Robert Thomas Beyer (January 27, 1920 – August 20, 2008) was an American physicist,Obituary from the Providence Journal at legacy.com
/ref> best known for his work in

acoustics Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...

, and for his translations of Russian and German physics books and journals into English.

Early life and education

Beyer was born in

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Harrisburg ( ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,099 as of 2020, Harrisburg is the ninth-most populous city in Pennsylvania. It is the larger of the two pr ...

, on January 27, 1920. He received his A.B. in Mathematics from Hofstra in 1942, and his doctorate in physics from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in 1945, with a dissertation focused on magnetic amplifiers.

Career

Beyer was hired as an instructor at

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

in 1945, where Robert Bruce Lindsay quickly persuaded him to join the physical acoustics laboratory. He spent his entire career at Brown, being appointed assistant professor in 1947, associate professor in 1951, and full professor in 1958, serving as chairman of the physics department from 1968-74. He co-wrote the book "College Physics" in 1957, followed by the advanced treatises "Physical Ultrasonics" and "Nonlinear Acoustics" in 1969 and 1976, respectively. In 2000, his book "Sounds of Our Times", a history of the science of acoustics since 1800, was published by

Springer Science+Business Media Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Originally founded in 1842 in ...

Translations

Beyer translated

John von Neumann John von Neumann ( ; ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian and American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist and engineer. Von Neumann had perhaps the widest coverage of any mathematician of his time, in ...

's '' Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics'' from German into English, in 1955, for

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

Personal life

Beyer was afflicted with severe rheumatic fever as a teenager, which damaged his heart, and later by multiple sclerosis. He married the former Ellen Fletcher on Valentine's Day in 1944, and they remained devoted to each other until Ellen's death in 2005. They had four children: Catherine Beyer Hurst, Margaret Beyer, Rick Beyer, and Mary Beyer Trotter. He died in August 2008.

References

External links

Oral history interview transcript for Robert T. Beyer on 11 November 1991, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beyer, Robert Thomas 20th-century American physicists 1920 births 2008 deaths Brown University faculty Acousticians People from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Hofstra University alumni Cornell University alumni Fellows of the Acoustical Society of America ASA Gold Medal recipients Fellows of the American Physical Society