Gilbert Jerome Perlow (10 February 1916 – 17 February 2007), was an American physicist famous for his work related to the

Mössbauer effect The Mössbauer effect, or recoilless nuclear resonance fluorescence, is a physical phenomenon discovered by Rudolf Mössbauer in 1958. It involves the resonant and recoil-free emission and absorption of gamma radiation by atomic nuclei bound in a ...

, and an editor of the ''

Journal of Applied Physics The ''Journal of Applied Physics'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal with a focus on the physics of modern technology. The journal was originally established in 1931 under the name of ''Physics'', and was published by the American Physical So ...

'' and ''

Applied Physics Letters ''Applied Physics Letters'' is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that is published by the American Institute of Physics. Its focus is rapid publication and dissemination of new experimental and theoretical papers regarding applications of ...

''.

Life

Perlow was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 1916, and attended Townsend Harris Hall. At 16, he went to study medicine at

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 ...

. However, he later switched to physics, as he said his talents did not lie in medicine. He obtained his bachelor's degree in 1936 at

. His graduate thesis ''On measurements of L_α satellite x rays'' was supervised by Floyd K. Richtmyer. He obtained his Ph.D from

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

in 1940, where researched nuclear reactions of

lithium-6 Naturally occurring lithium (3Li) is composed of two stable isotope ratio, stable isotopes, lithium-6 (6Li) and lithium-7 (7Li), with the latter being far more abundant on Earth. Both of the natural isotopes have an unexpectedly low nuclear bin ...

. There he met his wife

Mina Rea Jones Mina or MINA may refer to: Places Iran * Minaq, East Azerbaijan * Mina, Fars * Mineh, Lorestan Province * Mina, Razavi Khorasan * Mehneh, Razavi Khorasan Province United States * Mina, Nevada * Mina, New York * Mina, Ohio * Mina, South Dakot ...

, a chemist, when looking for assistance in building lithium targets. After his Ph.D thesis, he left Chicago to work for the

Naval Ordnance Laboratory The Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL) was a facility in the White Oak, Maryland, White Oak area of Montgomery County, Maryland. The location is now used as the headquarters of the Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Or ...

and the

US Naval Research Laboratory The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. Located in Washington, DC, it was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, appl ...

, on the detection of submarine using

ultrasound Ultrasound is sound with frequency, frequencies greater than 20 Hertz, kilohertz. This frequency is the approximate upper audible hearing range, limit of human hearing in healthy young adults. The physical principles of acoustic waves apply ...

s as part of the

war effort War effort is a coordinated mobilization of society's resources—both industrial and civilian—towards the support of a military force, particular during a state of war. Depending on the militarization of the culture, the relative si ...

. After the war, he used and modified captured

V-2 The V2 (), with the technical name '' Aggregat-4'' (A4), was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the Second World War in Nazi Germany as a " ven ...

rockets to make measurements on

atmospheric An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosphere ...

cosmic rays Cosmic rays or astroparticles are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar ...

, leading him to propose that most gamma rays in the atmosphere were not the cosmic rays themselves, but were rather due to Compton backscattering. In 1952, he became a faculty member at

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

. In 1954, he moved to Illinois to work at the

Argonne National Laboratory Argonne National Laboratory is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Lemont, Illinois, Lemont, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1946, the laboratory is owned by the United Sta ...

, until he retired in 1981. In 1970, he became editor of the ''

'' and ''

''. In the words of

John Schiffer John C. Schiffer (August 17, 1945 - June 19, 2014) was a Wyoming rancher and statesman. He represented the 22nd district in the Wyoming Senate for 21 years, and served in several Senate leadership positions, including President of the Senate in ...

and Charles Johnson, Perlow was a "...witty and cultured man, he enjoyed reading, sketching, listening to music, and sailing his yacht on

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and depth () after Lake Superior and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the ...

Work

Other than his work on

cosmic ray Cosmic rays or astroparticles are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the ...

s, and on the

, Perlow worked on the hyperfine structure of

iron-57 Natural iron (Fe) consists of four stable isotopes: 5.845% Fe (possibly radioactive with half-life > years), 91.754% Fe, 2.119% Fe and 0.286% Fe. There are 28 known radioisotopes and 8 nuclear isomers, the most stable of which are Fe (half-life 2. ...

and other properties of iron atoms, such as their internal magnetic field.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perlow, Gilbert Jerome 1916 births 2007 deaths Townsend Harris High School alumni Cornell University alumni University of Chicago alumni 20th-century American physicists American nuclear physicists American particle physicists Scientists from New York (state) Fellows of the American Physical Society