Albert Baez | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1912-11-15)November 15, 1912 Puebla, Puebla, Mexico |
| Died | March 20, 2007(2007-03-20) (aged 94) |
| Education |
|
| Known for |
|
| Spouse | Joan Chandos Bridge |
| Children | 3, includingJoan Baez andMimi Fariña |
| Awards | Dennis Gabor Award (1991) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Doctoral advisor | Paul Kirkpatrick |
Albert Vinicio Báez (/ˈbaɪ.ɛz/BY-ez;[1]Spanish:[biˈnisjoˈβaes]; November 15, 1912 – March 20, 2007) was a Mexican-Americanphysicist and the father of singersJoan Baez andMimi Fariña,[2] and an uncle ofJohn C. Baez. He made important contributions to the early development ofX-ray microscopes,X-ray optics, and laterX-ray telescopes.[3][4][5]
Albert Báez was born inPuebla, Mexico, in 1912 to Alberto B. Báez and Thalia Báez.[6] His father was aMethodist minister and his mother was a social worker for theYWCA.[6] Albert was four when his father moved his family to the United States, first to Texas for a year and then to New York City. Albert, his sister Mimi and brother Peter were raised inBrooklyn where his father founded the First Spanish Methodist Church inNew York.[2] During his youth, Baez contemplated becoming a minister, but he followed his interests in mathematics and physics instead.[7]
Báez earned degrees in mathematics and physics fromDrew University (BS, 1933) and mathematics fromSyracuse University (MS, 1935).[8][6] He married Joan Chandos Bridge, the daughter of anEpiscopalian priest, in 1936. The couple becameQuakers. The two had three daughters (Pauline, Joan, and Mimi), then moved toCalifornia: Báez enrolled atStanford'sdoctoral program in physics. Baez taught atWagner College from 1940 to 1944, and then moved toStanford University in 1944 where he taught undergraduate courses in physics and mathematics.[9] In 1948, Báez co-invented, with his doctoral program advisor,Paul Kirkpatrick, theX-ray reflection microscope for examination of living cells.[10] Thismicroscope is still used inmedicine. Baez received his Ph.D. in physics from Stanford in 1950, and wrote his thesis titled "Principles of X-Ray Optics and the Development of a Single State X-Ray Microscope".[2] In 1948, while still a graduate student at Stanford, he developed concentric circles of alternating opaque and transparent materials to use diffraction instead of refraction to focus X-rays.[2] Thesezone plates proved useful and even essential decades later only with the development of sufficiently bright, high intensity,synchrotron X-ray sources.[11] By 1950, he had earned his doctorate in physics from Stanford University.[12]
As theCold War intensified in the 1950s, Báez's talent was in high demand in the burgeoningarms race, yet his family'spacifism moved him to refuse lucrativedefense industry positions, and he devoted himself instead toeducation andhumanitarianism.[13]
From 1950 to 1956, he held a professorship at theUniversity of Redlands, where he continued his X-ray research. Báez took leave for a year to work withUNESCO in 1951, and stationed his family inBaghdad[7] to establish the physics department and laboratory atBaghdad University. In 1956, Baez returned to Stanford and began to work withJerrold R. Zacharias. Together, they worked on the Physics Science Study Committee, which was an effort to reshape the way physics was taught in high schools.[9] In 1959, Báez accepted a faculty position atMIT and moved his family to theBoston area. Baez worked on physics education with thePhysical Science Study Committee, in particular, focused on producing films.[10] In 1960, working with theSmithsonian Astrophysical Observatory inCambridge, he developed optics for an X-ray telescope. Later that year he moved his family toClaremont, California, where he joined the faculty atHarvey Mudd College. From 1961 to 1967, he served as the first director of the science education program for UNESCO in Paris.[7][10] Here, he helped to develop projects in the basic sciences in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Arab states.[9]
Báez was the author of the textbookThe New College Physics: A Spiral Approach (1967). He was the co-author of the textbookThe Environment and Science and Technology Education (1987), and the memoir,A Year in Baghdad (1988), written with his wife Joan.[14]Báez made nearly a hundred films on physics from 1967 to 1974 for theEncyclopædia Britannica Educational Corp. Báez chaired the Commission on Education of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources from 1979 to 1983.[6]
On 22 June 1974, Britain'sOpen University awarded Baez anhonorary degree as Doctor of the university.[15]
After his retirement, Báez occasionally delivered physics lectures and was the president ofVivamos Mejor/USA in 1986,[6] an organization founded in 1988 to help impoverished villages in Mexico. Its projects includepreschool education,environmental projects, and community and educational activities. His lectures often included the "importance of the 3 Cs- curiosity, creativity, and compassion."[9] In 1991, theInternational Society for Optical Engineering awarded him and Kirkpatrick theDennis Gabor Award for pioneering contributions to the development of X-ray imaging microscopes and X-ray imaging telescopes. In 1995, theHispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Corporation (HENAAC) established the Albert V. Baez Award for Technical Excellence and Service to Humanity. Báez himself was inducted into the HENAAC Hall of Fame in 1998.
Báez was the father of folk singersJoan Baez andMimi Fariña, whom he encouraged to enjoy music and the arts, and of Pauline Bryan; he also was the uncle ofmathematical physicistJohn Báez.[16] He had three grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. He died of natural causes on March 20, 2007, at age 94 in theRedwood City care home where he had lived for the prior three years. Báez had been divorced from his wife, Joan Bridge Baez, for several years, at the time of his death. According to the singer Joan Baez, speaking at the 2009 Newport Folk Festival, her parents married each other a second time before his death.[17] His obituary in theNew York Times states that "his survivors include his wife, Joan Bridge Báez of Woodside, Calif."[18]
