Robert Eugene Marshak (October 11, 1916 – December 23, 1992) was an American

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 ...

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

, and eighth president of 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 ...

Biography

Marshak was born in the

Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

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 ...

. His parents, Harry and Rose Marshak, were immigrants from

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

. He went to the

for one semester and then "received a Pulitzer Scholarship which provided full tuition and a stipend which allowed him to continue his education 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 1939, Marshak received his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

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 ...

. Along with his thesis advisor,

Hans Bethe Hans Albrecht Eduard Bethe (; ; July 2, 1906 – March 6, 2005) was a German-American physicist who made major contributions to nuclear physics, astrophysics, quantum electrodynamics and solid-state physics, and received the Nobel Prize in Physi ...

, he discovered many of the fusion aspects involved in star formation. This helped him on his work for the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

, in Los Alamos, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. During this time, he developed an explanation of how shock waves work in extremely high temperatures achieved by a nuclear explosion, and these waves are known as Marshak waves. Following the war, Marshak joined the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...

Department of Physics, becoming head of the department in 1950. In 1947, at the

Shelter Island Conference The first Shelter Island Conference on the foundations of quantum mechanics was held from June 2–4, 1947 at the Ram's Head Inn in Shelter Island, New York. Shelter Island was the first major opportunity since Pearl Harbor and the Manhattan P ...

, Marshak presented his two-meson hypothesis about the

pi-meson In particle physics, a pion (, ) or pi meson, denoted with the Greek letter pi (), is any of three subatomic particles: , , and . Each pion consists of a quark and an antiquark and is therefore a meson. Pions are the lightest mesons and, more g ...

, which were discovered shortly thereafter. Three years later, Marshak established the Rochester Conference while chair of the University of Rochester's physics department. This later became known as the

International Conference on High Energy Physics ICHEP or International Conference on High Energy Physics is one of the most prestigious international scientific conferences in the field of particle physics, bringing together leading theorists and experimentalists of the world. It was first held ...

. In 1957, Marshak and

George Sudarshan Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan (also known as E. C. G. Sudarshan; 16 September 1931 – 13 May 2018) was an Indian American theoretical physicist and a professor at the University of Texas. Prof.Sudarshan has been credited with numerous co ...

proposed a V-A ("vector" minus "axial vector")

Lagrangian Lagrangian may refer to: Mathematics * Lagrangian function, used to solve constrained minimization problems in optimization theory; see Lagrange multiplier ** Lagrangian relaxation, the method of approximating a difficult constrained problem with ...

for weak interactions, which eventually paved the way for the electroweak theory. This theory was later presented by

Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of t ...

and

Murray Gell-Mann Murray Gell-Mann (; September 15, 1929 – May 24, 2019) was an American theoretical physicist who played a preeminent role in the development of the theory of elementary particles. Gell-Mann introduced the concept of quarks as the funda ...

, which later contributed to each winning a Nobel Prize in Physics. Sudarshan stated that Gell-Mann had learned the theory from him at the Rochester Conference. Similarly,

learned about the theory from a discussion with Marshak in a conference. Feynman acknowledged Marshak and Sudarshan's contribution in 1963 stating that the V-A theory was discovered by Sudarshan and Marshak and publicized by Gell-Mann and himself. Marshak was elected to 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 1958, the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1961, and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1983. In 1970, Marshak left Rochester to become president of the

. He left to become university distinguished professor at Virginia Tech, retiring in 1991. Marshak shared the 1982

J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize The J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize and Medal was awarded by the Center for Theoretical Studies, University of Miami, from 1969, until 1984. Established in memory of US physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the award consisted of a medal, certifi ...

with

Maurice Goldhaber Maurice Goldhaber (April 18, 1911 – May 11, 2011) was an American physicist, known for the 1957 (with Lee Grodzins and ) that established that neutrinos have negative helicity. Early life and childhood He was born on April 18, 1911, in L ...

. The next year he served as the 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 ...

