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Johnson, Vivian A. (Vivian Annabelle), 1912-
Oral history interview with Vivian Annabelle Johnson, 1981 July 13.
Born in Oregon 1912, entered Purdue University, 1932, studying solid state physics, teaching assistant work with Lothar Nordheim on crystal structure, 1937; Ph.D. thesis, 1937 (published 1940); physics department under Karl Lark-Horovitz grows in the 1930s, visiting lecturers (refugees from Germany and Europe: Lothar Nordheim, Hans Bethe, Edward Teller, Eugene Wigner). First cyclotron (homemade), 1935. War work: basic research in germanium, rectification of crystals (Bethe), close connections with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania; Lark-Horovitz chose solid state physics as less sensitive field with respect to clearance; showed silicon-germanium intrinsic semiconductors, 1942; General Electric's germanium interest; success interpreting resistivity and thermoelectric behavior in germanium, 1944. American Physical Society meeting intense interest in Purdue presentations, January 1946; the transistor, 1948 (William Shockley, Ralph Bray); how to grow germanium crystals, 1949; Esther Conwell's thesis (Victor Weisskopf). Also prominently mentioned are: John Backus, Seymour Benzer, Hubert Maxwell James, A. A. Knowlton, K. W. Meissner, E. P. Miller, Ronald Smith, Herbert J. Yearian; and Purdue University Department of Physics.
Backus, John
Benzer, Seymour
Bethe, Hans A, (Hans Albrecht), 1906-2005
Bray, Ralph
Conwell, Esther M. (Esther Marly), 1922-2014
James, Hubert Maxwell, 1908-
Johnson, Vivian A. (Vivian Annabelle), 1912-
Knowlton, A. A. (Ansel Alphonso), b. 1876
Lark-Horovitz, K. (Karl), 1892-1958.
Meissner, Karl Wilhelm, 1891-
Miller, E. P.
Nordheim, Lothar, 1899-
Shockley, William, 1910-1989-
Teller, Edward, 1908-2003
Weisskopf, Victor Frederick, 1908-2002
Wigner, Eugene Paul, 1902-1995-
American Physical Society.
Columbia University
General Electric Company.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Purdue University.
University of Pennsylvania
Crystallography
Cyclotrons.
Germanium -- Electric properties.
Organozinc compounds.
Refugees, Jewish.
Semiconductors.
Solid state physics.
Solid state physics -- History
Transistors.
Women in science.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Science.
Oral histories. aat
Interviews. aat
Sound recordings lcgft
Transcripts. aat
Henriksen, Paul, interviewer.
AIP-ICOS
American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
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