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Thomas Lauritsen (November 16, 1915-October 16, 1973) was an American nuclear physicist best known for his abilities at designing and (with his own hands) building experimental facilities and instrumentation for experimental nuclear physics; and as the longtime co-author of a periodic compilation of nuclear data. Except for brief periods abroad, his career was entirely at 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 ...
, mostly as a professor of physics. In 1969 he was elected as a member of the
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
[William A. Fowler
William Alfred Fowler ( ) was an American nuclear physicist, later astrophysicist, who, with Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, won the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics. He is known for his theoretical and experimental research into nuclear reactions wit ...]
, he designed and built a pressurized
Van de Graaff electrostatic accelerator that operated continuously and productively from 1939 until 1979.
In 1939, Lauritsen traveled to the
Niels Bohr Institute
The Niels Bohr Institute (Danish: ''Niels Bohr Institutet'') is a research institute of the University of Copenhagen. The research of the institute spans astronomy, geophysics, nanotechnology, particle physics, quantum mechanics and biophysics. ...
in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
, where he built a duplicate of the Caltech accelerator and collaborated on research with
Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. B ...
and the latter's son,
Aage Bohr
Aage Niels Bohr (; 19 June 1922 – 8 September 2009) was a Danish nuclear physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1975 with Ben Roy Mottelson and James Rainwater "for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and pa ...
. Tommy and Aage became lifelong friends and collaborators. After the German invasion of Denmark in 1940, his return to the United States with his new Danish wife, Else Chievitz (the daughter of Danish resistance leader Ole Chievitz), was hastily arranged.
Tommy returned to Denmark for a year in 1952-53 (as a
Fulbright
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
lecturer) and another year in 1963-64.
Lauritsen's principal research interest was in the nuclear spectroscopy of the light nuclei, particularly in areas
of importance to astrophysics. His most lasting contribution to nuclear physics was the creation of a review publication, "Energy Levels of Light Nuclei" (with later co-authors including notably
Fay Ajzenberg-Selove
Fay Ajzenberg-Selove (February 13, 1926August 8, 2012) was an American nuclear physicist. She was known for her experimental work in nuclear spectroscopy of light elements, and for her annual reviews of the energy levels of light atomic nuclei. ...
) that was issued first in 1948 and in updated versions for many years after.
In the 1960s Lauritsen become involved in many governmental advisory activities to
DOD,
ARPA,
IDA
Ida or IDA may refer to:
Astronomy
* Ida Facula, a mountain on Amalthea, a moon of Jupiter
*243 Ida, an asteroid
*International Docking Adapter, a docking adapter for the International Space Station
Computing
*Intel Dynamic Acceleration, a techn ...
,
AEC (now
DOE), and
NSF
NSF may stand for:
Political organizations
*National Socialist Front, a Swedish National Socialist party
*NS-Frauenschaft, the women's wing of the former German Nazi party
*National Students Federation, a leftist Pakistani students' political gr ...
.
His collected papers and several oral history interviews are in the Caltech archives.
"Lauritsen, Thomas (Nuclear Physicist)", Caltech Archives Catalog
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lauritsen, Thomas
1915 births
1973 deaths
American nuclear physicists
California Institute of Technology faculty
Danish emigrants to the United States