, previously having served on its council (1965-1969), as chairman of its Division of Particles and Fields (1969-1970), and as vice-president. Marshak died by accidental drowning in

Cancún Cancún is the most populous city in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, located in southeast Mexico on the northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. It is a significant tourist destination in Mexico and the seat of the municipality of Benito J ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. In addition to Sudarshan, his doctoral students include

Susumu Okubo was a Japanese theoretical physicist at the University of Rochester. Ōkubo worked primarily on elementary particle physics. He is famous for the Gell-Mann–Okubo mass formula for mesons and baryons in the quark model; this formula correctly pre ...

Rabindra Mohapatra Rabindra Nath Mohapatra (born 1 September 1944) is an Indian American theoretical physicist, known for his work on the seesaw mechanism in neutrino physics. Mohapatra was born in the small village Musagadia in Mayurbhanj State. He studied at Ut ...

and

Tullio Regge Tullio Eugenio Regge (; 11 July 1931 – 23 October 2014) was an Italian theoretical physicist. Biography Regge obtained the ''laurea'' in physics from the University of Turin in 1952 under the direction of Mario Verde and Gleb Wataghin, and ...

Selected works

* Marshak, Robert E. (1952). ''Meson Physics''. New York:

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American education science company that provides educational content, software, and services for students and educators across various levels—from K-12 to higher education and professional settings. They produce textbooks, ...

. * Marshak, Robert E.; Radha, T.K.; Raman, K. (1963?) ''Theory of Weak Interactions of Elementary Particles''. Matscience report no. 10. Madras: Institute of Mathematical Sciences. * Marshak, Robert E.; Blaker, J. Warren; Bethe, Hans A.; et al. (1966). ''Perspectivies in Modern Physics: Essays in Honor of Hans A. Bethe on the Occasion of His 60th Birthday, July 1966.'' New York: Interscience Publishers. * Marshak, Robert E.; Riazuddin; Ryan, Ciaran P. (1969). ''Theory of Weak Interactions in Particle Physics.'' New York:

Wiley-Interscience John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American multinational publishing company that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company was founded in 1807 and produces books, journals, and encyclop ...

. * Marshak, Robert E.; Wurtemburg, Gladys (1982). ''Academic Renewal in the 1970s : Memoirs of a City College President''. Washington, D.C.:

University Press of America University Press of America (''UPA'') is the former name of an American Academic publishing, academic publishing company based in Lanham, Maryland, which became the parent company of Rowman & Littlefield publishing house, then was later re-intr ...

. * Marshak, Robert E. (1993). ''Conceptual Foundations of Modern Particle Physics''. Singapore:

World Scientific World Scientific Publishing is an academic publisher of scientific, technical, and medical books and journals headquartered in Singapore. The company was founded in 1981. It publishes about 600 books annually, with more than 170 journals in var ...

Notes

Resources

* Henley, Ernest M.; Lustig, Harry (1999).
Robert Eugene Marshak, 1916-1992.
' Washington, D.C.:

National Academies Press The US National Academies Press (NAP) was created to publish the reports issued by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (formerly known as the National Research Council (United States), National Research Council), the Na ...

. * Sudarshan, E.C.G.; et al. (1995). ''A Gift of Prophecy: Essays in Celebration of the Life of Robert Eugene Marshak.'' Singapore: World Scientific, 1995.

External links

Robert E. Marshak Papers, Ms1988-060
at

Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

br>Special Collections and University ArchivesRobert Eugene Marshak Collection
at the

Biographical Memoir
at the

*
Robert Marshak Oral History Interviews
from the

American Institute of Physics The American Institute of Physics (AIP) promotes science and the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies. Its corpora ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marshak, Robert Eugene 1916 births 1992 deaths Cornell University alumni Deaths by drowning 20th-century American physicists Columbia College (New York) alumni Presidents of City College of New York American particle physicists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Accidental deaths in Mexico American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent Jewish American scientists Scientists from the Bronx Manhattan Project people Virginia Tech faculty 20th-century American Jews Members of the American Philosophical Society Members of the National Academy of Medicine 20th-century American academics Presidents of the American Physical Society