In Memoriam

In Memoriam - Paul Phillipson

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 21:54:36 +0000

In Memoriam - Paul Phillipson Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/26/2023 - 15:54

Professor Emeritus Paul Phillipson passed away on October 20, 2023, at his home in Boulder at the age of 90. He was a long-standing and treasured member of the faculty.

Paul was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1933 and after briefly attending Columbia High School, he began his studies at the University of Chicago at the age of 16. He earned his PhD in physics from the University of Chicago in 1962, under the mentorship of Nobel laureate Robert S. Mulliken. He completed postdoctoral work at the University of Michigan from 1961 to 1963 and held a prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship from 1963 to 1967.

Paul joined the Department of Physics as an Assistant Professor in 1963 and his career spanned 35 years until his retirement in 1998. He made significant contributions to the teaching and research missions of the department. After retiring in 1998, he continued conducting research and frequently worked in his office in Duane Physics as Professor Emeritus.

He was a leader in his research field, studying theoretical nonlinear dynamics and biophysics. Paul was the department’s first biophysicist. Professor Paul Beale reflected on Phillipson’s research, stating “Paul Phillipson became a leader in the study of the chaotic dynamics of nonlinear differential equations especially as applied to chemical, biological, and neurological processes.”

Beale added “Paul published dozens of articles on the subject, many with his long-term collaborator Peter Schuster at the University of Vienna.” These collaborations led Paul and his wife Pat to spend many semesters in Europe, where Paul served as a Visiting Professor at the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Professor John Cumalat remembers Paul “as a colleague of good cheer who laughed easily.” Cumalat noted “Paul retired at 65, but he remained research active for the rest of his life.”

Paul is survived by his wife Pat, son Mark Phillipson (spouse Scott Tebbetts); daughter Andrea Vassiliadis; grandson Nicholas Vassiliadis (and spouse Ozgu Vassiliadis); grandson Jack Vassiliadis; two nephews, Robert Ross and Richard Ross; and numerous members of his wife’s extended family.

View Professor Phillipson's Obituary

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In Memoriam - Robert Ristinen

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 17:09:14 +0000

In Memoriam - Robert Ristinen Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/07/2021 - 11:09

Physics Emeritus Professor Robert A. Ristinen passed away on September 10, 2021, at his home in Boulder at the age of 87.

Bob grew up in the small town of Menahga, Minnesota, hunting, fishing, and trapping. Among other endeavors, he learned to repair automobiles and farm equipment, and became an experienced electrician, wiring local farms with newly available electricity. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and served with a Field Artillery Battalion in Germany and Bavaria, and returned to earn a Bachelor of Physics degree from the University of Minnesota in 1959.

Bob received his M.S. degree in 1961 and a PhD in nuclear physics in 1962 from the University of Colorado. His PhD supervisor was Albert A. Bartlett; he was Al’s first PhD student. After post-doctoral work at Brookhaven National Laboratory, he was invited back to Boulder in 1966 as a visiting professor. This evolved into a tenured position with the nuclear physics group, led by professors David A. Lind and Jack J. Kraushaar, at the CU cyclotron laboratory. At the time, it was the only building on what would become CU's East Campus.

During Bob’s post-doctoral time at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, he worked to develop solid state devices for detection of nuclear decay processes. He continued this work with the Nuclear Physics Lab at CU, building silicon and germanium detectors for the lab, which were not yet commercially available. Bob and his students developed, built, and tested the focal plane system for the cyclotron, measuring an optimal resolution which was best among research cyclotrons at the time. While refining the measurement of the cyclotron resolution, he was part of the group's experimental program, studying interactions of accelerated protons, deuterium, 3He and alpha particles in larger nuclei. All of this work reflected Bob’s skill and ingenuity.

Beginning in the mid-1970s, he was also part of a CU nuclear physics group conducting a parallel research program at LAMPF in Los Alamos, NM, using secondary pion beams from the linear proton accelerator to study pion-induced interactions and resonances in nuclei. On these 'suitcase physics' trips, Bob was known for his penchant for ice cream shops, and for what he called shortcuts on the 8-hour drive between the labs, which sometimes led to narrow dirt roads and the fordings of small streams. His oft-repeated phrase was "This is what rentals are for."

CU's cyclotron was decommissioned in 1984, beginning a period when Bob lead a CU team doing research at the TRIUMF cyclotron in Vancouver, British Columbia, using thin solid targets in pion beams to study pion-proton and pion-deuterium absolute cross sections.

