Leonard Isaac Schiff was born in

Fall River, Massachusetts Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state. Located along the eastern shore of Mount H ...

on March 29, 1915 and died on January 21, 1971 in

Stanford, California Stanford is a census-designated place (CDP) in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is the home of Stanford University. The population was 21,150 at the 2020 census. Stanford is an unincorporated area of ...

. He was a

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

best known for his book ''Quantum Mechanics'', originally published in 1949 (a second edition appeared in 1955 and a third in 1968).

Education

Leonard Schiff entered

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pub ...

at age 14. Schiff received his B.S. & M.S. (working under L. H. Thomas) from

and his doctorate from

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...

in 1937 under

Philip M. Morse Philip McCord Morse (August 6, 19035 September 1985), was an American physicist, administrator and pioneer of operations research (OR) in World War II. He is considered to be the father of operations research in the U.S. Biography Morse graduat ...

with thesis ''Theory of the Collision of Light Elements''.

Career

Schiff was a theoretical physicist who, after completing his doctorate, worked as a research associate for two years at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...

and 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 ...

. From 1940-1945 he was a faculty member at the

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

. From 1945-1947, he worked at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and joined the

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...

faculty at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

in 1947. In 1948, Schiff became one of the initial directors of

Varian Associates Varian Associates was one of the first high-tech companies in Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1948 by Russell H. and Sigurd F. Varian, William Webster Hansen, and Edward Ginzton to sell the klystron, the first vacuum tube which could amplif ...

who provided technical support to the company, along with

Edward Ginzton Edward Leonard Ginzton (December 27, 1915 – August 13, 1998) was a Ukrainian-American engineer. Education Ginzton completed his B.S. (1936) and M.S. (1937) in Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph. ...

William Hansen William Hansen may refer to: Politics * William C. Hansen (1891–1983), American educator and politician * William D. Hansen, American businessman and politician * William O. Hansen (1860–1930), American politician * Bill Hansen (born 1931), ...

, and

Marvin Chodorow Marvin Chodorow (July 16, 1913 – October 17, 2005) was an American physicist who pioneered in uses of Klystron microwave tubes. [http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11912&page=53 National Academy of Engineering;Memorial Tributes: Volume 11 ...

. In 1959 and 1960 Schiff and fellow physicist George Pugh wrote papers which advocated using orbiting gyroscopes to test general relativity. Schiff teamed with fellow Stanford faculty Bob Cannon and William M. Fairbank, Bill Fairbank to conduct research that provided part of the foundation for the Gravity Probe B (GP-B) to test

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 theor ...

's theory of relativity. He was the first chairman of the Faculty Senate at Stanford.

Family

Leonard Schiff was the son of Edward and Mathilda Schiff and was of Lithuanian Jewish descent. He married Francis Ballard in 1941. They were the parents of two children: Leonard Schiff and Ellen Schiff. His wife was a cousin of Artemus Ginzton, the wife of Schiff's friend and colleague

Recognition

Schiff became a Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

in 1939. He was elected to membership in 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 Nat ...

in 1957. In 1966, he received the Oersted Medal of the

American Association of Physics Teachers The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) was founded in 1930 for the purpose of "dissemination of knowledge of physics, particularly by way of teaching." There are more than 10,000 members in over 30 countries. AAPT publications includ ...

. Also, he received the Dinkelspiel Award for Excellence in Teaching at

. Schiff Hall, an undergraduate dormitory at Stanford, is named for him.

References

External links

*http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=577&page=300 National Academies Press Biography - Leonard Schiff *http://www.oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=tf609nb1db;developer=local;query=;style=oac4 Guide to the Leonard I. Schiff Papers, 1948–1971 *http://www.stanford.edu/dept/physics/history/# Quantum Mechanics and Leonard Schiff {{DEFAULTSORT:Schiff, Leonard I. 1915 births 1971 deaths Stanford University Department of Physics faculty Ohio State University alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Fellows of the American Physical Society Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Jewish American scientists 20th-century American physicists American relativity theorists 20th-century American Jews