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Giulio (Yoel) Racah (; February 9, 1909 – August 28, 1965) was an Italian–Israeli
Timeline
(at Racah Institute of Physics at Hebrew University)
Link to Racah Crater on Google Moon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Racah, Giulio 20th-century Italian mathematicians 20th-century Israeli physicists 20th-century Israeli mathematicians 20th-century Italian physicists Italian emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Italian Zionists 20th-century Italian Jews University of Florence alumni Academic staff of the University of Pisa Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel Prize in exact science recipients Israel Prize in exact science recipients who were mathematicians Israel Prize in exact science recipients who were physicists Members of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Scientists from Florence 1909 births 1965 deaths Jewish physicists Presidents of universities in Israel Italian refugees Burials at Har HaMenuchot Weizmann Prize recipients
Giulio (Yoel) Racah (; February 9, 1909 – August 28, 1965) was an Italian–Israeli physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
and mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
. He was Acting President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...
from 1961 to 1962.
The crater Racah on the Moon is named after him.
Biography
Giulio (Yoel) Racah was born inFlorence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
, Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
. On his mother's side, Racah's family claimed to trace its ancestry in Italy back to the destruction of the Second Temple. He earned his Doctorate from the University of Florence in 1930, and continued his studies at Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
with Enrico Fermi.
In 1939, due to application of Anti-Jewish laws in Italy, Racah emigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine. In the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Racah served as deputy commander of the Israeli forces defending Mount Scopus.
Racah died at the age of 56, apparently asphyxiated by gas from a faulty heater while visiting Florence.
Academic and scientific career
In 1937 Racah was appointed Professor of Physics at the University of Pisa. In 1939, after his move to Palestine, he was appointed Professor of Theoretical Physics at theHebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...
, He later became Dean of the Faculty of Sciences and finally Rector and acting president from 1961 to 1962, following Benjamin Mazar and succeeded by Eliahu Eilat. The physics institute at the Hebrew University is named " The Racah Institute of Physics".
Racah's research was mainly in the fields of quantum physics
Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...
and atomic spectroscopy
Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets electromagnetic spectra. In narrower contexts, spectroscopy is the precise study of color as generalized from visible light to all bands of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Spectro ...
. He first devised a systematic general procedure for classifying the energy level
A quantum mechanics, quantum mechanical system or particle that is bound state, bound—that is, confined spatially—can only take on certain discrete values of energy, called energy levels. This contrasts with classical mechanics, classical pa ...
s of open shell atoms, which remains to this day the accepted technique for practical calculations of atomic structure. This formalism was described in a monograph coauthored by his cousin Ugo Fano (''Irreducible Tensorial Sets'', 1959).
Awards and recognition
In 1958, Racah was awarded theIsrael Prize
The Israel Prize (; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor.
History
Prior to the Israel Prize, the most significant award in the arts was the Dizengoff Prize and in Israel ...
in exact sciences.
See also
* Racah W-coefficient * Racah parameter * Racah polynomials * Racah seniority number * Racah Lectures in Physics *List of Israel Prize recipients
This is an incomplete list of recipients of the Israel Prize from the inception of the Prize in 1953 - 2025.
List
For each year, the recipients are, in most instances, listed in the order in which they appear on the official Israel Prize website ...
* Science and technology in Israel
References
External links
Timeline
(at Racah Institute of Physics at Hebrew University)
Link to Racah Crater on Google Moon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Racah, Giulio 20th-century Italian mathematicians 20th-century Israeli physicists 20th-century Israeli mathematicians 20th-century Italian physicists Italian emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Italian Zionists 20th-century Italian Jews University of Florence alumni Academic staff of the University of Pisa Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel Prize in exact science recipients Israel Prize in exact science recipients who were mathematicians Israel Prize in exact science recipients who were physicists Members of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Scientists from Florence 1909 births 1965 deaths Jewish physicists Presidents of universities in Israel Italian refugees Burials at Har HaMenuchot Weizmann Prize recipients