Marcos Moshinsky Borodiansky (; ; 1921–2009) was a Mexican

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 ...

of Ukrainian-

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

origin whose work in the field of

elementary particles In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a subatomic particle that is not composed of other particles. The Standard Model presently recognizes seventeen distinct particles—twelve fermions and five bosons. As a con ...

won him the Prince of Asturias Prize for Scientific and Technical Investigation in 1988 and the UNESCO Science Prize in 1997.

Early life

He was born in 1921 into a

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish family in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

. At the age of three, he emigrated as a refugee to Mexico, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1942. He received a bachelor's degree in physics from the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public university, public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countri ...

(UNAM) and a doctorate in the same discipline at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

under

Nobel Laureate The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...

Eugene Paul Wigner.

Career

In the 1950s he researched

nuclear reaction In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, a nuclear reaction is a process in which two atomic nucleus, nuclei, or a nucleus and an external subatomic particle, collide to produce one or more new nuclides. Thus, a nuclear reaction must cause a t ...

s and the structure of the

atomic nucleus 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 at the Department_of_Physics_and_Astronomy,_University_of_Manchester , University of Manchester ...

, introducing the concept of the '' transformation bracket for eigenstates of the

quantum harmonic oscillator The quantum harmonic oscillator is the quantum-mechanical analog of the classical harmonic oscillator. Because an arbitrary smooth potential can usually be approximated as a harmonic potential at the vicinity of a stable equilibrium point, ...

'', which, together with the tables elaborated in collaboration with Thomas A. Brody, simplified calculations in the nuclear shell model and became an indispensable reference for the study of nuclear structure. In 1952, his work on the transient dynamics of matter waves led to the discovery of diffraction in time. After completing postdoctoral studies at the Henri Poincaré Institute in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

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, he returned to

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

to serve as a professor at the UNAM. In 1967 he was chosen president of the Mexican Society of Physics and in 1972 he was admitted to the National College. He was the editor of several international scientific reviews, including the '' Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'', and authored four books and more than 200 technical papers. He received the Mexican National Prize for Science (1968), the Luis Elizondo Prize (1971), the Prince of Asturias Prize for Scientific and Technical Investigation (1988) and the UNESCO Science Prize (1997). In 1990 he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society ''"for his many fundamental contributions to the description of many-body quantum systems through the use of group-theoretical techniques"'' While practicing physics, he wrote a weekly column in the newspaper '' Excélsior'' on Mexican politics.

References

This article began as a translation of the corresponding article in the Spanish-language Wikipedia. *M. Moshinsky and Y. F. Smirnov, ''The harmonic oscillator in modern physics'', Informa HealthCare, Amsterdam 1996. *

External links

Profile at the Prince of Asturias Foundation

Profile at the National College of Mexico
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moshinsky, Marcos 2009 deaths 1921 births UNESCO Science Prize laureates Members of El Colegio Nacional (Mexico) Particle physicists 20th-century Mexican physicists Members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences Members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni Academic staff of the National Autonomous University of Mexico Mexican people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Ukrainian Jews Soviet emigrants to Mexico Members of the Mexican Academy of Sciences Mathematical physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society Scientists from Kyiv