Victor Weisskopf

Weisskopf was born in Vienna to Jewish parents and earned his doctorate in physics at the University of Göttingen in Germany in 1931. His brilliance in physics led to work with the great physicists exploring the atom, especially Niels Bohr, who mentored Weisskopf at his institute in Copenhagen. By the late 1930s, he realized that, as a Jew, he needed to get out of Europe. Bohr helped him find a position in the United States.[4]

In the 1930s and 1940s, "Viki", as everyone called him, made major contributions to the development of quantum theory, especially in the area of quantum electrodynamics.[5] One of his few regrets was that his insecurity about his mathematical abilities may have cost him a Nobel Prize when he did not publish results (which turned out to be correct) about what is now known as the Lamb shift.[6] Nevertheless, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics numerous times later in his career.[7]

Weisskopf's Los Alamos badge

From 1937 to 1943 he was a Professor of Physics at the University of Rochester.[8] There, he met graduate student Esther Conwell, and together they formulated the Conwell-Weisskopf Theory, which describes the movement of electrons through semiconductors and led to a better understanding of integrated circuits, knowledge that became essential for modern computing.[9]

After World War II, Weisskopf joined the physics faculty at MIT, ultimately becoming head of the department. In 1956, he became one of the founding members of the Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC), developing the curriculum for a revolutionary method of teaching physics at the high school level.

At MIT, he encouraged students to ask questions, and even in undergraduate physics courses, taught his students to think like physicists, not just to memorize the equations of physics. He was a memorable teacher, and delighted in posing "Fermi questions" and then helping students to work out approximate answers. For example, he would ask the maximum possible height of a mountain on the Earth, calculated from known basic physical constants. It took him about half an hour to work through an explanation of his computations, with the end result being of the same order of magnitude as the known height of Mount Everest. For an encore, he would quickly work out the analogous answers for Mars, and then Jupiter; when Mars Orbiter survey results later became available, they were consistent with his computed elevation. For his finale, he would compute the energy released by dropping a bowling ball off the highest theoretical mountain on Jupiter.

Weisskopf was a co-founder and board member of the Union of Concerned Scientists. He served as director-general of CERN from 1961 to 1966.[10][11][12][13][14] In 1966 a Festschrift was published in his honor.[15]

Weisskopf was awarded the Max Planck Medal in 1956 and the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca in 1972, the National Medal of Science (1980), the Wolf Prize (1981) and the Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences (1991).[16]

Weisskopf was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.[17][18] He was president of the American Physical Society (1960–61)[19] and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1976–1979).[20]

He was appointed by Pope Paul VI to the 70-member Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1975, and in 1981 he led a team of four scientists sent by Pope John Paul II to talk to President Ronald Reagan about the need to prohibit the use of nuclear weapons.

In a joint statement "Preserving and Cherishing the Earth" with other noted scientists including Carl Sagan, it concluded that: "The historical record makes clear that religious teaching, example, and leadership are powerfully able to influence personal conduct and commitment ... Thus, there is a vital role for religion and science."[21]

His first wife, Ellen Tvede, died in 1989. Wiesskopf died on April 22, 2002, and was survived by his second wife Duscha, daughter of accidental Night of the Long Knives victim Willi Schmid.[22]

• 1956: Max Planck Medal
• 1971: First recipient of the George Gamow Memorial Lectureship Award from the University of Colorado Boulder[23]
• 1972: Prix mondial Cino Del Duca
• 1976: Oersted Medal
• 1977: Marian Smoluchowski Medal
• 1978: Pour le Mérite for Arts and Sciences
• 1980: National Medal of Science
• 1981: Wolf Prize
• 1982: Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
• 1983: J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize[24]
• 1984: Albert Einstein Medal
• 1990: Ludwig Wittgenstein Prize of the Austrian Science Fund
• 1991: Public Welfare Medal (United States National Academy of Sciences)
• 2000: Grand Gold Medal with Star for Services to the Republic of Austria[25]

There is a street, Route Weisskopf, named after Weisskopf at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland.

Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; knowledge without compassion is inhuman.[26]

In class one day, speaking to junior physics majors (Spring, 1957): "There is no such thing as a stupid question." Citing initial teacher-student interactions, Noam Chomsky attributes to Victor the educational maxim,

It doesn't matter what we cover. It matters what you discover.

• Weisskopf, Victor; Blatt, J. M. (1952). Theoretical Nuclear Physics. New York: John Wiley.
• Weisskopf, Victor (1963). Knowledge and Wonder: The Natural World as Man Knows It. New York: Anchor Books/Doubleday & Co. (Science Study Series S31).
• Weisskopf, Victor (1970). Modern Physics from an Elementary Point of View. Geneva: CERN.
• Weisskopf, Victor (1972). Physics in the Twentieth Century: Selected Essays. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
• Weisskopf, Victor; Kurt Gottfried (1984). Concepts of Particle Physics, vol. 1. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Weisskopf, Victor; Kurt Gottfried (1986). Concepts of Particle Physics, vol. 2. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Weisskopf, Victor (1989). The Privilege of Being a Physicist. Essays. New York: W. H. Freeman.
• Weisskopf, Victor (1991). The Joy of Insight: Passions of a Physicist. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-03678-3.

• Medawar, Jean; Pyke, David (2012). Hitler's Gift: The True Story of the Scientists Expelled by the Nazi Regime (Paperback). New York: Arcade Publishing. ISBN 978-1-61145-709-4.
• V. Stefan, ed. (1998). Physics and Society: Essays in Honor of Victor Frederick Weisskopf by the International Community of Physicists. AIP Press. ISBN 1-56396-386-8.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Victor Weisskopf.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Victor Frederick Weisskopf.

• "Weisskopf, Victor Frederick". Encyclopedia.com.
• Jackson, J. David; Gottfried, Kurt. "Victor Frederick Weisskopf 1908–2002" (PDF). National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
• Annotated bibliography for Victor Weisskopf from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues Archived August 28, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
• "A Scientist's Odyssey" Archived January 20, 2008, at the Wayback Machine: A Conversation with Victor Weisskopf, April 7, 1988, transcript and RealMedia webcast
• Chang, Kenneth (April 25, 2002). "Victor Weisskopf, a Manhattan Project Physicist, Dies at 93". The New York Times. Retrieved December 11, 2018.
• Oral history interview transcript with Victor Fredrick Weisskopf 10 July 1965, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives Archived September 12, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
• Victor Weisskopf on INSPIRE-HEP