Boris Podolsky | |
|---|---|
| Борис Подольский | |
 | |
| Born | Boris Yakovlevich Podolsky (1896-06-29)June 29, 1896 Taganrog, Don Host Oblast, Russian Empire |
| Died | November 28, 1966(1966-11-28) (aged 70) Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
| Nationality |
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| Alma mater | |
| Known for | EPR paradox |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | |
| Doctoral advisor | Paul Sophus Epstein |
Boris Yakovlevich Podolsky (Russian:Борис Яковлевич Подольский; June 29, 1896 – November 28, 1966) was a Russian-Americanphysicist of Jewish descent, noted for his work withAlbert Einstein andNathan Rosen on entangled wave functions and theEPR paradox.
In 1896, Boris Podolsky was born into a poor Jewish family inTaganrog, in theDon Host Oblast of theRussian Empire and attended theTaganrog Gymnasium. He moved to the United States in 1913. After receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from theUniversity of Southern California in 1918, he served in the US Army and then worked at theLos Angeles Bureau of Power and Light. In 1926, he obtained anMS in mathematics from theUniversity of Southern California. In 1928, he received a PhD in theoretical physics (underPaul Sophus Epstein) fromCaltech.
Under a National Research Council Fellowship, Podolsky spent a year at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, followed by a year atLeipzig University. In 1930, he returned toCaltech, working withRichard C. Tolman for one year. He then went to theUkrainian Institute of Physics and Technology (Kharkiv, USSR), collaborating withVladimir Fock,Paul Dirac (who was there on a visit), andLev Landau. In 1932 he published a seminal early paper on Quantum Electrodynamics with Dirac and Fock,[1] In 1933, he returned to the US with a fellowship from theInstitute for Advanced Study, Princeton.
In a letter dated November 10, 1933, to Abraham Flexner, founding director of theInstitute for Advanced Study at Princeton, Einstein described Podolsky as "one of the most brilliant of the younger men who has worked and published with [Paul] Dirac." In 1935 Einstein and others at the Institute wrote letters of recommendation for Podolsky, addressed to Louis T. More, Dean of the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati, in which Einstein wrote, "I am happy to be able to tell you that I estimate Podolsky's abilities very highly.. he is an independent investigator of unquestionable talent."[2][3] In 1935, Podolsky took a post as professor of mathematical physics at theUniversity of Cincinnati. At theUniversity of Cincinnati he was MS adviser to Chihiro Kikuchi,[4] and PhD adviser toHerman Branson[5] and Alex Green.[6] In 1961, he moved toXavier University, Cincinnati, where he worked until his death in 1966.
Working with Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen, Podolsky conceived theEPR paradox.[7] This famous paper stimulated debate as to theinterpretation of quantum mechanics, culminating withBell's theorem and the advent ofquantum information theory.
In 1933, Podolsky andLev Landau had the idea to write a textbook on electromagnetism beginning with special relativity and emphasizing theoretical postulates rather than experimental laws. This project did not come to fruition due to Podolsky's return to the United States, where he had immigrated in 1913. However, in the hands of Lev Landau and E. Lifshitz, the outline they produced becameThe Classical Theory of Fields (1951).[8] On the same basis, Podolsky and K. Kunz producedFundamentals of Electrodynamics, Marcel Dekker Press (1969), to which Podolsky's son, Robert, contributed most of the questions at the end of each chapter.
A 2009 book byJohn Earl Haynes,Harvey Klehr andAlexander Vassiliev,Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America, identifies Podolsky as a contact (QUANTUM) who met twice with Soviet secret services in 1942 and 1943.[9] The evidence for these contacts is somewhat indirect. Early during World War II, severalVENONA cables identify a contact named QUANTUM who sought out Soviet intelligence in 1942 and asked for a position in theUSSR to work on processingUranium 235. A 1943 VENONA cable shows QUANTUM provided relatively simple equations known asGraham's law of gaseous diffusion (known since 1848) which can be used to separate fissileU-235 from unwantedU-238.[10] QUANTUM was paid $300 for this information according to a VENONA cable.[11] The Soviets never contacted him again because they felt QUANTUM was unreliable.[12][13] A former KGB officer namedAlexander Vassiliev took notes from the KGB archive after the fall of the USSR which suggested that QUANTUM was Podolsky.[14]
Podolsky is played by the actorGene Saks in the 1994 Hollywood filmI.Q.
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