Beginning in the 1990s, he was part of the CHAOS collaboration at TRIUMF, participating in the development and commissioning of a concentric set of wire chambers and scintillators between the poles of a 1.6T magnet, used to study pion interactions in polarized nuclear targets at the magnet center.

He was later part of CU's group within the HERMES collaboration, assisting in the design, construction, and installation of the front tracking chambers at the DESY Laboratory in Hamburg, Germany, to study quark contributions to nucleon spin. During this period Bob was also CU's Nuclear Physics Lab director. Over the years, he also served terms as Chair of the University’s Radiation Safety Committee and as Chair of the University Energy Conservation Committee.

Before his retirement, Bob was an early member of the large cosmic ray international Pierre Auger Observatory collaboration, working with CU's team prototyping thermal properties of water Cherenkov detectors, and developing equipment and techniques for the absolute calibration of the Observatory's large aperture optical telescopes.

Over the years Bob supervised 8 PhD students, including Jeff Brack, who remembers Bob as an enthusiastic mentor whose unique experimental solutions kept physics fun.

Bob was an excellent teacher. As Jerry Leigh recalls “Bob was one of the most popular lab instructors in the department, if not the most.” In 1970 Bob published a well-known article in the American Journal of Physics describing a simplified Muon Lifetime Experiment. Many physics departments have used this article to develop the muon lifetime experiment in their advanced labs.

In 1984, Bob and Jack Kraushaar co-authored the popular textbook "Energy and Problems of a Technical Society", based on a course they developed and taught in the physics department. New editions were released in 1999 and again in 2005 titled "Energy and the Environment," perhaps the first time these words were coupled. A revision was published in 2015, and in 2020 Bob participated in manuscript preparation for a 4th edition, to be published posthumously in 2021. The Energy and Environment course is still taught in the CU Physics Department.

Tom DeGrand remembers Bob as a great colleague. Tom notes that “Bob was always positive, calm, cheerful, thoughtful, practical, he never puffed himself up--I always liked talking with him.” John Cumalat remembers Bob as an excellent and clever experimenter and an outstanding lab instructor. When working with Bob you had a good feeling that things were going to work out. It was a major loss to the department’s culture when he retired in 2001. Allan Franklin remembers Bob simply as “one of the good guys.” Ed Kinney notes that “Bob was incredibly supportive, a great mentor for junior faculty and a great colleague to work with.”

Bob is survived by his wive Elvah, their two sons, Keith and Kurt; granddaughters Kimberly and Amber; great grandson Harrison, and sister Kathleen Ristinen Jonas. No services will be held. The family requests donations to Amnesty International USA or your local Public Broadcasting service in lieu of flowers.

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In Memoriam - John Wahr

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 17:31:45 +0000

In Memoriam - John Wahr Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 11/12/2015 - 10:31

Professor John M. Wahr passed away on November 11, 2015 at the age of 64.

Professor Wahr was the first geophysicist to join the Department of Physics at CU-Boulder. He joined the department as an Assistant Professor in 1983, built the Geophysics Group within the Department, and had a highly distinguished career. He was also a Fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. John entered semi-retirement (retiring only from departmental duties) and became a Research Professor in 2013 after having taught for 30 years. John received his B.S. degree from the University of Michigan and his PhD degree from CU-Boulder and then held a post-doctoral position at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton University before being called back to CU-Boulder as a faculty member in 1983.

Professor Wahr is a world-renowned scientist who made seminal contributions to many areas of geophysics and geodesy. In his early research career, John was successful at developing the theoretical framework to understand the effects of the Earth’s interior structure as well as atmospheric and oceanic mass distributions on the Earth’s rotation, tides, wobble and nutation. Later in his career, and even more prominently, he worked on determining the effects of large-scale deglaciation on the Earth’s surface vertical motions, sea-level changes, and the Earth’s gravity field. In each of these research areas, he made groundbreaking contributions. His models of Earth’s tides and nutation served as international standards for nearly 20 years.

In the last two decades, Professor Wahr devoted most of his research efforts to developing tools and models to observe and analyze the time-variations in the Earth’s gravity field as observed from space. This has led to pioneering advances in a broad range of disciplines, including hydrology, glaciology, oceanography, meteorology, and solid-Earth geophysics. He was one of the principal intellectual forces behind NASA’s highly successful satellite gravity mission, GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment). Using GRACE gravity data, John and his collaborators quantified the mass loss in Greenland and Antarctica since 2002 due to ice melting. He also examined seasonal and secular variations in ocean mass and terrestrial water storage on both global and basin scales. These innovations opened up entirely new avenues to observe and study mass movements in the shallow subsurface of the Earth on different time and spatial scales. These advances not only directly impact Earth science but also have profound societal significance.

