Joseph O. Hirschfelder | |
|---|---|
 Los Alamos badge | |
| Born | (1911-05-27)May 27, 1911 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| Died | March 30, 1990(1990-03-30) (aged 78) |
| Alma mater | University of Minnesota Yale University Princeton University |
| Known for | Hirschfelder–Curtiss variable Backward differentiation formula |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | Institute for Advanced Study University of Wisconsin National Defense Research Committee Los Alamos National Laboratory |
| Thesis | (1936) |
| Doctoral advisor | Henry Eyring Eugene Wigner Hugh Stott Taylor |
| Doctoral students | Charles Francis Curtiss [de] Robert Byron Bird |
Joseph Oakland Hirschfelder (May 27, 1911 – March 30, 1990) was an American physicist who participated in theManhattan Project and in the creation of thenuclear bomb.[1][2]
Hirschfelder was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of a Jewish couple, Arthur Douglas and May Rosalie (Straus). He completed his undergraduate studies at theUniversity of Minnesota from 1927 to 1929 and atYale University from 1929 to 1931. Hirschfelder received doctorates inphysics andchemistry fromPrinceton University[1] under the direction ofEugene Wigner,Henry Eyring andHugh Stott Taylor. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow withJohn von Neumann for a year after his PhD at theInstitute for Advanced Study. In 1937, he moved toUniversity of Wisconsin and stayed there until retirement in 1981, except during World War II.Robert Oppenheimer assembled a team at the Los Alamos Laboratory to work on plutonium gun designThin Man, that included senior engineerEdwin McMillan and senior physicistsCharles Critchfield and Joseph Hirschfelder. Hirschfelder had been working oninternal ballistics. Oppenheimer led the design effort himself until June 1943, when NavyCaptainWilliam Sterling Parsons arrived took over the Ordnance and Engineering Division and direct management of the "Thin Man" project.[3]Hirschfelder was a member of theNational Academy of Sciences,[1][2] a group leader intheoretical physics and ordnance at theLos Alamos Atomic Bomb Laboratory,[1] chief phenomenologist at the nuclear bomb tests at Bikini,[1] the founder of the Theoretical Chemistry Institute and the Homer Adkins professor emeritus of chemistry at theUniversity of Wisconsin.[1]
Hirschfelder was also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[2] He was awarded theNational Medal of Science from PresidentGerald Ford “for his fundamental contributions to atomic and molecular quantum mechanics, the theory of the rates of chemical reactions, and the structure and properties of gases and liquids”.[2]
TheNational Academies Press called him "one of the leading figures in theoretical chemistry during the period 1935–90".[2] In 1991 an award was established in his name by the University of Wisconsin's Theoretical Chemistry Institute – the annual Joseph O. Hirschfelder Prize in Theoretical Chemistry.[4] He was an elected member of theInternational Academy of Quantum Molecular Science.[5] His bookMolecular theory of gases and liquids is an authoritative text on the kinetic theories of gases and liquids.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Joseph O. Hirschfelder Prize is awarded annually by the department of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin in honor of Hirschfelder.[9]
