F. Woodbridge Constant

Frank Woodbridge "Woodie" Constant (June 1, 1904, Minneapolis – November 16, 1988, Essex, Connecticut) was an American physicist.[1] He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1937.[2]

Biography

His father was Frank Henry Constant (1859–1950),[3] a professor of civil engineering, first at the University of Minnesota and then at Princeton University.[4][5] F. Woodbridge Constant graduated in 1925 with a B.S. in physics from Princeton University[6] and in 1928 with a Ph.D. in physics from Yale University, where he held Sloane and Loomis Fellowships.[1] During the summer of 1926, F. Woodbridge Constant, the organist Hobart Augustus Whitman (1905–1952),[7][8] and Hassler Whitney joined Woodie's father Professor Frank Henry Constant in Switzerland, where the team of four climbed the Wetterhorn. Later the three young men climbed together in the Adirondack Mountains.[9] As a postdoc F. Woodbridge Constant was from 1928 to 1930 a National Research Fellow at Caltech. From 1930 to 1946 he was a faculty member in Duke University's mathematics department. For the academic year 1933–1934 he was on leave at the University of Cambridge, where he studied under P. A. M. Dirac and assisted John Cockcroft in research on nuclear physics. During WW II, Constant was on leave from 1942 to 1946 as a research physicist in a sound ranging project developed by the National Defense Research Committee and, subsequently, the Office of Scientific Research and Development. As an associate professor at Duke University, he resigned in 1946 to become a professor and department head at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.[1] There he continued as department head until 1970 and he retired in 1972 as professor emeritus.[10]

Constant did research on ferromagnetism.[11] He wrote a 2-volume textbook on theoretical physics at the first-year graduate level.[12][13]

Upon his death he was survived by his widow, two daughters, and a son.[10]

References
  1. "Frank Woodbridge Constant". Open Library.
  2. "APS Fellow Archive". American Physical Society. (search on year=1937 and institution=Duke+University)
  3. "Frank Henry Constant". ancestors.familysearch.org.
  4. "Conferring of Honorary Degrees (including Frank H. Constant)". Annual Commencement, June 1915, University of Cincinnati. 1907. p. 46.
  5. Constant, Frank Henry (May 1, 1918). "The Three Years' War Course in Civil Engineering". Princeton Alumni Weekly. XVIII (29): 662–663.
  6. Catalogue of the Graduate School, Yale University, 1926–1927. New Haven. 1926. p. 292.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. Blackmun, Ora (1970). A Spire in the Mountains. First Presbyterian Church.
  8. "Hobart Augustus Whitman Sr. 1904–1952". ancestors.familysearch.org.
  9. Whitney, Hassler (1989). "F. Woodbridge Constant 1904–1988". The American Alpine Journal.
  10. "Obituary. F. Woodbridge Constant, Professor, 84". The New York Times. November 19, 1988. p. 10, Section 1.
  11. Constant, F. W. (1929). "Magnetic Properties of Isolated Atoms of Cobalt". Nature. 123 (3112): 943–944. doi:10.1038/123943b0. S2CID 4123798.
  12. Van Name Jr., F. W. (1955). "Review of Theoretical Physics. Mechanics of Particles, Rigid and Elastic Bodies, Fluids, and Heat Flow by F. Woodbridge Constant". American Journal of Physics. 23 (3): 178. doi:10.1119/1.1933942.
  13. Epstein, S. T. (1958). "Review of Theoretical Physics, Thermodynamics, Electromagnetism, Waves and Particles by F. W. Constant". American Journal of Physics. 26 (8): 598–599. doi:10.1119/1.1934711. hdl:2027/mdp.39015001322455.
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