Richard Barry Bernstein

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Richard Barry Bernstein (born October 31, 1923 in Long Island , New York ; † July 8, 1990 in Helsinki , Finland ) was an American chemist who studied chemical kinetics and is considered one of the founders of femtochemistry .

In 1955 he developed molecular beam scattering methods to study chemical reactions. The availability of ultra-short laser pulses made it possible to resolve the reactions down to the femtosecond range. Most recently he worked with Ahmed Zewail . In 1970, together with his doctoral student Robert J. LeRoy , he developed a theory to semiclassically calculate the oscillation states in molecules near the dissociation threshold.

Bernstein received his bachelor's degree from Columbia University in 1943 and then worked on isotope enrichment in the Manhattan Project . In 1948 he received his PhD in chemistry from Columbia University. He became a professor there and was head of the chemistry faculty. After professorships at the University of Michigan , the University of Texas , the University of Wisconsin – Madison and the Illinois Institute of Technology , he became a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1983 . He died in Helsinki, where he was attending a conference in Moscow for treatment after a heart attack .

In 1956 he became a Sloan Research Fellow . He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1968), was a fellow of the American Physical Society , the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1970). In 1989 he received the National Medal of Science . In 1988 he received the Welch Award in Chemistry , 1985 the NAS Award in Chemical Sciences and 1989 the Willard Gibbs Medal .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Born in Ottawa in 1943. Professor at the University of Waterloo . He received his PhD in 1971 under Bernstein at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
  2. ↑ LeRoy, Bernstein Dissociation energies of diatomic molecules from vibrational spacings of higher levels: application to the halogens , Chemical Physics Letters, Volume 5, 1970, pp. 42-44
  3. ↑ Life data, publications and academic family tree of Richard B. Bernstein at academictree.org, accessed on January 6, 2018.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bernstein, Richard Barry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American chemist
DATE OF BIRTH October 31, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Long Island , New York
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 1990
Place of death Helsinki