Michael Julius Alexander Moravcsik (; ; 25 June 1928 – 25 April 1989) was a Hungarian-born American theoretical high energy

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 ...

whose areas of research included the two

nucleon In physics and chemistry, a nucleon is either a proton or a neutron, considered in its role as a component of an atomic nucleus. The number of nucleons in a nucleus defines the atom's mass number. Until the 1960s, nucleons were thought to be ele ...

system, particle spin symmetries. He also made important contributions to the practice and study of science policy in developing nations, scientific methodology, and

scientometrics Scientometrics is a subfield of informetrics that studies quantitative aspects of scholarly literature. Major research issues include the measurement of the impact of research papers and academic journals, the understanding of scientific citati ...

(the science of science), especially the study of citation and citation indices.

Family and personal life

Moravcsik was born June 25, 1928, in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. His father, Gyula Moravcsik, was a professor of Greek philology and Byzantine history. His mother, Edit Moravcsik (née Fleissig), assisted her husband and taught language in Budapest. His grandfather, Fleissig Sándor, was a prominent Hungarian banker and politician. His brother was Julius Moravcsik, an academic philosopher who taught at Stanford University. His sister is Edith A. Moravcsik, a noted academic linguist who teaches at the

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a Public university, public Urban university, urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropo ...

. He was married to Francesca Moravcsik and had two children, Andrew Moravcsik, Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. His daughter Julia is a cognitive psychologist residing in

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

, Colorado.

Education, scientific interests and professional accomplishments

Moravcsik began his studies at the University of Budapest, but left Hungary for the United States at the age of 20, accompanied by his brother Julius. He completed his BS in physics at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1951 and received his PhD from

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 ...

in 1956. He was a research associate at the

Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratories, United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, New York, a hamlet of the Brookhaven, New York, Town of Brookhaven. It w ...

from 1956 to 1958. He was head of the elementary particle and nuclear theory group, theoretical division,

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...

from 1958 to 1967. From 1967 until his death, he was a professor of physics at the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

, at the Institute of Theoretical Science, where he was director from 1969 to 1972. At the time he was a professor of physics at the

. Two journals had memorial issues for Moravcsik: Scientometrics (Volume20, No 1, 1991) and Few Body Systems (Volume 9, No 2-3, 1990)

Scientific interests and accomplishments

Moravcsik worked on the nucleon-nucleon interaction in scattering experiments, and the pion-nucleon coupling constant. He also focused on science policy and its effects in developing countries. He was a science policy advisor to the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

, the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

, and the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

. In addition, he made important contributions to the field of

. In his spare time, Moravcsik wrote music reviews and was an amateur opera singer.

Death

He died of an embolism on April 25, 1989, in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, Italy, where he was collaborating with a colleague. He has three (posthumous) grandchildren: Michael Edward Hoke Moravcsik, Alexander deGogorza Moravcsik, and Sean Timothy Bowling.

Books authored

* "On the Road to Worldwide Science: Contributions to Science Development" World Scientific, 1988. * "Musical sound: an introduction to the physics of music" Springer Science & Business Media, 1987. * "How to Grow Science" New York, NY : Universe Books, 1980. * "The Two-Nucleon Interaction"

Selected papers

* "Creativity in science education" MJ Moravcsik. Science Education, 1981 * "Variation of the nature of citation measures with journals and scientific specialties." Murugesan, Poovanalingam, and Michael J. Moravcsik. Journal of the American Society for Information Science 29.3 (1978): 141-147 * "Optimally simple connection between the reaction matrix and the observables" GR Goldstein, MJ Moravcsik. Annals of Physics, 1976 * "Some results on the function and quality of citations." Moravcsik, Michael J., and Poovanalingam Murugesan. Social studies of science 5.1 (1975): 86-92 * "Measures of scientific growth" MJ Moravcsik. Research Policy, 1973 * "Nucleon-nucleon scattering experiments and their phenomenological analysis" Malcolm H. Mac Gregor, M.J. Moravcsik, H.P. Stapp (Dec, 1960) Ann.Rev.Nucl.Part.Sci. 10 (1960) 291-352 * "Analytic forms of the deuteron wave function" MJ Moravcsik. Nuclear Phys., 1958

References

{{Authority control American physicists University of Oregon faculty Harvard College alumni Cornell University alumni 1928 births 1989 deaths