Robert Hofstadter (February 5, 1915 – November 17, 1990) was an American physicist. He was the joint winner of the 1961

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 " ...

(together with

Rudolf Mössbauer Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer (German spelling: ''Mößbauer''; ; 31 January 1929 – 14 September 2011) was a German physicist best known for his 1957 discovery of ''recoilless nuclear resonance fluorescence'' for which he was awarded the 1961 Nobe ...

) "for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in

atomic nuclei The atomic nucleus is the small, dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom, discovered in 1911 by Ernest Rutherford based on the 1909 Geiger–Marsden gold foil experiment. After the discovery of the neutron ...

and for his consequent discoveries concerning the structure of nucleons".R. W. McAllister & Robert Hofstadter, "Elastic Scattering of 188 MeV Electrons from Proton and the Alpha Particle," ''Physical Review'', V102, p. 851 (1956). including his Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1961 ''The Electron-Scattering Method and Its Application to the Structure of Nuclei and Nucleons''

Biography

Hofstadter was born into a Jewish family in New York City on February 5, 1915, to Polish immigrants, Louis Hofstadter, a salesman, and Henrietta,

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Koenigsberg. He attended elementary and high schools in New York City and entered

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

, graduating with a B.S. degree '' magna cum laude'' in 1935 at the age of 20, and was awarded the Kenyon Prize in Mathematics and Physics. He also received a Charles A. Coffin Foundation Fellowship from the

General Electric Company The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications, and engineering. The company was founded in 1886, was Britain's largest private employer with over 250 ...

, which enabled him to attend graduate school at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

, where he earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at the age of 23. His doctoral dissertation was titled "Infra-red absorption by light and heavy formic and acetic acids." He did his post-doctoral research at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

and was an assistant professor at Princeton before joining

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 ...

. Hofstadter taught at Stanford from 1950 to 1985. In 1942 he married Nancy Givan (1920–2007), a native of

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

. They had three children: Laura, Molly (who was disabled and not able to communicate), and

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...

-winner Douglas Hofstadter.

Opus

Thallium-activated sodium iodide gamma ray detector

In 1948 Hofstadter filed a patent on this for the detection of

ionizing radiation Ionizing radiation (or ionising radiation), including nuclear radiation, consists of subatomic particles or electromagnetic waves that have sufficient energy to ionize atoms or molecules by detaching electrons from them. Some particles can travel ...

by this crystal. These Thallium-activated sodium iodide detectors are widely used for gamma ray detection to this day.

Coining of the fermi (unit) and 1961 Nobel Lecture

Robert Hofstadter coined the term

fermi Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and t ...

, symbol fm, in honor of the Italian

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 ...

Enrico Fermi Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" an ...

(1901–1954), one of the founders of nuclear physics, in Hofstadter's 1956 paper published in the '' Reviews of Modern Physics'' journal, "Electron Scattering and Nuclear Structure". The term is widely used by nuclear and

particle In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from ...

physicists. When Hofstadter was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize in Physics, it subsequently appears in the text of his 1961 Nobel Lecture, "The electron-scattering method and its application to the structure of nuclei and nucleons" (December 11, 1961).

Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and EGRET Telescope

In his last few years, Hofstadter became interested in

astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...

and applied his knowledge of

scintillator A scintillator is a material that exhibits scintillation, the property of luminescence, when excited by ionizing radiation. Luminescent materials, when struck by an incoming particle, absorb its energy and scintillate (i.e. re-emit the absorbe ...

s to the design of the

EGRET Egrets ( ) are herons, generally long-legged wading birds, that have white or buff plumage, developing fine plumes (usually milky white) during the breeding season. Egrets are not a biologically distinct group from herons and have the same buil ...

gamma-ray telescope Gamma-ray astronomy is the astronomical observation of gamma rays,Astronomical literature generally hyphenates "gamma-ray" when used as an adjective, but uses "gamma ray" without a hyphen for the noun. the most energetic form of electromagneti ...

of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory named for fellow Nobel Laureate in Physics (1927), Arthur Holly Compton.

's Department of Physics credits Hofstadter with being "one of the principal scientists who developed the Compton Observatory."

Awards and honors

* 1958, elected to National Academy of Sciences. * 1961

, joint winner with

, "for his ofstadter'spioneering studies of electron scattering in

and for his consequent discoveries concerning the structure of nucleons." *

has an annual lecture series named after Hofstadter, th
Robert Hofstadter Memorial Lectures
which consists of two lectures each year, one oriented toward the general public and the other oriented toward scientists. * 1970, elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) 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, a ...

. * 1984 Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. * 1986, elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

References

Publication list

Technical reports: *Hofstadter, R.
Detection of Neutrons with Scintillation Counters
, Brookhaven National 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 States ...

(through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (November 1948). *Hahn, B., Ravenhall, D. G. and R. Hofstadter.
High-energy Electron Scattering and the Charge Distributions of Selected Nuclei
"

(through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), Office of Naval Research and

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Si ...

, (October 1955). *Chambers, E.E. and R. Hofstadter.
The Structure of the Proton
,

(through predecessor agency the

Energy Research and Development Administration The United States Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) was a United States government organization formed from the split of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in 1975. It assumed the functions of the AEC not assumed by the Nucle ...

), Office of Naval Research and

(April 1956). *Hofstadter, R.
Structure in the Proton and the Neutron
,

(through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (June 1958). *Collard, H., Hofstadter, R., Hughes, E. B., Johansson, A., Yearian, M. R., Day, R. B. and R. T. Wagner.
Elastic Electron Scattering from Tritium and Helium-3
,

(through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Office of Naval Research, Air Force Research Laboratory, (October 1964). *Hofstadter, R.
K-edge Subtraction Angiography with Synchrotron X-Rays: Final Technical Report, (February 1, 1984 to January 31, 1987)
,

, (September 1987).

External links

* including his Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1961 ''The Electron-Scattering Method and Its Application to the Structure of Nuclei and Nucleons''
Robert Hofstadter: An Oral History
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program, 1985. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hofstadter, Robert 1915 births 1990 deaths Nobel laureates in Physics American Nobel laureates 20th-century American physicists City College of New York alumni Experimental physicists National Medal of Science laureates American nuclear physicists American people of German-Jewish descent Jewish American scientists Jewish physicists Scientists from New York City Princeton University alumni Stanford University Department of Physics faculty University of Pennsylvania staff American people of Polish-Jewish descent Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Physical Society Members of the American Philosophical Society Members of the National Academy of Medicine