Myriam Paula Sarachik (August 8, 1933October 7, 2021) was a Belgian-born American experimental

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 ...

who specialized in low-temperature solid state physics. From 1996, she was a

distinguished professor Distinguished Professor is an academic title given to some top tenured professors in a university, school, or department. Some distinguished professors may have endowed chairs. In the United States Often specific to one institution, titles such ...

of physics at the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

Early life and education

Myriam Sarachik was born Myriam Paula Morgenstein was born on August 8, 1933, in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, Belgium. Her parents, Sarah (Segal) and Schloimo Morgenstein, were Orthodox Jews who were born in Poland. Her mother moved to Belgium as a child and her father moved in his mid-teens. Her parents met and married in Belgium. Her father worked as a diamond cutter and diamond dealer. Myriam had two siblings, an older brother Paul and a younger brother Henry. The primary language spoken at home was Yiddish. The family fled Belgium in 1940 due to the German occupation of Belgium during World War II. At first they fled to

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...

, France, but by the time they arrived it had already been invaded by Germany, so the family returned to Antwerp. In the process her older brother Paul became separated and was transported on a British ship for women and children from

Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.

to England. In 1941, after a year in Antwerp the family decided to try to escape the German occupation again. They took a train to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

and then with fake papers attempted to cross the border into

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

. While attempting to cross the border, the family was apprehended and interned in Merignac, a concentration camp near Bordeaux. They were then transferred to Camp de la Lande near

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metro ...

. The family escaped the same year and were smuggled across the border between German-occupied France and

Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its t ...

. After spending a few weeks in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative ...

, the family took a train across the

Pyrenees Mountains The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...

into Spain and stayed in

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

before sailing from

Vigo Vigo ( , , , ) is a city and municipality in the province of Pontevedra, within the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, it sits on the southern shore of an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, the ...

to Cuba. Sarachik spent the next five and a half years in

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...

as a refugee, where she attended school and learned Spanish and English. In 1947, Sarachik and her family were granted visas to enter the United States and they moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. She graduated from the

Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science, commonly called Bronx Science, is a public specialized high school in The Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science involves passing the Sp ...

in 1950 and began studying at

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

the same year. Sarachik was awarded a B.A. in 1954. She received her M.S. at

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 1957, and her Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1960, where her advisor was

Richard Garwin Richard Lawrence Garwin (born April 19, 1928) is an American physicist, best known as the author of the first hydrogen bomb design. In 1978, Garwin was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributing to the application ...

. Her Ph.D. research was on measuring the attenuation of a magnetic field by Type-I superconducting films. Her doctoral work provided an important experimental test for

BCS theory BCS theory or Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer theory (named after John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and John Robert Schrieffer) is the first microscopic theory of superconductivity since Heike Kamerlingh Onnes's 1911 discovery. The theory describes sup ...

by showing how the magnetic field penetration depth in superconducting lead depended on temperature. This led Sarachik to be able to deduce a value of the

superconducting energy gap In solid-state physics, an energy gap is an energy range in a solid where no electron states exist, i.e. an energy range where the density of states vanishes. Especially in condensed-matter physics, an energy gap is often known more abstractly as ...

which agreed with the directly measured value She published results from her doctoral research in ''

Physical Review Letters ''Physical Review Letters'' (''PRL''), established in 1958, is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal that is published 52 times per year by the American Physical Society. As also confirmed by various measurement standards, which include the ''Journa ...

'' and the '' IBM Journal of Research and Development'' the same year as she received her doctorate.

