Matthew Sands
Matthew Sands | |
---|---|
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center | |
Thesis | The meson component of cosmic radiation (1948) |
Doctoral advisor | Bruno Rossi |
Matthew Linzee Sands (October 20, 1919 – September 13, 2014) was an American
After the war, Sands studied cosmic rays for his doctorate at the
Early life and education
Matthew Linzee Sands was born in Oxford, Massachusetts, on October 20, 1919. His parents were Linzee Sands and Beatrice Goyette, both of whom were bookkeepers. He had a brother, Roger, and a sister, Claire, who was seven years younger. As a 12-year-old Boy Scout, Sands was motivated by his scoutmaster, who was a radio amateur, to build his own shortwave radio receiver. With the aid of information from the Radio Amateur's Handbook, he constructed it out of parts scavenged from old radios. He was encouraged to study mathematics and science by his high school math teacher, John Chafee, a graduate of Brown University.[2]
After high school, Sands entered
Sand went on to receive his
World War II
In 1941, Sands went to the
By 1943, Sands had become impatient with the Navy's bureaucracy. After discussing the situation with Wilson, he appeared unannounced in
By this time, Sands had extensive experience with electronics and was immediately thrust into the electronics group, which was tasked with making instruments for the whole laboratory, and whose head was
In 1945, the Los Alamos Laboratory carried out the
To raise public consciousness of issues raised by Trinity, David Hawkins, William Higinbotham, Philip Morrison, Robert Wilson, Sands, and others formed the Los Alamos Association of Atomic Scientists. As a founding member, Sands put out its weekly newsletter. On November 30, 1945, this organization merged with similar groups within the Manhattan Project and at Oak Ridge to form the Federation of Atomic Scientists, which soon changed its name to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).[13]
In 1946, Sands and Elmore wrote "Electronics: Experimental Techniques", which was published in 1949 by
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
After the success of the
Within MIT's new
With Rossi as his
Another project of the Laboratory for Nuclear Science was a
In 1948, Sands divorced his first wife, Elizabeth, in Reno, Nevada. She remained in Weston, Massachusetts, with their two children, while Sands married Eunice Hawthorne, a sister-in-law of his high school math teacher, John Chafee, and moved with her into MIT's Westgate housing units for married students.[22][23] In early 1950, in his words:
... my ex-wife had a father who had a fair amount of money, and they decided to make trouble for me, and were going to throw me in jail as a bigamist because they claimed my (Reno) divorce was not legal and so on. So I'm famous around MIT as the person who had to leave in the middle of the night and not come back.[2]
Later life
Sands went to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he helped build and operate a 1.5 GeV electron synchrotron. He was the first to demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, the role of quantum effects in electron particle accelerators. He also studied beam instabilities, wake fields, beam-cavity interactions, and other phenomena.[5]
In 1963, Sands became deputy director for the construction and early operation of the
From 1960 to 1966, Sands served on the Commission on College Physics, which carried out a national program to modernize physics instruction in the colleges and universities of the United States. He helped Feynman and
Sands died in Santa Cruz on September 13, 2014. He was survived by his wife Freya, his daughter, Michelle, sons Michael and Richard, and brother Roger.[26]
References
- ^ a b c d Stephens, Tim (April 20, 1998). "Professor emeritus wins physics prize". University of Santa Cruz Currents.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Aaserud, Finn (May 4–5, 1987). "Oral History Transcript — Dr. Matthew Sands". Center for History of Physics; The Niels Bohr Library & Archives. American Physical Society. Archived from the original on August 20, 2016. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
- ^ "Theodore "Ted" P. Jorgensen". The Scarlet. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. April 15, 2010. Archived from the original on May 13, 2012. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
- ^ Wilford, John Noble (October 5, 1982). "A Salute To Long Neglected 'Father Of American Rocketry'". New York Times. Archived from the original on March 6, 2014. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
- ^ a b "Matthew Sands biography". American Physical Society. Archived from the original on May 5, 2015. Retrieved September 14, 2014.
- ^ Keithley Instruments Inc. History. St. James Press. 1967.
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help) - ^ Keithley and Sands Patents: 297969: Microphone For The Measurement Of Transient Pressures In A Body Of Water1 Archived 2016-04-18 at the Wayback Machine,4185556: Mine firing system Archived 2016-04-13 at the Wayback Machine, 3044398: Pressure-Time Responsive Electronic Firing Device Archived 2016-04-16 at the Wayback Machine; US Patent and Trademark Office
- ^ Pray, Rusty (February 1, 2003). "William C. Elmore, 93, physics professor". philly.com. The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
- ^ Sands, Matthew L. (July 19, 1948). "Pulse Height Analyzer". Patent number: 2529666. US Patent and Trademark Office. Archived from the original on September 16, 2014. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
- ^ Sands, Matthew L.; William C. Elmore; Otto R. Frisch (March 19, 1945). "Pulse Amplifier". Patent number: 2531164. US Patent and Trademark Office. Archived from the original on April 2, 2016. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
- ^ Sands, Matthew L. (September 1, 1950). "Automatic Temperature Regulator". Patent number: 2646544. US Patent and Trademark Office. Archived from the original on September 16, 2014. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
- ^ Sands, Matthew L. (August 17, 1948). "Electroplating Control System". Patent number: 2584816. US Patent and Trademark Office. Archived from the original on September 16, 2014. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
- ^ Goldsmith, H. H.; S. Rabinowitch (September 1, 1946). "Federation of American Scientists". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Atomic Scientists of Chicago. p. 24. Archived from the original on April 14, 2016. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
- ^ Elmore, William C.; Sands, Matthew L. (1949). Electronics: experimental techniques. McGraw-Hill Book Co. pp. 417. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help) - ^ "The History of the MIT Department of Physics". Big Physics at MIT : 1946-1970. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Archived from the original on April 3, 2013. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
- ^ Bush, Vannevar (July 1945). Science The Endless Frontier. Washington: United States Government Printing Office. Archived from the original on January 16, 2013. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help) - OCLC 24628294.
- . Retrieved February 2, 2013.
- Bibcode:1948PhDT........10S.
- ^ "Compton Gives Promotions to 9 Professors" (PDF). The Tech. MIT. April 6, 1948. p. 1. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 10, 2012. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
- ^ "Synchrotron Passes Tests" (PDF). The Tech. MIT. February 7, 1950. pp. 1–3. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 11, 2012. Retrieved February 3, 2013.
- ^ Smith, Nancy DuVergne; Debbie Levey (August 12, 2012). "How WWII Veterans Changed the MIT Landscape". Slice of MIT blog. MIT Alumni Association. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
- ^ Sands, Matthew L.; Joseph F. Keithley (December 30, 1949). "Patent which gives 11 Westgate, Cambridge, MA as address for Sands". Patent number: 3044398. US Patent and Trademark Office. Archived from the original on September 20, 2016. Retrieved February 3, 2013.
- ISBN 9780393019216.
- OCLC 243743850.
- ^ a b "Matthew Linzee Sands Obituary". Santa Cruz Sentinel. September 17, 2014. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved September 18, 2014.