Aaron Novick
Aaron Novick | |
---|---|
Born | Los Alamos Laboratory University of Oregon | June 24, 1919
Thesis | I. A kinetic study of the chromic acid oxidation of isopropyl alcohol. II. The iodination of fibroin. (1943) |
Aaron Novick (June 24, 1919 – December 21, 2000) is considered one of the founders of molecular biology. He started the University of Oregon's Institute of Molecular Biology, believed to be the first of its kind in the world, in 1959.
A graduate of the
Early life
Aaron Novick was born in Toledo, Ohio, on June 24, 1919, the son of Polish immigrants Sam and Rose Haring Novick.[1][2] His father worked as a tailor. He had two sisters, Esther and Mary, and a brother, Meyer. In 1936, he and Meyer built a telescope to watch Peltier's comet.[2][3] Later that year, they built a larger telescope, for which they painstakingly ground a 6.5 inches (170 mm) lens.[2] He attended Woodward High School, where he played on the football team and was editor of the student newspaper. He graduated in 1937, and was elected to its Hall of Fame in 1986.[2]
Novick was awarded a scholarship by the University of Chicago,[4] where he earned a Bachelor of Science (SB) degree in chemistry in 1940.[5] He went to on complete his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) there, writing his two-part 1943 thesis on "A kinetic study of the chromic acid oxidation of isopropyl alcohol" and "The iodination of fibroin".[6][7]
Manhattan Project
After completing his degree, Novick joined the
A
After the war ended, Novick returned to Chicago, where he worked with Herbert L. Anderson at the Manhattan Project's Argonne National Laboratory, studying the properties of tritium, an important component in nuclear weapons. Tritium could be manufactured in nuclear reactors and used to produce helium-3, a crucial material in cryogenics research and in neutron detection. They measured the magnetic moment of both tritium and helium-3,[9][10] and Novick measured the half-life of tritium.[11]
Later life
In 1947, Novick became an
Novick married Jane Graham, a 1945 University of Chicago alumna, in Chicago on January 25, 1948.
For many years, Novick participated actively in the Atomic Scientists movement, and he served on the editorial board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.[7] In 1969, he was part of a successful campaign by Eugene residents to prevent the Eugene Water & Electric Board from switching to nuclear power. He was opposed to the Vietnam War, and at a meeting of the Arms Control Forum he was jeered by students shouting "Go back to Russia, you commies!"[19]
Novick's career as a researcher ended when he became Dean of the Graduate School in 1971. He subsequently served as head of the Biology Department and as director of the Institute of Molecular Biology again. He retired in 1984, but remained director on a part-time basis until he became a
Notes
- ^ a b c d "Aaron Novick". The Register-Guard. December 26, 2000. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- ^ Toledo Blade. December 24, 2000. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- Courier-Mail. National Library of Australia. August 7, 1936. p. 13. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- ^ a b c d "A remarkable man – Aaron Novick dedicated life to science, arms control". The Register-Guard. December 23, 2000. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- ^ a b c "Deaths – Faculty, Staff, and Friends". University of Chicago Magazine. April 2001. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- OCLC 81265262. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e "Who is Who – 12th Annual World Affairs Conference" (PDF). April 6–11, 1959. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 30, 2015. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- ^ Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 394–397.
- ^ Hoddeson et al. 1993, p. 417.
- .
- .
- ^ Lanouette & Silard 1992, pp. 377–378.
- ISSN 1521-9615. The chemostat was independently invented the same year by Jacques Monod.
- PMID 14787503.
- ^ Hargittai 2006, pp. 143–144.
- ^ "Aaron Novick". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- ^ a b "It's a Party: Institute of Molecular Biology celebrates 50 years". Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- ^ a b c Stahl, Franklin W. "Meeting of the University Assembly 20 May 2001". University of Oregon. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- ^ Bears, George (January 26, 2001). "Aaron Novick helped build bomb, then atoned for it". The Oregonian. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
References
- Hargittai, István (2006). The Martians of Science: Five Physicists Who Changed the Twentieth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press. OCLC 62084304.
- OCLC 26764320.
- Lanouette, William; Silard, Bela (1992). Genius in the Shadows: A Biography of Leo Szilárd: The Man Behind The Bomb. New York: Skyhorse Publishing. OCLC 25508555.
- Novick, Aaron (May 24, 1947). Half-life of Tritium. Oak Ridge, Tennessee: OCLC 609158581. Retrieved May 30, 2015.