Ernest Mark Henley (June 10, 1924 – March 27, 2017) was an American atomic and

nuclear physicist Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...

. In 1944 Henley received a B.E.E. in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from the

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, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

. From 1944 to 1946, he served in the U.S. Navy, decommissioning and repairing electrical equipment on ships and submarines. He worked at the Airborne Instruments Laboratory as an electrical engineer from 1946 to 1948. Between 1950 and 1951 he worked at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, and received a Ph.D. from

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

in 1952. From 1952 to 1954, he was a Jewett Fellow and lecturer at

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 ...

. In 1954, Henley accepted a faculty position at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

where he remained for his entire career, serving as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences between 1979 and 1987. Over the course of his research career, Henley studied symmetries in nuclear physics. In 1976 Henley calculated with Lawrence Wilets the effects on parity non-conservation in atomic physics, and later he calculated parity violating effects in the parton model with Stephen Ellis and David Callaway From 1979 to 1987 he was Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences there and Director of the Institute for Theoretical Nuclear Physics in 1990-1991. He was Professor

Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

since 1995. He dedicated his retirement to teaching Physics at the University of Washington's Transition School and Early Entrance Program, the Robinson Center for Young Scholars. In 2014 at the age of 90 Henley retired from this position. In 1979 he was elected a member of 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 ...

. In 1992 he was president 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 ...

, where he chaired the Nuclear Physics section from 1979 to 1980. In 1989 he received the Tom W. Bonner prize in nuclear physics. In 2005 he received an honorary Dr. rer. nat. in physics from the Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Germany.

Publications

* with Walter Thirring: Elementare Quantenfeldtheorie, BI Verlag 1975 (English original: Elementary Quantum Field Theory, McGraw Hill 1962) * with

Hans Frauenfelder Hans Frauenfelder (July 28, 1922 – July 10, 2022) was an American physicist and biophysicist notable for his discovery of perturbed angular correlation (PAC) in 1951. In the modern day, PAC spectroscopy is widely used in the study of condensed ...

: Nuclear and Particle Physics, Benjamin 1975 * with Hans Frauenfelder: Subatomic Physics, Prentice-Hall 1974, 2nd edn. 1991, (in German): Teilchen und Kerne: Subatomare Physik, Oldenbourg 1979, 4th edn. 1999

Notes

External links

* 1924 births 2017 deaths American physicists University of Washington faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences German emigrants to the United States Fellows of the American Physical Society Presidents of the American Physical Society {{US-physicist-stub