Robert F. Christy
Robert Frederick Christy | |
---|---|
Acting President of the California Institute of Technology | |
In office 1977–1978 | |
Preceded by | Harold Brown |
Succeeded by | Marvin Leonard Goldberger |
Personal details | |
Born | Robert Frederick Cohen May 14, 1916 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
Died | October 3, 2012 Pasadena, California, U.S. | (aged 96)
Citizenship | Canadian American |
Alma mater | |
Known for | Christy pits |
Awards | Eddington Medal (1967) Bronze Academic Medal of the Governor-General of Canada (1932) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Physics |
Institutions |
|
Robert Oppenheimer | |
Signature | |
Robert Frederick Christy (May 14, 1916 – October 3, 2012) was a Canadian-American
A graduate of the
In 1942 he joined the Manhattan Project at the
After the war, Christy briefly joined the University of Chicago Physics department before being recruited to join the Caltech faculty in 1946 when Oppenheimer decided it was not practical for him to resume his academic activities. He stayed at Caltech for his academic career, serving as Department Chair, Provost and Acting President. In 1960 Christy turned his attention to astrophysics, creating some of the first practical computation models of stellar oscillations. For this work Christy was awarded the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1967. In the 1980s and 1990s Christy participated in the National Research Council's Committee on Dosimetry, an extended effort to better understand the actual radiation exposure due to the bombs dropped on Japan, and on the basis of that learning, better understand the medical risks of radiation exposure.
Early life
Robert Frederick Cohen was born on May 14, 1916, in Vancouver, British Columbia,[2] the son of Moise Jacques Cohen, an electrical engineer, and his wife Hattie Alberta née Mackay, a school teacher. He was named Robert after his maternal great uncle Robert Wood, and Frederick after Frederick Alexander Christy, the second husband of his maternal grandmother. He had an older brother, John, who was born in 1913. Moise changed the family surname to Christy by deed poll on August 31, 1918. On November 4, Moise was accidentally electrocuted at work.[3] Hattie died after goitre surgery in 1926. Christy and his brother were then cared for by Robert Wood, their grandmother Alberta Mackay, and their great aunt Maud Mackay.[4]
Christy was educated at Magee High School, and graduated in 1932 with the highest examination score in the province of British Columbia. He was awarded the Governor General's Academic Medal, and, importantly in view of his family's limited ability to pay, free tuition to attend the University of British Columbia (UBC). At the award dinner he met the second-place winner, Dagmar Elizabeth von Lieven, whom he dated while at UBC.[5] He received his Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in mathematics and physics with first class honors in 1935, and his Master of Arts (MA) degree in 1937,[6][7] writing a thesis on "Electron attachment and negative ion formation in oxygen".[8]
Manhattan Project
Christy could have graduated in 1940, but could not then be a teaching assistant, and this would have left him jobless and without income.[13] In 1941, Oppenheimer found him a post at the physics department at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).[14] In May 1941, he married Dagmar von Lieven. They had two sons: Thomas Edward (Ted), born in 1944,[15] and Peter Robert, born in 1946.[16] IIT paid Christy $200 per month to teach 27 hours per week for 11 months per annum. To keep abreast of developments in physics, he attended seminars at the University of Chicago.[14] This brought him to the attention of Eugene Wigner, who hired him for the same money that IIT was paying him as a full-time research assistant, commencing in January 1942.[17]
Enrico Fermi and his team from Columbia University arrived at the University of Chicago in January 1942 as part of an effort to concentrate the Manhattan Project's reactor work at the new Metallurgical Laboratory.[18] Fermi arranged with Wigner for Christy to join his group,[19] which was building a nuclear reactor, which Fermi called a "pile", in the squash court under Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. Construction began on November 6, 1942, and Christy was present when Chicago Pile-1 went critical on December 2.[20][21]
In early 1943, Christy joined Oppenheimer's
The discovery by
Later in life, Christy agreed to give a number of both oral history and video interviews in which he discussed his role in the Manhattan Project and latter interests.[31][32]
Later life
After the war ended, Christy accepted an assistant professorship at the University of Chicago, at a salary of $5,000 per annum, twice what he had been making before the war. He moved back to Chicago in February 1946, but suitable housing was hard to find in the immediate post-war period, and Christy and his family shared a mansion with Edward Teller and his family.[33]
Before the war, Oppenheimer had spent part of each year teaching at California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Christy was one of Oppenheimer's Berkeley students who made the trip down to Pasadena, California, each year to continue studying with Oppenheimer.[34] After the war, Oppenheimer decided that with his additional responsibilities he could no longer continue this arrangement. The head of the W. K. Kellogg Radiation Laboratory at Caltech, Charles Lauritsen therefore asked Oppenheimer for the name of a theoretical physicist that he would recommend as a replacement. Oppenheimer recommended Christy. Willy Fowler then approached Christy with an offer of a full-time position at Caltech at $5,400 per annum, and Christy accepted. He remained at Caltech for the rest of his academic career. The drawback to working at Caltech was that neither Lauritsen nor Fowler was a theoretical physicist, so a heavy workload fell on Christy. This was recognised by a pay raise to $10,000 per annum in 1954.[35]
