Norman Myles Kroll (6 April 1922,

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...

– 8 August 2004,

La Jolla, California La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood in San Diego, California, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. The climate is mild, with an average daily temperature o ...

) was an American theoretical physicist, known for his pioneering work in QED. Kroll received in 1942 his bachelor's degree from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

after 2 years of study, having studied from 1938 to 1940 at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. During WW II he did theoretical radar research (

magnetron The cavity magnetron is a high-power vacuum tube used in early radar systems and subsequently in microwave oven, microwave ovens and in linear particle accelerators. A cavity magnetron generates microwaves using the interaction of a stream of ...

theory), during 1943–1945, at Columbia under the supervision of

Willis Lamb Willis Eugene Lamb Jr. (; July 12, 1913 – May 15, 2008) was an American physicist who shared the 1955 Nobel Prize in Physics with Polykarp Kusch "for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum". Lamb was able to p ...

and I. I. Rabi. In 1943 Kroll received his master's degree and in 1948 his PhD from Columbia University with Lamb as thesis advisor. In the academic year 1948–1949 he was a visiting scholar at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

, where he, with Robert Karplus, calculated the QED two-loop contributions for the

anomalous magnetic moment In quantum electrodynamics, the anomalous magnetic moment of a particle is a contribution of effects of quantum mechanics, expressed by Feynman diagrams with loops, to the magnetic moment of that particle. The ''magnetic moment'', also called '' ...

of the electron. Kroll was, with Lamb, one of the first (including

Victor Weisskopf Victor Frederick "Viki" Weisskopf (also spelled Viktor; September 19, 1908 – April 22, 2002) was an Austrian-born American theoretical physicist. He did postdoctoral work with Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, Wolfgang Pauli, and Niels Boh ...

and his student Bruce French) to calculate the relativistic Lamb shift (after

Hans Bethe Hans Albrecht Eduard Bethe (; ; July 2, 1906 – March 6, 2005) was a German-American physicist who made major contributions to nuclear physics, astrophysics, quantum electrodynamics and solid-state physics, and received the Nobel Prize in Physi ...

made a rough, non-relativistic estimate for it). This work was part of the pioneering efforts that led to the QED formalism developed by

Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of t ...

, Julian Schwinger, and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga. Kroll became at Columbia an assistant professor in 1949 and was promoted to associate professor and then full professor before leaving for

UCSD The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing ...

. In the academic year 1955–1956 he was a Sloan Fellow and a Guggenheim Fellow at the University of Rome. He was elected in 1974 to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

. He was a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

and a Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

. Among his doctoral students are Robert Mills and Eyvind Wichmann. In 1960–1981 he was a member of the JASON Defense Advisory Group. Upon his death, Kroll was survived by his wife, four children, and nine grandchildren.

Selected publications

*with Lamb: *with Karplus: *with Malvin A. Ruderman: *with Walter Wada: *with Eyvind H. Wichmann: * *with Tsung-Dao Lee and Bruno Zumino: *with Kenneth M. Watson: *with Marvin Douglas: *with Philip L. Morton and Marshall N. Rosenbluth:

References

External links

Oral history interview with Norman Myles Kroll on 28 June 1986, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
- interview conducted in

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kroll, Norman Myles 1922 births 2004 deaths 20th-century American physicists American theoretical physicists Columbia University alumni Columbia University faculty University of California, San Diego faculty Sloan Research Fellows American people of German descent Fellows of the American Physical Society Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Rice University alumni