Curtis J. Humphreys

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Curtis Judson Humphreys (born February 17, 1898 in Columbiana County , † November 22, 1986 in Delaware (Ohio) ) was an American physicist.

Life

Humphreys received his doctorate in 1928 from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor with an experimental thesis in the field of spectroscopy. Although he later worked mainly experimentally, one of his early publications, which he wrote in collaboration with Samuel Goudsmit , was devoted to a theoretical problem in spectroscopy. Between 1928 and 1953 he worked mainly at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS). When the research laboratories of the NBS were transferred to the Department of Navy in 1953 , he became head of the infrared spectroscopy department in Corona (California) and then head of the entire research department in 1957. After retiring, he worked at Purdue University .

From around 1930, Humphreys dedicated himself to determining wavelengths with the Fabry-Pérot interferometer . His research group made important contributions to the International System of Wavelength Standards for about four decades , with the early work specifically concerned with the spectral analysis of krypton and xenon and their ions. In the early 1950s he made a significant advance in the use of radiometric methods to analyze the emission spectrum of atomic hydrogen in the infrared range. The series of spectral lines he discovered is also known as the Humphreys series . In the following years he also worked on improving the techniques of IR spectroscopy.

In 1941 he became a Fellow of the American Physical Society .

literature

  • Kenneth L. Andrew: Curtis Judson Humphreys (obituary) . In: Physics Today . tape 40 , no. 8 , 1987, pp. 84-86 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ S. Goudsmit, CJ Humphreys: Multiplet separations . In: Physical Review . tape 31 , 1928, pp. 960-966 .
  2. ^ Curtis J. Humphreys: The Sixth Series in the Spectrum of Atomic Hydrogen . In: Journal of Research of the National Bureau of Standards . tape 50 , no. 1 , 1953, p. 1-6 .
  3. ↑ APS Fellow Archive. APS Fellows 1941. American Physical Society, accessed December 11, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Humphreys, Curtis J.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Humphreys, Curtis Judson (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH February 17, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Columbiana County
DATE OF DEATH November 22, 1986
Place of death Delaware (Ohio)