Bruria Kaufman (August 21, 1918 – January 7, 2010) was an American theoretical physicist. She is known for contributions to

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

general theory of relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric scientific theory, theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current descr ...

, to

statistical physics Statistical physics is a branch of physics that evolved from a foundation of statistical mechanics, which uses methods of probability theory and statistics, and particularly the mathematical tools for dealing with large populations and approxim ...

, where she used applied

spinor In geometry and physics, spinors are elements of a complex vector space that can be associated with Euclidean space. Like geometric vectors and more general tensors, spinors transform linearly when the Euclidean space is subjected to a sligh ...

analysis to rederive the result of

Lars Onsager Lars Onsager (November 27, 1903 – October 5, 1976) was a Norwegian-born American physical chemist and theoretical physicist. He held the Gibbs Professorship of Theoretical Chemistry at Yale University. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in C ...

on the partition function of the two-dimensional

Ising model The Ising model () (or Lenz-Ising model or Ising-Lenz model), named after the physicists Ernst Ising and Wilhelm Lenz, is a mathematical model of ferromagnetism in statistical mechanics. The model consists of discrete variables that represent ...

, and to the study of the

Mössbauer effect The Mössbauer effect, or recoilless nuclear resonance fluorescence, is a physical phenomenon discovered by Rudolf Mössbauer in 1958. It involves the resonant and recoil-free emission and absorption of gamma radiation by atomic nuclei bound in ...

, on which she collaborated with

John von Neumann John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest cove ...

and Harry Lipkin.

Biography

Bruria Kaufman was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

to a Jewish family of Ukrainian origin. In 1926 the family immigrated to the British Mandate for Palestine, living first in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...

, and then in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. Her main interests during her youth were music and mathematics. She studied mathematics, earning a B.Sc. from Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1938, and a PhD from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1948. She married the linguist Zellig S. Harris in 1941. In 1960, she settled on Kibbutz Mishmar Ha'emek and adopted a daughter, Tami. Kaufman returned to the US in 1982. They lived in Pennsylvania, where her husband taught. He died in 1992. Kaufman moved to Arizona and married the Nobel laureate Willis Eugene Lamb in 1996, although the marriage ended in divorce. She died in January 2010 at Carmel Hospital in

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

, following a stay at a nursing home in

Kiryat Tiv'on Kiryat Tiv'on ( he, קִרְיַת טִבְעוֹן, also Qiryat Tiv'on) is a town in the Haifa District of Israel, in the hills between the Zvulun (Zebulon) and Jezreel valleys. Kiryat Tiv'on is situated southeast of Haifa Haifa ( he, � ...

, not far from Haifa. In keeping with her wishes, her body was cremated.

Scientific career

Kaufman was a research associate 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 schola ...

in Princeton from 1948 to 1955, where she worked with John von Neumann (1947/48) and with

(1950–1955). She spent the following years at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

working on a mathematical linguistics project. Kaufman returned to Israel in 1960 (with Harris) where she became professor at the

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli unive ...

in Rehovot (1960–1971) and later on at the

University of Haifa The University of Haifa ( he, אוניברסיטת חיפה Arabic: جامعة حيفا) is a university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation in 1972, becoming ...

(1972–1988).

Selected publications

* * * "Transition Points", Physical Society Cambridge International Conference on Low Temperatures (1946), with L. Onsager. * Kaufman's contribution is to an appendix which appeared in later editions, and was revised and published as "Algebraic Properties of the Field in the Relativistic Theory of the Asymmetric Field". * * * "Mathematical Structure of the Non-symmetric Field Theory", ''Proceedings of the Fiftieth Anniversary Conference on Relativity'' 227–238 (1955). * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaufman, Bruria Israeli physicists Israeli Jews 1918 births 2010 deaths University of Haifa faculty Weizmann Institute of Science faculty American people of Russian-Jewish descent American emigrants to Israel Jewish physicists Israeli mathematicians Women mathematicians 20th-century women scientists