alumni Men centenarians People from Pittsfield, Massachusetts Scientists from Massachusetts University of California, Los Angeles faculty