Behram Kurşunoğlu (14 March 1922 – 25 October 2003) was a

Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...

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 the founder and the director of the

Center for Theoretical Studies, University of Miami The University of Miami Center for Theoretical Studies was established in 1965 under the direction of Behram Kurşunoğlu, with guidance from J. Robert Oppenheimer and with the support of the University's President Henry King Stanford. The purpose ...

. He was best known for his works on

unified field theory In physics, a Unified Field Theory (UFT) or “Theory of Everything” is a type of field theory that allows all fundamental forces of nature, including gravity, and all elementary particles to be written in terms of a single physical field. Ac ...

, energy and global issues. He participated in the discovery of two different types of

neutrino A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is an elementary particle that interacts via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass is so small ('' -ino'') that i ...

s in late 1950s. During his

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

career, he hosted several

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

laureates, including

Paul Dirac Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac ( ; 8 August 1902 – 20 October 1984) was an English mathematician and Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist who is considered to be one of the founders of quantum mechanics. Dirac laid the foundations for bot ...

Lars Onsager Lars Onsager (November 27, 1903 – October 5, 1976) was a Norwegian American physical chemist and theoretical physicist. He held the Gibbs Professorship of Theoretical Chemistry at Yale University. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemist ...

and

Robert Hofstadter Robert Hofstadter (February 5, 1915 – November 17, 1990) was an American physicist. He was the joint winner of the 1961 Nobel Prize in Physics (together with Rudolf Mössbauer) "for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nucl ...

. He wrote several books on diverse aspects of physics, the most notable of which is ''Modern Quantum Theory'' (1962).

Early life and education

Behram Kurşunoğlu was born in

Çaykara Çaykara (Pontic Greek#Ophitic, Romeika: Κατωχώρι, ''Kadahor'') is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Trabzon Province, Turkey. Its area is 574 km2, and its population is 13,070 (2022). As of 2023, the Mayor of Çayka ...

district of

Trabzon Trabzon, historically known as Trebizond, is a city on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. The city was founded in 756 BC as "Trapezous" by colonists from Miletus. It was added into the Achaemenid E ...

. While he was a third year student in the Department of Mathematics and Astronomy of İstanbul Yüksek Öğretmen Okulu, he was sent to

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

through a scholarship of the Turkish Ministry of Education, in 1945. After graduating from the

, he completed his doctorate degree in physics at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. During the period of 1956–1958, he served as the dean of the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Technology at

Middle East Technical University Middle East Technical University (commonly referred to as METU; in Turkish language, Turkish, ''Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi'', ODTÜ) is a prestigious public university, public Institute of technology, technical university located in Ankara, ...

and a counselor to the office of

Turkish General Staff The General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri Genelkurmay Başkanlığı'', ''abbreviation: TSK Gnkur. Bşk.lığı'') is the highest staff organization in the Turkish Armed Forces. Chief ...

. He held teaching positions at several universities in the United States, and starting from 1958, professorship at the

Career

University of Miami

In 1965, he acted as one of the founders of the Center for Theoretical Studies of the

, of which he became the first director. During this period, he also worked in counseling positions for several research organizations and laboratories in Europe. With the invitation of

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

, he worked as a visiting professor in the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

during 1968. He continued his work at the Center for Theoretical Studies of the University of Miami until 1992, after which he became the director of the Global Foundation research organization. Kursunoglu died on October 25, 2003, due to

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

, shortly before that year's

Coral Gables Coral Gables is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The city is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida and is located southwest of Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 U.S. census, it had a population of 49,248. Cora ...

Conference, which was a

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

for

Paul Frampton Paul Howard Frampton is an English theoretical physicist who works in particle theory and cosmology. From 1996 until 2014, he was the Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Distinguished Professor of physics and astronomy, at the University of North Carolina at ...

combined with a memorial for Kursunoglu in a conference series he had been organizing since 1964. He had three children, İsmet, Sevil and Ayda, from his wife Sevda Arif.

