Max Dresden
{{Short description|Dutch-American physicist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Max Dresden
| honorific_suffix =
| native_name =
| native_name_lang =
| image =
| image_size =
| image_upright =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date |1918|04|23}}
| birth_place = Amsterdam, Netherlands
| death_date = {{death date and age|1997|10|29|1918|04|23}}
| death_place = Palo Alto, California, U.S.
| death_cause =
| resting_place =
| resting_place_coordinates =
| other_names =
| siglum =
| pronounce =
| citizenship =
| nationality =
| fields =
| workplaces = University of Michigan
University of Kansas
Northwestern University
University of Iowa
Stony Brook University
| patrons =
| education =
| alma_mater = Leiden University
| thesis_title =
| thesis_url =
| thesis_year =
| doctoral_advisor =
| academic_advisors =
| doctoral_students =
| notable_students =
| known_for =
| influences =
| influenced =
| awards =
| author_abbrev_bot =
| author_abbrev_zoo =
| spouse =
| partner =
| children =
| parents =
| father =
| mother =
| relatives =
| signature =
| signature_alt =
| website =
| footnotes =
}}
Max Dresden (April 23, 1918, Amsterdam – October 29, 1997, Palo Alto) was a Dutch-American theoretical physicist and historian of physics. He is known for his research in "statistical mechanics, superconductivity, quantum field theory, and elementary particle physics."{{cite journal |author=Kahn, Peter B. |author2=Yang, Chen Ning|author-link2=Yang Chen-Ning |author3=Perl, Martin L.|author-link3=Martin Lewis Perl |author4=Quinn, Helen R.|author-link4=Helen Quinn |title=Max Dresden (obituary) |journal=Physics Today |volume=51 |number=6 |date=2008 |page=90 |doi=10.1063/1.882286|doi-access=free }} (This obituary erroneously states that Dresden retired from SUNY in 1987 — the correct year is 1989. One of Dresden's former doctoral students, Peter B. Kahn (1935–2016) was the chair, from 1974 to the end of 1985, of the physics department at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.) {{cite web|title=Obituary for Peter Kahn|website=Stony Brook University|url=https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/emeritus/news/kahn-obit.php}}
Biography
Dresden studied at the University of Amsterdam and at the University of Leiden, where he received the Dutch equivalent of an M.S. in 1938 and was a research assistant of H. A. Kramers.{{cite web|title=Max Dresden|website=Physics Tree|url=https://academictree.org/physics/peopleinfo.php?pid=24360}} Kramers helped him get a studentship research position in 1939 at Columbia University under the supervision of Enrico Fermi.{{cite journal|author=McCrea, William|title=Review of H. A. Kramers: Between Tradition and Revolution|date=12 November 1988|journal=New Scientist|page=66|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LkrTkAa10McC&pg=PA66}}{{cite journal|author=Hilborn, Robert C.|title=Max Dresden: 1997 Klopsteg Lecturer|journal=American Journal of Physics|year=1998|volume=66|issue=6|page=468|doi=10.1119/1.18826|bibcode=1998AmJPh..66..468H }} Dresden received his Ph.D. in 1946 from the University of Michigan. His thesis On the Problem of the Approach to Equilibrium in Statistical Mechanics was supervised by George Uhlenbeck.{{cite book|title=Register of Students 1945-1946, University of Michigan Official Publication|year=1947 |publisher=University of Michigan at Ann Arbor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q4CfAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA170|page=170}} In 1949 Dresden became a US citizen.{{cite web |author=David F. Salisbury |url=http://news-service.stanford.edu/pr/97/971104dresden.html |title=Memorial will be held for physicist Max Dresden |publisher=Stanford University | date=November 4, 1997}}
He was from 1946 to 1957 a faculty member of the physics department of the University of Kansas, where he was eventually promoted to full professor. At Northwestern University he was from 1957 to 1960 a professor and chair of the physics department. He was a professor from 1960 to 1964 at the University of Iowa and then from 1964 until his retirement in 1989 at the State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNY), where he headed the Institute for Theoretical Physics. He won four teaching awards at Stony Brook. After his retirement as professor emeritus, he was from 1989 at SLAC a visiting scientist and at Stanford University a consulting professor in the history of physics.{{cite journal|author=Kahn, Peter B.|title=Remembering Max Dresden (1918–1997) |journal=Physics in Perspective |volume=5 |year=2003 |pages=206–233 |doi=10.1007/s00016-003-0167-x}} At various times during his career he held visiting positions at Fermilab, the Johns Hopkins University, the Argonne National Laboratory, the CERN, and the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen.