Professor Wahr’s research received wide recognition and acclaim. He won two major awards from the American Geophysical Union: the James B. Macelwane Award and the Charles A. Whitten Award in 1985 and 2006, respectively. He also received the Vening Meinesz Medal from the European Geosciences Union in 2004, was awarded the Guy Bomford Prize for Geodetic Research from the International Association of Geodesy in 1983, and was inducted into the US National Academy of Sciences in 2012. Professor Wahr’s research excellence was acknowledged locally by his being named a Professor of Distinction by the College of Arts and Sciences at CU-Boulder in 2012. Moreover, John was simply a great colleague in the Physics Department and within the national and international geophysical communities. He was unselfish, modest and collegial. He was always willing to help junior colleagues at the university and elsewhere.

Professor Wahr was a dedicated teacher and mentor: always caring, patient, and insightfully helpful with his students, collaborators, and colleagues. He taught Physics at CU-Boulder for 30 years, from introductory undergraduate physics to advanced graduate physics and geophysics courses. He has advised nearly 30 PhD and post-doctoral scholars; many of whom, following his example, remain active in teaching and geophysical research.

In addition to his outstanding research career, John was an avid outdoorsman, strong athlete, and devoted family man. He was often found hiking with his family and his solo hikes and bike rides were legendary. To clear his head he would take the bus to Nederland and walk back to Boulder. One of his favorite solo outdoor activities involved a week in the backcountry of Yellowstone: long days covered on cross-country skis and then winter camping in snow caves of his own construction. John was a baseball fan, first of his hometown team the Detroit Tigers but he adopted the Colorado Rockies after they formed in Denver, and would regularly attend Rockies games with his family. He was an accomplished musician with a fine singing voice, and a particular love of opera.

John was an intensely humble and private man who, nevertheless, had an enormous impact on people around him that extended well beyond the scientific insights that he shared with and inspired in others. He was respected and well liked by essentially everyone who came into contact with him.

Professor Wahr is survived by his dear wife Ann Wahr, by his daughter Katie Wahr, an elementary school teacher, of Boulder and son Andrew Wahr, a civil engineer, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and by his sister Jan Wahr and father John Wahr, both of Boulder.

John requested that no services be held on his behalf. However, condolences can be shared with John’s family on the “Messages” page of the web site commemorating his life, which was constructed by his son at johnwahr.com.

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In Memoriam - David Lind

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 21:38:59 +0000

In Memoriam - David Lind Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 03/19/2015 - 15:38

Professor Emeritus David A. Lind passed away Friday March 6, 2015 at the age of 96.

David earned a B.S. in Physics from the University of Washington in 1940, and a Ph.D. in Physics from CalTech in 1948. He joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin as an assistant professor in 1951.

David Lind joined the faculty of the University of Colorado Department of Physics as an associate professor in 1956, the same year as Jack Kraushaar and George Gamow. This marked the beginning of a period of remarkable transformation for the department. David and Jack were the faculty leaders in creating, designing, and running the University of Colorado Cyclotron. They were the principal investigators of the contract from the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission for a design study of a cyclotron with azimuthally varying magnetic field. Such cyclotrons had been proposed to overcome the problem that conventional cyclotrons with azimuthally symmetric magnetic fields were limited to non-relativistic energies. Within a year, that contract had been modified to cover the design and construction of a 52-inch cyclotron capable of accelerating protons to 30 MeV, as well as accelerating deuterons, helium three ions, and alpha particles, one of only three similar cyclotrons in the country. The design process was led by David, Jack, Rod Smythe and Martin Rickey. A key feature of the machine was its ability to deliver particles to the target with a continuously variable range of energies. The State of Colorado provided funds for a building to house the cyclotron (pictured left), and the facility became the CU Nuclear Physics Laboratory with David and Jack as co-directors. David served as director 1958-1965 and 1978-1979. The CU Nuclear Physics program conducted pioneering research for more than twenty-five years, providing research and educational opportunities for hundreds of undergraduate students, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows.

