Eugene Rabinowitch

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Eugene I. Rabinowitch (born April 27, 1901 in Saint Petersburg , Russian Empire , † May 15, 1973 in Washington, DC ) was an American biophysicist of Russian origin. His parents Isaac and Zinaida Rabinowitch (née Weinlud) were Jews and came to Berlin in 1921 .

Since March 12, 1932 he was married to Anya Mejerson. The couple had two children, the twins Alexander and Victor (born August 30, 1934).

life and work

Rabinowitch studied chemistry in Berlin and received his doctorate in 1926. After working for some time at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute , he moved to the University of Göttingen , where he worked with James Franck . Due to the National Socialist laws against Jews and opposition members of 1933, Rabinowitch lost his job and went to Copenhagen to see Niels Bohr . He was then in Great Britain from 1934 to 1938. In 1938 he went to the USA. From 1939 to 1944 he was involved in the Cabot Solar Energy Research Project at MIT . In 1944 he became head of the Metallurgical Laboratory, the research center for the Manhattan Project . James Franck was its director.

Together with other leading employees of the laboratory such as Leó Szilárd , Rabinowitch wrote the so-called Franck Report , which spoke out against the use of the atomic bomb. After the war, he and Hyman Goldsmith founded the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , which takes a critical look at nuclear policy. Rabinowitch was the chief editor there for 20 years.

He continued his scientific career at the University of Illinois . There he worked on the study of photosynthesis . In 1968 he ended his career there and worked again at the State University of New York in Albany as a professor of botany and chemistry.

He was also politically active. Since 1957 he was a member of the International Continuing Committee of Pugwash and from 1969 to 1970 its president.

In 1953 Rabinowitch was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1965 he received the Kalinga Prize for Popularizing Science.

Books (selection)

  • Eugene Rabinowitch and Joseph J. Katz: Chemistry of Uranium , McGraw-Hill, 1951
  • Eugene Rabinowitch: Dawn of a New Age , Univ. Chicago Press, 1963, ISBN 0226701751
  • Eugene Rabinowitch: Photosynthesis , Wiley, October 1969, ISBN 0471704245
  • Victor and Eugene Rabinowitch: Views on Science, Technology and Development , Elsevier, 1975, ISBN 0080182410

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Members of the American Academy. Listed by election year, 1950-1999 ( [1] ). Retrieved September 23, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Rabinowitch, Eugene
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rabinowitch, Eugene I.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American chemist and biophysicist
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint Petersburg , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH May 15, 1973
Place of death Washington, DC