Academic career

From 1962 to 1964 she held a postdoctoral appointment at the

Bell Telephone Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

. At Bell Laboratories she demonstrated that magnetic impurities in a non-magnetic metal, which form local magnetic moments, can cause the electrical resistance of the alloy to increase at low temperatures. As the temperature lowers, the resistance for most metallic metallic materials will continue to decrease until it reaches a plateau. However, some anomalous metallic materials will have a minimum resistance after which the resistance will increase even as the temperature is lowered. Sarachik showed that there was a one-to-one correspondence between the presence of local magnetic moments and the minimum of the resistance in metallic materials. Her experiments provided the first data that confirmed the

Kondo effect In physics, the Kondo effect describes the scattering of conduction electrons in a metal due to magnetic impurities, resulting in a characteristic change i.e. a minimum in electrical resistivity with temperature. The cause of the effect was fi ...

. Despite advice from mentors that becoming a housewife or part-time teacher might suit her better, Sarachik joined the physics department of the City College of New York as an assistant professor in 1964. Three years later, in 1967, she was elevated to associate professor. In 1971, she became a full professor. In 1996, City College honored her by naming her as distinguished professor of physics. Sarachik's work was primarily in the field of low temperature

condensed matter physics Condensed matter physics is the field of physics that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter, especially the solid and liquid phases which arise from electromagnetic forces between atoms. More generally, the su ...

, in which she focused on molecular

nanomagnet A nanomagnet is a submicrometric system that presents spontaneous magnetic order (magnetization) at zero applied magnetic field ( remanence). The small size of nanomagnets prevents the formation of magnetic domains (see single domain (magnetic)). ...

s and novel phenomena in dilute two-dimensional electron systems. Some of her research sought to understand the metal-insulator transition, or the conditions under which an insulator can become a conductor. Experiments of this type must be performed near

absolute zero Absolute zero is the lowest limit of the thermodynamic temperature scale, a state at which the enthalpy and entropy of a cooled ideal gas reach their minimum value, taken as zero kelvin. The fundamental particles of nature have minimum vibra ...

. Sarachik also researched the

transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...

and magnetic properties of

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way ...

s and

quantum tunnelling Quantum tunnelling, also known as tunneling ( US) is a quantum mechanical phenomenon whereby a wavefunction can propagate through a potential barrier. The transmission through the barrier can be finite and depends exponentially on the barrie ...

. In 2020, Sarachik was awarded 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 ...

(APS) Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research for her "contributions to the physics of electronic transport in solids and molecular magnetism". She was president of APS in 2003, and was awarded the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize in 2005. In 2008, she was elected to the governing council 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 Nat ...

. She was active in defending the

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

of scientists as a member and chair of the Committee on the International Freedom of Scientists of the APS, a long-time member of the Human Rights of Scientists Committee of the

New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (originally the Lyceum of Natural History) was founded in January 1817 as the Lyceum of Natural History. It is the fourth oldest scientific society in the United States. An independent, nonprofit organization wi ...

, and a

board member A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

of the

Committee of Concerned Scientists The Committee of Concerned Scientists (CCS) is an independent international organization devoted to the protection and advancement of human rights and scientific freedom of scientists, physicians, engineers, and scholars. History The committee wa ...

Honors and awards

Sarachik received the following honors: *Member, National Academy of Sciences (elected 1994) *Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 1999) *Fellow, American Physical Society *Fellow, New York Academy of Sciences *Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science *Recipient, 1995 NYC Mayor's Award for Excellence in Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences *Recipient, 2004 Sloan Public Service Award from the Fund for the City of New York *Recipient, 2005 L'Oréal/UNESCO For Women in Science Laureate for North America *Recipient, 2005 APS Oliver E. Buckley Prize in Condensed Matter Physics *Recipient, 2006 Honorary Doctor of Science degree from

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educati ...

*Recipient, 2020 APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research *Recipient, 2020 President's Medal of the IOP

Personal life

In 1954, Myriam married Philip Sarachik, a professor of electrical engineering at New York University. They had two children, Karen and Leah. In 1970, five-year-old Leah was kidnapped by Sarachik's housekeeper using the family car. The housekeeper's body was found 12 days later and Leah's body was found a month after that. Sarachik died on October 7, 2021, in Manhattan at the age of 88.

References

External links

Faculty profile
at