David was elected chair of the department in 1974 and served until 1978. He retired from the physics faculty in 1983, and was awarded the Robert Sterns Award the same year.

Besides his scientific and leadership skills, David was well-know as an expert skier. Dave's love for the physical world did not end at the doors of his lab. His passion for mountain climbing and skiing led him to develop and teach a course on the physics of snow and avalanche phenomena for geographers, geologists, and snow and ice scientists at the CU Arctic and Alpine Institute. In 1996 he wrote The Physics of Skiing, published by the American Institute of Physics. He was a consultant for the National Ski Patrol Association, developing avalanche rescue beacons. He was a leader in the Colorado Mountain Club and was active with the Sierra Club, Seattle Mountaineers, and the American Alpine Club. In 1940, Dave, Fred and Helmy Beckey, Jim Crooks, and Lloyd Anderson (founder of REI) made the first ascent of Forbidden Peak in the North Cascades. Dave's REI number was 33. He taught technical climbing, led over 100 back country ski trips, and skied into his 80s, having started at 11 when he made his own skis using wood barrel planks. David was listed in Who's Who in America, American Men of Science, and he was a Counselor at Large of the American Physical Society.

David Lind helped lead the transformation of the CU Department of Physics into the world-class program it has become. He will be missed.

Professor Lind's family will be scheduling a memorial service in late May.

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In Memoriam - Masataka (Seth) Mizushima

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 22:49:29 +0000

In Memoriam - Masataka (Seth) Mizushima Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/03/2014 - 16:49

Our friend and colleague Masataka (Seth) Mizushima passed away on May 28, 2014. Seth earned a Degree Rigakushi (B.A/M.A) in Chemistry from the University of Tokyo in 1946, and Rigaku-Hakushi (Ph.D.) in Physics from the University of Tokyo in 1951. He served as a postdoctoral research associate at Duke University from 1952 to 1955, and joined the Department of Physics at the University of Colorado as a assistant professor 1955. At that time, the CU-Physics faculty was comprised of two professors, four associate professors, four assistant professors, and one senior instructor.

Dr. Mizushima was promoted to Associate Professor in 1958, and professor in 1960. He had a NIST research appointment from 1955-1969, and had visiting professor appointments at eight leading institutions around the world. Seth retired from the university in 1989. Nineteen students graduated with Ph.D's under his supervision and mentorship.

Professor Mizushima's research spanned a wide range of theoretical atomic, molecular and optical physics. Professor Mizushima published three research books, one textbook, one translated monograph, and 84 peer reviewed research papers in leading journals. Later in his career and after retirement, Professor Mizushima conducted research in astrophysics, general relativity, and cosmology.

Professor Mizushima is survived by his wife Yoneko, brother Kenji, five daughters and ten grandchildren.

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In Memoriam - Sydney Geltman

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 22:55:36 +0000

In Memoriam - Sydney Geltman Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/04/2014 - 16:55

Professor Adjoint Sydney Geltman passed away on March 17, 2014 at his home in Boulder. His career included over five decades of research and teaching. He moved to Boulder in 1961 to work with the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST). Syd Geltman was one of the founding members of JILA in 1962. He and eight other physicists from the Atomic Physics Section of NBS (Lew Branscomb, Peter Bender, Earl Beaty, George Chamberlain, Gordon Dunn, Jan Hall, Lee Keiffer and Steve Smith) created JILA, and were the leaders in its becoming the premier atomic, molecular and optical physics program in the world. Syd served on the physics faculty for fifty-two years! He will be missed by his many friends and colleagues.

There will be a memorial gathering and reception on Sunday, April 13 at 1:00 p.m. in the 11th floor Commons Room of the Duane Physical Laboratories.

View Professor Geltman's obituary.

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In Memoriam - Albert A. Bartlett

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 04:06:01 +0000

In Memoriam - Albert A. Bartlett Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/30/2013 - 22:06

Updated 10/11/13: A memorial service will be held on Saturday, November 2nd at 3:00 p.m. on the club level of Folsom Stadium on the ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� campus to celebrate the life of Professor Albert A. Bartlett, who passed away on Saturday, September 7, 2013 at the age of 90.

Professor Bartlett had a profound impact on the Department of Physics, the University of Colorado, the City of Boulder, and has had a transformative influence on science education and public policy. Al Bartlett joined the faculty of the University of Colorado Department of Physics in September 1950 as an assistant professor, and served on the faculty until his retirement in 1988. He has been a Professor Emeritus since that time.

