Bernard Lippmann
Bernard Abram Lippmann (born 1915 in Brooklyn ; † February 12, 1988 in Palo Alto ) was an American theoretical physicist .
Lippmann studied electrical engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn with a bachelor's degree in 1934 and physics at the University of Michigan with a master's degree in 1935. He then worked as an engineer in industry. During World War II he went to the MIT Radiation Laboratory, where he worked on microwave technology and radar. In 1948 he received his doctorate under Julian Schwinger at Harvard University , where he had been researching since 1946. At the same time he was head of the radar receiver group at Submnarine Signal Company in Boston. He then went to the Naval Research Laboratory, where he studied the motion of charged particles in magnetic fields. In 1953/54 he made an important contribution to the scattering on periodic surfaces. At the same time he was working on nuclear reactors for Nuclear Development Associates. He spent a year on magnetohydrodynamics at the Department of Mathematics at New York University and a year as head of the solid state physics group at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. From 1957 to 1962 he was at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, where he investigated electromagnetic and quantum mechanical scattering problems. He then headed four years Physics Group at the General Research Corporation in Santa Barbara and was 1968/69 at the Goddard Institute of Space Studes NASA in New York City. From 1969 until his retirement in 1977 he was a professor at New York University. After his early retirement, he moved to California and worked for the Physics International Company in San Leandro , California, which manufactured high-intensity electron beam generators. He was also a consultant at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC).
He is known for the Lippmann-Schwinger equation in scattering theory, which arose from his dissertation. He was often asked whether he was the Lippmann in the Lippmann-Schwinger equation. On one occasion Schwinger was also present and the amused Lippmann asked Schwinger in response whether he was the Schwinger from the Lippmann-Schwinger equation.
Much of his other work was in applied physics and classified.
According to Keller, he had a special gift for finding simple methods for problems that would otherwise be approached with cumbersome and difficult methods.
literature
- Joseph B. Keller : Bernard A. Lippmann, Physics Today, Volume 42, Issue 6, 1989, p. 110
Individual evidence
- ↑ Life data according to Keller's obituary in Physics Today 1989
- ^ Obituary by Keller on Lippmann, Physics Today 1989
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lippmann, Bernard |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lippmann, Bernard Abram |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American physicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1915 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Brooklyn |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 12, 1988 |
| Place of death | Palo Alto |