Joseph Leon Birman (May 21, 1927 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 ...

– October 1, 2016 in

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) was an American theoretical

solid-state physicist Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as solid-state chemistry, quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state phy ...

Life

Birman was the son of a salesman. He went to the

Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science is a State school, public Specialized high schools in New York City, specialized high school in the Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science ...

(graduated in 1943) then studied at

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 ...

, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1947. He next attended

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 ...

, gaining a master's degree in 1950 and a PhD in theoretical chemistry in 1952. He then spent about ten years at an electronics and telecommunications research lab (later GTE Research Labs in Queens) in New York where he studied the optical properties of semiconductors. From 1962 he was a professor at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

and from 1974 professor at the City College of New York. Most recently, he was distinguished professor at CUNY. From 1969 to 1970 he was a guest professor in Paris. In 1974 he became received an honorary doctorate from the

University of Rennes The University of Rennes (French: ''Université de Rennes'') is a public university, public research university located in Rennes, Upper Brittany, France. Originally founded in 1460, the university was split into two universities in 1970: Univers ...

. He was a Guggenheim Fellow, Lady Davis Fellow at the Technion in Haifa, and was a Fellow 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 ...

, the

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science The is an Independent Administrative Institution in Japan, established for the purpose of contributing to the advancement of science in all fields of the natural and social sciences and the humanities.JSPSweb page History The Japan Society f ...

, and the

New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), originally founded as the Lyceum of Natural History in January 1817, is a nonprofit professional society based in New York City, with more than 20,000 members from 100 countries. It is the fourth-oldes ...

. Birman organized symposia in the 1970s between American and Soviet scientists in Moscow, New York and St. Petersburg. In particular, he mostly supported Jewish scholars in the Soviet Union, who were denied exit (Birman himself was the grandson of Jewish grandparents who emigrated from Russia). In the 1990s he organized a support program with Pierre Hohenberg for scientists who had emigrated to the United States, especially from Eastern Europe and China. In 2010, he received the Andrei Sakharov Prize of the American Physical Society, of whose Human Rights Committee he was a member of. In 2006, he received the Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award from the New York Academy of Sciences. In 1950 he married the mathematician

Joan Birman Joan Sylvia Lyttle Birman (born May 30, 1927, in New York CityLarry Riddle., ''Biographies of Women Mathematicians'', at Agnes Scott College) is an American mathematician, specializing in low-dimensional topology. She has made contributions to th ...

. They had two sons and a daughter.

Works

* ''Theory of Crystal Space Groups and Lattice Dynamics: Infrared and Raman Optical Process in Insulating Crystals.'' In: ''Handbuch der Physik.'' 1974, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-69707-4 1

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Birman, Joseph L 1927 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American physicists City College of New York faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society New York University faculty Scientists from New York City City College of New York alumni Columbia University alumni