Joseph O. Hirschfelder

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Joseph O. Hirschfelder
Thesis (1936)
Doctoral advisorHenry Eyring
Eugene Wigner
Hugh Stott Taylor
Doctoral studentsCharles Francis Curtiss [de]
Robert Byron Bird

Joseph Oakland Hirschfelder (May 27, 1911 – March 30, 1990) was an American physicist who participated in the

nuclear bomb.[1][2]

Biography

Hirschfelder was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of a Jewish couple, Arthur Douglas and May Rosalie (Straus). He completed his undergraduate studies at the

University of Wisconsin
and stayed there until retirement in 1981, except during World War II.
Robert Oppenheimer assembled a team at the Los Alamos Laboratory to work on plutonium gun design Thin Man, that included senior engineer Edwin McMillan and senior physicists Charles Critchfield and Joseph Hirschfelder. Hirschfelder had been working on internal ballistics. Oppenheimer led the design effort himself until June 1943, when Navy Captain William Sterling Parsons arrived took over the Ordnance and Engineering Division and direct management of the "Thin Man" project.[3]
Hirschfelder was a member of the

Hirschfelder was also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[2] He was awarded the National Medal of Science from President Gerald Ford “for his fundamental contributions to atomic and molecular quantum mechanics, the theory of the rates of chemical reactions, and the structure and properties of gases and liquids”.[2]

The National Academies Press called him "one of the leading figures in theoretical chemistry during the period 1935–90".[2] In 1991 an award was established in his name by the University of Wisconsin's Theoretical Chemistry Institute – the annual Joseph O. Hirschfelder Prize in Theoretical Chemistry.[4] He was an elected member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science.[5] His book Molecular theory of gases and liquids is an authoritative text on the kinetic theories of gases and liquids.

Thin Man plutonium gun test casings at Wendover Army Air Field, as part of Project Alberta in the Manhattan Project. A Fat Man casing can be seen behind them.

Awards and distinctions

Joseph O. Hirschfelder Prize is awarded annually by the department of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin in honor of Hirschfelder.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f New York Times: Obituaries: J. O. Hirschfelder, 78, Atom Bomb Developer, March 31, 1990.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l National Academies Press:Biographical Memoirs V. 66 (1995), JOSEPH OAKLAND HIRSCHFELDER, BY R. BYRON BIRD, CHARLES F. CURTISS, AND PHILLIP R. CERTAIN.
  3. ^ Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 83–84.
  4. ^ University of Wisconsin, Joseph O. Hirschfelder Prize Archived 2017-10-28 at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ^ Members of IAQMS.
  6. ^ "Joseph Hirschfelder".
  7. ^ "Alfred C. Egerton Gold Medal | the Combustion Institute". 24 June 2016.
  8. ^ "NSTMF".
  9. ^ "Joseph O. Hirschfelder Prize | UW-Madison Department of Chemistry". Archived from the original on 2018-07-04. Retrieved 2018-07-03.

Source

External links