Christy joined Oppenheimer, Lauritsen and
I’ve seen him from time to time. Our relationship has remained cool. Since that time, I have disagreed with him in a number of areas. For example, the Strategic Defense Initiative. I have disagreed with him, but I have not argued with him publicly, because Teller operates at a much different level than I do. He’s a confidant of presidents; I’m not. As I say, I merely disagree privately, and that’s the way it is.[37]
In 1956, Christy was one of a number of scientists from Caltech who publicly called for a ban on atmospheric nuclear testing. The 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that Christy advocated put an end to one of his most unusual projects. He worked with Freeman Dyson on Project Orion, the design of a spacecraft propelled by atomic bombs.[36]
During a sabbatical year at
Christy was appointed vice president and Provost of Caltech in 1970.[38] Under Christy and President Harold Brown Caltech expanded its humanities and added economics to allow (or perhaps to compel—undergrads were required to take 25% of their units in "humanities") students to broaden their education. He had David Morrisroe appointed as vice president for Financial Affairs, and they steered Caltech through the financially stringent 1970s. The first women were admitted as undergraduates in Fall 1970.[39]
When Jenijoy La Belle, who had been hired in 1969 but refused tenure in 1974, filed suit with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Christy pressed for the case to be settled and La Belle to be given tenure. The EEOC ruled against Caltech in 1977, adding that she had been paid less than male colleagues. La Belle received tenure in 1979.[39]
In 1970 he became romantically involved with Inge-Juliana Sackman, a fellow physicist 26 years his junior.[40] He divorced Dagmar in early 1971,[38] and married Juliana on August 4, 1973.[41] They had two daughters, Illia Juliana Lilly Christy, born in 1974, and Alexandra Roberta (Alexa) Christy, born in 1976.[42]
Christy briefly became acting President of Caltech in 1977 when Brown left to become
Christy died on October 3, 2012. He was survived by his wife Juliana, their two daughters, Illia and Alexa, and his two sons, Peter and Ted.[2] He was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, California.[43]
Notes
- .
- ^ a b c "Robert Christy". The Daily Telegraph. October 8, 2012. Retrieved February 23, 2014.
- ^ Christy 2013, pp. 1–5.
- ^ Christy 2013, p. 9.
- ^ Christy 2013, pp. 11–12, 16.
- ^ a b "Noted Physicist Robert F. Christy Dies". Caltech. October 3, 2012. Retrieved February 23, 2014.
- ^ Christy 2013, pp. 14–15.
- ^ "Electron attachment and negative ion formation in oxygen" (PDF). University of British Columbia. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 27, 2014. Retrieved February 23, 2014.
- ^ Christy 2013, pp. 24–25.
- .
- .
- ^ "Cosmic-ray burst production and the spin of the mesotron". University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved February 23, 2014.
- ^ Christy 2013, p. 32.
- ^ a b Christy 2013, pp. 47–48.
- ^ Christy 2013, pp. 36–37.
- ^ Christy 2013, p. 135.
- ^ Christy 2013, p. 52.
- ^ Rhodes 1986, pp. 399–400.
- ^ Christy 2013, p. 53.
- JSTOR 3301034.
- ^ Christy 2013, p. 56.
- ^ Christy 2013, pp. 70–71.
- ^ "Robert F. Christy dies at 96; Manhattan Project physicist". Los Angeles Times. October 5, 2012. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
- S2CID 195339268.
- ^ Hoddeson et al. 1993, p. 77.
- ^ Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 199–203.
- ^ Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 228–229.
- ^ Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 307–308.
- ^ Hoddeson et al. 1993, p. 293.
- ^ Hoddeson et al. 1993, p. 317.
- ^ "Constructing the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb". Archived from the original on October 10, 2014. Retrieved October 7, 2014.
- ^ "Interview with Robert F. Christy, Christy, Robert F. (1998) Interview with Robert F. Christy. [Oral History]". 1998.
- ^ Christy 2013, pp. 134–135.
- ^ Christy 2013, pp. 32–33.
- ^ Christy 2013, pp. 135–138.
- ^ a b c d Goldstein, David; Goldstein, Judith (2013). "Robert F. Christy 1916—2012" (PDF). National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
- S2CID 119947124.
- ^ a b Christy 2013, p. 45.
- ^ a b Christy 2013, pp. 177–185.
- ^ Christy 2013, pp. 202–206.
- ^ Christy 2013, p. 227.
- ^ Christy 2013, p. 236.
- ^ "Noted Physicist Robert F. Christy Dies". CalTech. October 3, 2012. Retrieved January 29, 2023.
References
- Christy, I.-Juliana (2013). Achieving the Rare: Robert F. Christy's Journey in Physics and Beyond. Singapore: World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-4460-24-8.
- OCLC 26764320.
- OCLC 13793436.
External links
- 1983 Audio Interview with Robert Christy by Martin Sherwin Voices of the Manhattan Project
- "Robert Christy tells his life story". Web of Stories. Archived from the original on March 2, 2014. Retrieved February 23, 2014.
- Interview with Robert F. Christy Caltech Oral Histories, Caltech Archives, California Institute of Technology.