{{blockquote|His research has spanned nearly all of theoretical physics including statistical mechanics, superconductivity, quantum field theory, the behavior of positrons, parastatistics, symmetries and S matrix theory, particle physics, nonstandard analysis, and nonlinear dynamics.}}
Dresden was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1989.{{cite web|title=Historic Fellows|website=Association for the Advancement of Science|url=https://www.aaas.org/fellows/historic}} (Search on last name "Dresden".) His doctoral students include James T. Cushing, Martin Gutzwiller, Paul Halpern, and Jorge Zanelli.
Selected publications
=Articles=
- {{cite journal|author=Dresden, M.|author2=Albano, A.|date=September 1967|title=Nonlinear space-time transformations related to the Lorentz group|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|volume=58|issue=3|pages=916–922|doi=10.1073/pnas.58.3.916|pmid=16578680 |pmc=335725 |doi-access=free|bibcode=1967PNAS...58..916D }}
- {{cite journal|author=Dresden, M.|author2=Wong, D.|date=March 1975|title=Life games and statistical models|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=72|issue=3|pages=956–960|doi=10.1073/pnas.72.3.956|pmid=1055393 |pmc=432442 |doi-access=free|bibcode=1975PNAS...72..956D }}
- {{cite journal|author=Dresden, Max|title=Kramers's contributions to statistical mechanics|journal=Physics Today|volume=41|issue=9|year=1988|pages=26–33|doi=10.1063/1.881132|bibcode=1988PhT....41i..26D }}
- Chapter 8. Non-equilibrium statistical mechanics or the vagaries of time evolution by Max Dresden, pages 585–633 in Laurie Brown, Abraham Pais, Brian Pippard (editors) [https://books.google.com/books?id=wNMPAQAAMAAJ Twentieth Century Physics], Vol. 1, 1995, IOP Publishing/AIP Press
- Chapter. On personal styles and tastes in physics by Max Dresden, in C.S. Liu, S.T. Yau (editors) [https://books.google.com/books?id=-KrvAAAAMAAJ Chen Ning Yang: a great physicist of the 20th century], International Press 1995
=Books=
- H.A. Kramers: Between Tradition and Revolution, Springer 1987 {{isbn|978-1-4612-9087-2}}; [https://books.google.com/books?id=1ggDCAAAQBAJ 2012 ebook] ebook {{isbn|978-1-4612-4622-0}}
- as editor with Lillian Hoddeson and Laurie Brown: [https://books.google.com/books?id=EX2sgFJhFyQC Pions to quarks: Particle physics in the 1950s], Cambridge University Press 1989{{cite journal|author=Dilworth, C.|title=Review of Pions to Quarks: Particle Physics in the 1950s edited by L. M. Brown, M. Dresden & L. Hoddeson|journal=Science|date=27 July 1990|volume=249|issue=4967|pages=426–427|doi=10.1126/science.249.4967.426|pmid=17755946|bibcode=1990Sci...249..426B}}
- as editor with Lillian Hoddeson, Laurie Brown, and Michael Riordan: [https://books.google.com/books?id=klLUs2XUmOkC The rise of the Standard Model: Particle physics in the 1960s and 1970s], Cambridge University Press 1997 (with an introduction by Hoddeson on The rise of the standard model 1964–1979, pp. 3–35) hbk {{isbn|0-521-570-82-4}}; pbk {{isbn|0-521-57816-7}}
References
External links
- {{cite web|title=Photograph of Max Dresden|website=Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, American Institute of Physics|url=https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/photos/dresden-max-a1}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dresden, Max}}
Category:Leiden University alumni
Category:University of Michigan faculty
Category:University of Kansas faculty
Category:Northwestern University faculty
Category:University of Iowa faculty
Category:Stony Brook University faculty
Category:Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Category:20th-century Dutch physicists
Category:20th-century American physicists