Robert Marshak

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Robert Eugene Marshak

| honorific-suffix =

| birth_date = October 11, 1916

| death_date = {{Death-date and age|December 23, 1992|October 11, 1916}}

| image = Robert Marshak with radiosodium.jpg

| imagesize =

| smallimage =

| alt = Photo of Marshak in 1939 with a glass of radiosodium he has been drinking for a radioactive tracer experiment

| caption = Marshak in 1939 with a glass of radiosodium he has been drinking from during a radioactive tracer experiment

| order = 8th

| office = President of City College of New York

| term_start = 1970

| term_end = 1979

| predecessor = Buell G. Gallagher

| successor = Bernard W. Harleston

| office2 = President of the American Physical Society

| term_start2 = 1983

| term_end2 = 1983

| predecessor2 = Maurice Goldhaber

| successor2 = Mildred Dresselhaus

| education = Columbia University (BA)
Cornell University (PhD)

}}

Robert Eugene Marshak (October 11, 1916 – December 23, 1992) was an American physicist, educator, and eighth president of the City College of New York.

Biography

Marshak was born in the Bronx, New York City. His parents, Harry and Rose Marshak, were immigrants from Minsk. He went to the City College of New York for one semester and then "received a Pulitzer Scholarship which provided full tuition and a stipend which allowed him to continue his education at Columbia University."{{cite web|last1=Collections|first1=Special|title=Robert E. Marshak: A Brief Biography|url=http://spec.lib.vt.edu/marshk/bio.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20180521195133/http://spec.lib.vt.edu/marshk/bio.htm|archive-date=2018-05-21|access-date=4 August 2014|website=Special Collections|publisher=Virginia Tech}}{{Cite book |last=Columbia College (Columbia University). Office of Alumni Affairs and Development |url=http://archive.org/details/ldpd_12981092_006 |title=Columbia College today |last2=Columbia College (Columbia University) |date=1959 |publisher=New York, N.Y. : Columbia College, Office of Alumni Affairs and Development |others=Columbia University Libraries}}

File:Robert E. Marshak Los Alamos ID badge photo.jpg]]

In 1939, Marshak received his Ph.D. from Cornell University. Along with his thesis advisor, Hans Bethe, he discovered many of the fusion aspects involved in star formation. This helped him on his work for the Manhattan Project, in Los Alamos, during World War II. During this time, he developed an explanation of how shock waves work in extremely high temperatures achieved by a nuclear explosion, and these waves are known as Marshak waves.{{Cite web|title=Robert Marshak|url=https://www.atomicheritage.org/profile/robert-marshak|access-date=2020-11-06|website=Atomic Heritage Foundation|language=en}}

Following the war, Marshak joined the University of Rochester Department of Physics, becoming head of the department in 1950.{{Cite book|last1=Henley|first1=Ernest M.|url=http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/marshak-robert.pdf|title=Robert Eugene Marshak, 1916-1992|last2=Lustig|first2=Harry|publisher=National Academies Press|year=1999|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=7}}

In 1947, at the Shelter Island Conference, Marshak presented his two-meson hypothesis about the pi-meson, which were discovered shortly thereafter.{{cite book |last=Mehra |first= Jagdish |title=The Beat of a Different Drum: The life and science of Richard Feynman |year= 1994 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location= Oxford, England |isbn= 978-0-19-853948-3 |pages=245–249 }} Three years later, Marshak established the Rochester Conference while chair of the University of Rochester's physics department. This later became known as the International Conference on High Energy Physics.

In 1957, Marshak and George Sudarshan proposed a V-A ("vector" minus "axial vector") Lagrangian for weak interactions, which eventually paved the way for the electroweak theory. This theory was later presented by Richard Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann, which later contributed to each winning a Nobel Prize in Physics. Sudarshan stated that Gell-Mann had learned the theory from him at the Rochester Conference.{{Cite web|date=2018-05-14|title=ECG Sudarshan Missed Out on Physics Nobel Despite Several Nominations. It Was the Prize's Loss|url=https://www.news18.com/news/opinion/renowned-physicist-ecg-sudarshan-missed-out-on-nobel-despite-many-nominations-it-was-the-prizes-loss-1748947.html|access-date=2020-11-06|website=News18|language=en}} Similarly, Richard Feynman learned about the theory from a discussion with Marshak in a conference. Feynman acknowledged Marshak and Sudarshan's contribution in 1963 stating that the V-A theory was discovered by Sudarshan and Marshak and publicized by Gell-Mann and himself.Mehra, p. 477.

