Marshall Rosenbluth | |
|---|---|
 Rosenbluth in 1994 | |
| Born | (1927-02-05)February 5, 1927 Albany, New York, US |
| Died | September 28, 2003(2003-09-28) (aged 76) |
| Alma mater | Harvard University (BS) University of Chicago (PhD) |
| Known for | Plasma Physics Rosenbluth potentials Metropolis algorithm Rosenbluth formula |
| Spouse(s) | Arianna Rosenbluth Sara Rosenbluth |
| Awards |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | General Atomics UC San Diego Princeton University University of Texas at Austin |
| Doctoral advisor | Edward Teller |
Marshall Nicholas Rosenbluth (5 February 1927 – 28 September 2003) was anAmericanplasma physicist and member of theNational Academy of Sciences,[1] and member of theAmerican Philosophical Society.[2] In 1997 he was awarded theNational Medal of Science for discoveries in controlled thermonuclear fusion, contributions toplasma physics, and work in computationalstatistical mechanics. He was also a recipient of theE.O. Lawrence Prize (1964), theAlbert Einstein Award (1967), theJames Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics (1976), theEnrico Fermi Award (1985), and theHannes Alfvén Prize (2002).
Rosenbluth was born into a Jewish family[3] and graduated fromStuyvesant High School in 1942.[4] He did his undergraduate study at Harvard, graduating in 1946 (B.S.,Phi Beta Kappa), while also serving in theU.S. Navy (1944–46). He received his Ph.D. in 1949 from theUniversity of Chicago.[5]
During his first post-doctoral position atStanford University (1949–1950), he derived theRosenbluth formula, which was the basis of the analysis used byRobert Hofstadter in his Nobel prize-winning experimental investigation ofelectron scattering. Hofstadter refers to this in his 1961Nobel Lecture: "This behavior can be understood in terms of the theoretical scattering law developed by M. Rosenbluth in 1950".
In 1950 his doctoral advisorEdward Teller,[6] who is considered the father of thehydrogen bomb, recruited Rosenbluth to work atLos Alamos.[7] Rosenbluth maintained this position until 1956. The research he conducted at Los Alamos led to the development of the H-bomb.
... Rosenbluth went to theSouth Pacific to prepare for the first H-bomb test. He had trouble sleeping, and was pondering the bomb design when he realised the scientists had made a calculating error that could result in a dud. The flaw was remedied by modifying the detonator, and the bomb vaporised amile-wide island with a power 700 times greater than that of theatom bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.[8]
In 1953, Rosenbluth derived theMetropolis algorithm,[9] based on generating aMarkov chain which sampled fluid configurations according to theBoltzmann distribution. This algorithm was first presented in the paper "Equation of State Calculations by Fast Computing Machines",[10] coauthored with his wifeArianna Rosenbluth (who wrote the first computer program to implement the method),Nicholas Metropolis,Augusta H. Teller andEdward Teller. This now-famous paper was cited inComputing in Science and Engineering as being among the top 10 algorithms having the "greatest influence on the development and practice of science and engineering in the 20th century."[11] He and Arianna subsequently introduced the configurational-bias Monte Carlo method for simulating polymers.[12]
By the late 1950s, Rosenbluth turned his attention to the burgeoning discipline of plasma physics and quickly laid the foundation for many avenues of research in the field, particularly the theory ofplasma instabilities. Although he continued to work on plasma physics for the remainder of his career, he often made forays into other fields. For example, around 1980, he and coworkers produced a detailed analysis of thefree electron laser, indicating how its spectral intensity can be optimized.
In 1956, Rosenbluth left Los Alamos to join an atomic energy firm, General Atomics. In 1960, while still employed with General Atomics he joined the faculty of theUniversity of California at San Diego. Later, he joined theInstitute for Advanced Study inPrinceton, New Jersey (1967). In 1980, he went to theUniversity of Texas at Austin. He then went back to University of California at San Diego in 1987. In 1993, he retired from UCSD became the chief scientist of the central team for the International Tokamak Experimental Reactor, where he worked until 1999.[13][14] He maintained a high productivity rate throughout his entire career. Indeed, only a few years before his death, Rosenbluth discovered the existence of residual flows (so-calledRosenbluth-Hinton flows), a key result for understanding turbulence intokamaks.[15]
Upon his retirement, he took on the responsibility of chief scientist of the Central Team for theInternational Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) until 1999. Rosenbluth also served as a member of theJASON Defense Advisory Group.
Rosenbluth was affectionately known as thePope of Plasma Physics in reference to his deep understanding of the field.[16]
Arianna Rosenbluth was his first wife; they were married in 1951, while he was at Stanford. They had four children together. They later divorced; he married Sara Rosenbluth (formerly Sara Unger), an artist and educator in 1980, and they were together until his death.[17][18]
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