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Table of Contents

Biography

AbstractImportant DatesOccupationPlacesSubjects

Relationships

PeopleInstitutions

Resources

Archival as AuthorArchival as SubjectPublished as AuthorPublished as Subject

Eugen Merzbacher

Photo

Dates

April 9, 1921 – June 6, 2013

Authorized Form of Name

Merzbacher, Eugen

Biography

Abstract

Eugen Merzbacher was Kenan Professor of Physics Emeritus at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1991-2013). Other institutional affiliations included Duke University and the Institute for Advanced Study. He is noted for his development of the plane-wave Born approximation for creating inner-shell vacancies in ion-atom collisions, and he was one of the first to recognize that the dynamics of those interactions, including the electromagnetic radiation generated, could be understood as isolated atomic energy levels evolving into quasi-molecular levels and back again.

Important Dates

April 9, 1921Birth, Berlin (Germany).

1943Obtained Licentiate, Istanbul University, Istanbul (Turkey).

1943 – 1947High School Teacher in Ankara, Turkey.

1948Obtained MA, Harvard University, Cambridge (Mass.).

1950Obtained PhD in Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge (Mass.).

1950 – 1951Member, Institute for Advanced Study.

1951 – 1952Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics, Duke University.

1952 – 2013Assistant Professor to Professor of Physics (1952-1969); Kenan Professor of Physics (1969-1991); Department Chair (1977-1982); and Kenan Professor of Physics Emeritus (1991-2013), University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill (N.C.).

1959 – 1960National Science Foundation, Institute for Theoretical Physics, Cophenhagen.

1967 – 1968Visiting Professor, University of Washington, Seattle.

1990President, American Physical Society.

June 6, 2013Death, Chapel Hill (N.C.).

Occupation

Nuclear physicist.

Places

Birth

Berlin (Germany)

Undergraduate Education

Istanbul (Turkey)

Graduate Education

Cambridge (Mass.)

Employment

Chapel Hill (N.C.)

Death

Chapel Hill (N.C.)

Subjects

Beta decay.

Collisions (Nuclear physics).

Nuclear physics.

Relationships

People

Family

Merzbacher, Ann

Wife.

Advisors & Collaborators

Schwinger, Julian, 1918-1994

PhD advisor at Harvard University.

Colleagues

Brueckner, Keith A.

Both employed at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Case, Kenneth M.

Both employed at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Charney, Jule G.

Both employed at the Institute for Advanced Study.

DeWitt, Bryce S. (Bryce Seligman), 1923-2004

Both employed at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955

Both employed at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Gell-Mann, Murray

Both employed at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Glauber, Roy J., 1925-

Both employed at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Kraichnan, Robert H., 1928-2008

Both employed at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Kroll, Norman Myles, 1922-

Both employed at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Lee, T. D., 1926-

Both employed at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Low, Francis E. (Francis Eugene), 1921-2007

Both employed at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Luttinger, Joaquin M.

Both employed at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Morse, Marston, 1892-1977

Both employed at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Oppenheimer, J. Robert, 1904-1967

Both employed at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Von Neumann, John, 1903-1957

Both employed at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Weyl, Hermann, 1885-1955

Both employed at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Yang, Chen Ning, 1922-

Both employed at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Additional

Stuhlman, Otto, 1884-1965

Zweifel, P. F. (Paul Frederick), 1929-

Institutions

Major Positions

Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, N.J.)

Member.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Department of Physics and Astronomy

Assistant Professor to Professor of Physics; Kenan Professor of Physics; Department Chair; and Kenan Professor of Physics Emeritus.

Professional Activities & Affiliations

American Physical Society

President.

Duke University. Department of Physics

Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics.

Harvard University. Department of Physics

Obtained MA (1948) and PhD (1950).

İstanbul Üniversitesi

Obtained Licentiate.

Niels Bohr institutet

National Science Foundation (NSF) Fellow.

University of Washington. Department of Physics

Visiting Professor.

Resources

Archival Resources

Author

Creating Copenhagen [videorecording] / produced by The Graduate Center of the City University of New York and The Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science and Technology Project, 2000, March 27.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral history interview with Otto Stuhlman, Jr., 1962 June 8.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Subject

Paul Zweifel physics notebooks, 1949-1980.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Published Resources

Author

Quantum mechanics.

Subject

Eugen Merzbacher Physics Today obituary.