John Torrence Tate Sr. (July 28, 1889 – May 27, 1950) was an American physicist noted for his editorship of
John Torrence Tate Jr.
Biography
Tate was born on 28 July 1889 in Lenox, Iowa. He attended the
University of Nebraska, studying electrical engineering, earning a BS in 1910. He continued at the University of Nebraska, shifting his focus to physics and earning an MA in 1912. Like many American students interested in pursuing advanced degrees in physics, he departed for Germany to further his studies, earning a PhD under James Franck in 1914, with a dissertation on "The Heat of Vaporization of Metals." He returned to the University of Nebraska as a faculty member, where he stayed until 1916, when he was offered a post at the University of Minnesota. With the exception of brief sabbaticals to conduct war-related work, Tate remained at Minnesota for the following 34 years. Tate Laboratory of Physics at the University of Minnesota is named in his honor.[1][2]
Editor of Physical Review
While a professor at the University of Minnesota, Tate presided over the growth of the Physical Review into a high impact journal. Physicist
quantum revolution, and in particular the rapidity with which he published papers relating to quantum phenomena.[2]
Reviewing Einstein and Rosen
On the 1st of June 1936 Tate, as the editor of the Physical Review, received a submission from
H.P. Robertson
, who made an anonymous critical peer review (correctly) questioning the basic conclusion of the paper. On the 23rd of July, Tate returned the submission with the anonymous review. On the 27th of July, Einstein replied:
Dear Sir,
We (Mr. Rosen and I) had sent you our manuscript for publication and had not authorized you to show it to specialists before it is printed. I see no reason to address the—in any case erroneous—comments of your anonymous expert. On the basis of this incident I prefer to publish the paper elsewhere.
