Moszkowski, Steven A.
Oral history interview with Steven Moszkowski, 2020 April 30 & May 8.
In these interviews, Joanna Behrman, Assistant Public Historian for AIP, interviews Steven Moszkowski, Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles. He describes his family background and childhood in Germany. Moszkowski recounts how he and his family, particularly his grandparents, were friends of Albert Einstein. He recalls the rise of the Nazis and how he and his parents emigrated to the United States. He describes joining the Army after high school and being transferred to work at the Metallurgical Laboratory under Robert Sachs. He explains how he became interested in nuclear physics and earned his Ph.D. under Maria Goeppert-Mayer. Moszkowski describes working with Chien-Shiung Wu at Columbia on beta decay and coauthoring a book together. He recounts moving from Columbia to UCLA where he also consulted for the Rand Corporation and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He discusses the evolution of research on nuclear models including Goeppert-Mayers shell model and his own interest in the nuclear many-body problem. Moszkowski explains the origins of the division between nuclear theorists and particle theorists. He describes how he generalized Goeppert-Mayers delta interaction and named it the surface delta interaction which became a focus of research for many years. He then describes the social and personal upheavals he experienced during the 1960s He recounts the importance of travel and collaboration in his research, particularly his travel to Hungary, the European Center for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas (ECT*) in Trento, and the University of Coimbra in Portugal. He recalls his interactions with many colleagues in physics including Judit Nemeth, Yoichiro Nambu, Murph Goldberger, and Murray Gell-Mann. Moszkowski describes his impressions on the status of women in physics and his biography of Goeppert-Mayer as part of a volume edited by Nina Byers and Gary Williams. Moszkowski concludes with his impressions of Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard, Werner Heisenberg, Nambu, and Hans Bethe.
Steven Moszkowski was an American theoretical nuclear physicist and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles. He completed his studies at University of Chicago and went on to work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, as well as serving on faculty at UCLA.
Bethe, Hans A. (Hans Albrecht), 1906-2005
Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955
Fermi, Enrico, 1901-1954
Gell-Mann, Murray
Goldberger, Marvin L.
Mayer, Maria Goeppert, 1906-1972
Moszkowski, Steven A.
Nambu, Yoichiro, 1921-2015
Sachs, Robert Green, 1916-
Wu, C. S. (Chien-shiung), 1912-1997
Argonne National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Rand Corporation
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Beta decay
Many-body problem
Nuclear physics
Nuclear shell theory
Women in physics
World War, 1939-1945
Interviews. aat
Oral histories. aat
Transcripts. aat
Behrman, Joanna interviewer.
AIP-ICOS
American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA