Joseph C. Hafele
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Joseph Carl Hafele (25 July 1933 – 15 November 2014) was an American physicist best known for the
Hafele–Keating experiment The Hafele–Keating experiment was a test of the theory of relativity. In 1971, Joseph C. Hafele, a physicist, and Richard E. Keating, an astronomer, took four cesium-beam atomic clocks aboard commercial airliners. They flew twice around the ...
, a test of Einstein's theory of general relativity. Hafele was an apprentice welder when he was drafted to serve in the army during the Korean War. After the war, he obtained undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, earning his PhD in 1962 with a thesis on a topic in nuclear physics. He married Carol Hessling in 1958, and they had four daughters. He worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and then
Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...
from 1966 to 1972. In 1971 he performed the Hafele-Keating experiment along with astronomer Richard E. Keating.''Popular Mechanics'', January 1972, p. 30 He later worked at Caterpillar,
Eureka College Eureka College is a private liberal arts college in Eureka, Illinois, that is related by covenant to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Enrollment in 2018 was approximately 567 students. Eureka College was the third college in the Unite ...
, NASA (
Langley Air Force Base Langley Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in Hampton, Virginia, adjacent to Newport News, Virginia, Newport News. It was one of List of airfields of the Training Section of the United States Army Air Service, thirty-two ...
), and Christopher Newport University. After his retirement in 1996 he and his wife lived in
Laramie, Wyoming Laramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was estimated 32,711 in 2019, making it the third-largest city in Wyoming after Cheyenne and Casper. Located on the Laramie River in southeastern ...
, where he continued theoretical work on the interpretation of experiments that might indicate anomalies in relativity. He died in 2014 during surgery.


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References

American physicists Christopher Newport University Washington University in St. Louis faculty Washington University physicists {{Physicist-stub