Melvin Schwartz (; November 2, 1932 – August 28, 2006) was an American

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 caus ...

. He shared the 1988

Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

with Leon M. Lederman and

Jack Steinberger Jack Steinberger (born Hans Jakob Steinberger; May 25, 1921December 12, 2020) was a German-born American physicist noted for his work with neutrinos, the subatomic particles considered to be elementary constituents of matter. He was a recipient ...

for their development of the

neutrino A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is a fermion (an elementary particle with spin of ) that interacts only via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass ...

beam method and their demonstration of the doublet structure of the

lepton In particle physics, a lepton is an elementary particle of half-integer spin ( spin ) that does not undergo strong interactions. Two main classes of leptons exist: charged leptons (also known as the electron-like leptons or muons), and neut ...

s through the discovery of the

muon A muon ( ; from the Greek letter mu (μ) used to represent it) is an elementary particle similar to the electron, with an electric charge of −1 '' e'' and a spin of , but with a much greater mass. It is classified as a lepton. As ...

neutrino.

Biography

He was Jewish. He grew up in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The Financial contagion, ...

and went to the

Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science, commonly called Bronx Science, is a public specialized high school in The Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science involves passing the S ...

. His interest in physics began there at the age of 12. He earned his

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

(1953) and Ph.D. (1958) at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, where Nobel laureate I. I. Rabi was the head of the physics department. Schwartz became an assistant professor at Columbia in 1958. He was promoted to associate professor in 1960 and full professor in 1963.

Tsung-Dao Lee Tsung-Dao Lee (; born November 24, 1926) is a Chinese-American physicist, known for his work on parity violation, the Lee–Yang theorem, particle physics, relativistic heavy ion (RHIC) physics, nontopological solitons, and soliton stars ...

, a Columbia colleague who had recently won the Nobel prize at age 30, inspired the experiment for which Schwartz received his Nobel. Schwartz and his colleagues performed the experiments which led to their Nobel Prize in the early 1960s, when all three were on the Columbia faculty. The experiment was carried out at the nearby

Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, Long Island, and was formally established in 1947 at the site of Camp Upton, a former U.S. Army base and Japanese internment c ...

. In 1966, after 17 years at Columbia, he moved west to

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

, where

SLAC SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the U.S. Departm ...

, a new accelerator, was just being completed. There, he was involved in research investigating the charge asymmetry in the decay of long-lived neutral kaons and another project which produced and detected relativistic hydrogen-like atoms made up of a pion and a muon. In the 1970s he founded and became president of Digital Pathways. In 1972 he published a textbook on classical electrodynamics that has become a standard reference for intermediate and advanced students for its particularly clear exposition of the basic physical principles of the theory. In 1991, he became Associate Director of High Energy and Nuclear Physics at

. At the same time, he rejoined the Columbia faculty as Professor of Physics. He became I. I. Rabi Professor of Physics in 1994 and retired as Rabi Professor Emeritus in 2000. He spent his retirement years in

Ketchum, Idaho Ketchum is a city in Blaine County, Idaho, located in the central part of the state. The population was 3,555 at the 2020 census, up from 2,689 in 2010. Located in the Wood River Valley, Ketchum is adjacent to Sun Valley and the communities s ...

, and died August 28, 2006 at a Twin Falls, Idaho, nursing home after struggling with Parkinson's disease and hepatitis C.

Awards and honors

* The

(1988) * Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet o ...

(1989)

Publications

*Samios, N. P., Plano, R., Prodell, A., Schwartz, M. and J. Steinberger
"The Parity of the Neutral Pion and the Decay pi Yields 2e + 2e"
Nevis Cyclotron Laboratory,

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United State ...

(through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission),

Office of Naval Research The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an organization within the United States Department of the Navy responsible for the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Established by Congress in 1946, its mission is to pl ...

, (January 1962). *Lee, T. D., Robinson, H., Schwartz, M. and R. Cool
"Intensity of Upward Muon Flux Due to Cosmic-Ray Neutrinos Produced in the Atmosphere"
Nevis Cyclotron Laboratory,

(through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (June 1963). *Franzini, P., Leontic, B., Rahm, D., Samios, N. and M. Schwartz
"Search for Massive Particles Produced in Interactions at 30 BeV"

(through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (January 1965). *G. Danby, J.-M. Gaillard, K. Goulianos, L.M. Lederman, N.B.Mistry, M. Schwartz, J. Steinberger (1962)
"Observation of high-energy neutrino reactions and the existence of two kinds of neutrinos."
''Physical Review Letters'' 9:36

References

External links

1988 Nobel Physics winners
* including the Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1988 ''The First High Energy Neutrino Experiment'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Schwartz, Melvin 1932 births 2006 deaths People from Ketchum, Idaho Nobel laureates in Physics American Nobel laureates Columbia University faculty The Bronx High School of Science alumni Columbia College (New York) alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Experimental physicists Jewish American scientists Jewish physicists Deaths from Parkinson's disease Infectious disease deaths in Idaho Neurological disease deaths in Idaho Brookhaven National Laboratory Nobel laureates Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Physical Society Particle physicists Deaths from hepatitis