Marshak was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1958, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1961, and the American Philosophical Society in 1983.{{Cite web |title=Robert E. Marshak |url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/52919.html |access-date=2022-05-25 |website=www.nasonline.org}}{{Cite web |title=Robert Eugene Marshak |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/robert-eugene-marshak |access-date=2022-05-25 |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Robert+Marshak&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2022-05-25 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}

In 1970, Marshak left Rochester to become president of the City College of New York.{{cite journal|author=Daniels, Lee A.|date=25 December 1992|title=Robert E. Marshak, 76, Ex-Head of City College|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/25/nyregion/robert-e-marshak-76-ex-head-of-city-college.html|journal=New York Times|url-access=registration}} He left to become university distinguished professor at Virginia Tech, retiring in 1991.

Marshak shared the 1982 J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize with Maurice Goldhaber.{{cite journal |author= |title=Oppenheimer Prize awarded to Goldhaber and Marshak |journal=Physics Today |volume=35 |issue=9 |date=September 1982 |page=89 |doi=10.1063/1.2915276 |bibcode = 1982PhT....35i..89. }} The next year he served as the president of the American Physical Society, previously having served on its council (1965-1969), as chairman of its Division of Particles and Fields (1969-1970), and as vice-president.Henley and Lustig, p. 18.

Marshak died by accidental drowning in Cancún, Mexico. In addition to Sudarshan, his doctoral students include Susumu Okubo{{Citation needed|date=November 2020}}, Rabindra Mohapatra and Tullio Regge.{{MathGenealogy|id=106484}}

Selected works

Marshak, Robert E. (1952). Meson Physics. New York: McGraw-Hill. {{OCLC|459312979}}
Marshak, Robert E.; Radha, T.K.; Raman, K. (1963?) Theory of Weak Interactions of Elementary Particles. Matscience report no. 10. Madras: Institute of Mathematical Sciences. {{OCLC|474785}}
Marshak, Robert E.; Blaker, J. Warren; Bethe, Hans A.; et al. (1966). Perspectivies in Modern Physics: Essays in Honor of Hans A. Bethe on the Occasion of His 60th Birthday, July 1966. New York: Interscience Publishers. {{OCLC|418981}}
Marshak, Robert E.; Riazuddin; Ryan, Ciaran P. (1969). Theory of Weak Interactions in Particle Physics. New York: Wiley-Interscience. {{OCLC|977600031}}
Marshak, Robert E.; Wurtemburg, Gladys (1982). Academic Renewal in the 1970s : Memoirs of a City College President. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America. {{ISBN|0819127795|9780819127792|0819127809|9780819127808}} {{OCLC|8763508}}
Marshak, Robert E. (1993). Conceptual Foundations of Modern Particle Physics. Singapore: World Scientific. {{ISBN|9810210981|9789810210984|9810211066|9789810211066}} {{OCLC|925757241}}

Notes

Resources

Henley, Ernest M.; Lustig, Harry (1999). [http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/marshak-robert.pdf Robert Eugene Marshak, 1916-1992.] Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. {{OCLC|681760054}}
Sudarshan, E.C.G.; et al. (1995). A Gift of Prophecy: Essays in Celebration of the Life of Robert Eugene Marshak. Singapore: World Scientific, 1995. {{ISBN|9789812831408|9812831401}} {{OCLC|854972413}}

External links

[https://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=oai/lib.vt.edu/repositories/2/resources/3579.oai_ead.xml Robert E. Marshak Papers, Ms1988-060] at Virginia Tech [https://spec.lib.vt.edu/ Special Collections and University Archives]
[https://cuny-network.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CUNY_NETWORK/frf9ms/alma991026664439706121 Robert Eugene Marshak Collection] at the City College of New York
[http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/52919.html Biographical Memoir] at the National Academy of Sciences
{{MathGenealogy|id=106484|title=Robert Eugene Marshak}}
[https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4760-1 Robert Marshak Oral History Interviews] from the American Institute of Physics