Publications

*In ''

Physical Review Letters ''Physical Review Letters'' (''PRL''), established in 1958, is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal that is published 52 times per year by the American Physical Society. The journal is considered one of the most prestigious in the field of physics ...

:'' #1951 On Einstein's Unified Field Theory #1953 Derivation and Renormalization of the Tamm-Dancoff Equations #1953 Expectations from a Unified Field Theory #1953 Unified Field Theory and Born-Infeld Electrodynamics *In ''

Physical Review ''Physical Review'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The journal was established in 1893 by Edward Nichols. It publishes original research as well as scientific and literature reviews on all aspects of physics. It is published by the Ame ...

:'' #1952 Gravitation and Electrodynamics #1954 Tamm-Dancoff Methods and Nuclear Forces #1956 Transformation of Relativistic Wave Equations #1957 Proton Bremsstrahlung #1963 Brownian Motion in a Magnetic Field #1964 New Symmetry Group for Elementary Particles. I. Generalization of Lorentz Group Via Electrodynamics #1967 Space-Time and Origin of Internal Symmetries #1968 Dynamical Theory of Hadrons and Leptons *In ''

Physical Review D Physical may refer to: *Physical examination In a physical examination, medical examination, clinical examination, or medical checkup, a medical practitioner examines a patient for any possible medical signs or symptoms of a Disease, medical co ...

:'' #1970 Theory of Relativistic Supermultiplets. I. Baryon SpectroscopyElectrodynamics #1970 Theory of Relativistic Supermultiplets. II. Periodicities in Hadron Spectroscopy #1974 Gravitation and magnetic charge #1975 Erratum: Gravitation and magnetic charge #1976 Consequences of nonlinearity in the generalized theory of gravitation #1976 Velocity of light in generalized theory of gravitation *In ''

Journal of Mathematical Physics The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' is a peer-reviewed journal published monthly by the American Institute of Physics devoted to the publication of papers in mathematical physics. The journal was first published bimonthly beginning in Januar ...

:'' #1961 Complex Orthogonal and Antiorthogonal Representation of Lorentz Group #1967 Unitary Representations of U(2, 2) and Massless Fields *In ''

Reviews of Modern Physics ''Reviews of Modern Physics'' (often abbreviated RMP) is a quarterly Peer review, peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Physical Society. It was established in 1929 and the current editor-in-chief is Michael Thoennessen. The jo ...

:'' #1957 Correspondence in the Generalized Theory of Gravitation

Awards

* Fellow of the American Physical Society (1965) *

TÜBİTAK The Scientific and Technological Research Institution of Turkey (, TÜBİTAK) is a national agency of Turkey whose stated goal is to develop "science, technology and innovation" (STI) policies, support and conduct research and development, and to ...

Science Award (1972) * Award of

Phi Kappa Phi The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (or simply Phi Kappa Phi or ) is an honor society established in 1897 to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to the area of study, and to promote the "unity and democracy of educa ...

honor society * Award of the

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is an international non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a faculty member and graduate students in 1886 and is one of the oldest ...

scientific research society *

Sigma Pi Sigma Sigma Pi Sigma () is an American honor society for physics and astronomy. It was founded at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina on December 11, 1921. It is the oldest and only American honor society for physics and astronomy. It is an or ...

award * "Science is Guidance" Award of the Atatürk Society of America (2001)

References

External links

The Work of Behram Kursunoglu
talk presented at the 2003 Coral Gables conference by Philip D. Mannheim.

, webpage for the 2003 Coral Gables conference. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kursunoglu, Behram People from Çaykara Turkish emigrants to the United States Turkish physicists 1922 births 2003 deaths Alumni of the University of Edinburgh University of Miami faculty Academic staff of Middle East Technical University Fellows of the American Physical Society Theoretical physicists Recipients of TÜBİTAK Science Award Members of the Turkish Academy of Sciences American academics of Turkish descent People from Bayburt Members of Phi Kappa Phi