Before his scientific career, Al worked as a dishwasher and night cook on iron ore freighters in the Great Lakes. He did his undergraduate studies at Otterbein College and Colgate University, earning a B.A. in Physics summa cum laude from Colgate in 1944.

Dr. Bartlett joined the Manhattan project in July 1944. He worked at Los Alamos studying the properties of the plutonium to be used in the atomic bomb. His project involved measuring the Pu-240 contamination in the Pu-239 being produced by the nuclear reactors at Hanford, Washington, as that isotope strongly affects the fission properties of the plutonium. After the Trinity test of the plutonium bomb in the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945, Al was one of two technicians assigned the task of developing all of the photographs of this first atomic bomb. Al was given a complete set of photographs by the head photographer, which he donated to the CU Library archives.

In 1946, Al was assigned to photograph the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific. One of his favorite stories is how he shipped home the silk parachute left over from a magnesium flare he used to test the photographic equipment. His wife Eleanor used the silk for her wedding dress, which is now at the Los Alamos History Museum. In 1944-1946 Al lived in room #38 in the Los Alamos dormitory. Nobel Laureate Roy Glauber lived in #37. Louis Slotin and Harry Daghlian lived in #39 and #40. Slotin and Daghlian died in separate incidents of uncontrolled chain reactions in 1945 and 1946 while conducting experiments to determine the critical mass of plutonium.

Professor Bartlett earned his Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard in 1951, working with Ken Bainbridge, who had been a leader at Los Alamos for the engineering and testing of the atomic bomb. Al’s thesis project involved the design and construction of a double focus beta-ray spectrometer. A beta-ray spectrometer he designed and built was installed at the CU Cyclotron in the early 1960's.

Professor Bartlett was one of the most revered and successful teachers in CU’s history. He taught introductory physics to generations of young scientists and engineers. He won the Distinguished Service Citation, Robert A. Millikan Award and Melba Newell Phillips Award from the American Association of Physics Teachers, and served as the society’s national president in 1978. Teaching and service awards from the University of Colorado include Boulder Faculty Assembly Excellence in Teaching Awards, the Robert L. Stearns Award, Thomas Jefferson Award, Centennial Medallion, President’s University Service Award, University Heritage Center Award, and the Presidential Citation.

Professor Bartlett chaired the faculty committee responsible for designing the Duane Physical Laboratories building, the current home of the Physics and Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences departments. In particular Al and Professor Frank Walz designed the innovative physics lecture halls, including the revolutionary rotating stages used to move lecture demonstrations into the lecture halls during the 10-minute class-change periods. Al was a campus leader on long-term campus planning for new buildings. He served on the Boulder Campus Planning Commission for 25 years, and his advice on long-term planning still tangibly benefits the university.

In the 1960’s, Professor Bartlett was one of the founding members of PLAN (People’s League for Action Now) Boulder, a citizens group the grew out of the Blue Line advocacy he helped lead that limited housing growth on the mountains above Boulder by setting a maximum elevation for city water. Boulder’s pristine mountains, city parks, bike paths, greenbelts, and open spaces are the direct results of Professor Bartlett’s leadership.

In 1972, Professor Bartlett worked with Barbara Gamow to establish an endowment at the University of Colorado to permanently fund the George Gamow Memorial Lectures to honor her late husband. Barbara Gamow’s gift has kept this program free and open to the public for over forty years. Professor Bartlett chaired the Gamow Memorial Lecture Committee for twenty-five years, establishing the highest standards of outstanding public lectures. Twenty-four Nobel Laureates have given the Gamow Memorial Lecture.

Al and Jack Kraushaar authored A History of the Department of Physics of the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2002. The book documents the remarkable evolution of the department from a single professor to a world-class program culminating with our first Nobel laureates: Carl Wieman and Eric Cornell.

Professor Bartlett is world-famous for his acclaimed public lectures on Arithmetic, Population and Energy. This lecture highlights the irrefutable connection between population growth and the energy crisis, and provides a compelling call to action. He gave the lecture 1742 times in 49 states and seven foreign countries. The lecture, available online on Youtube, has been viewed nearly five million times! In his lecture, Professor Bartlett concludes his argument as follows: “The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function… Can you think of any problem in any area of human endeavor on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted, or advanced by further increases in population—locally, nationally, or globally?”

Professor Bartlett’s advocacy for zero population growth and other environmental causes is locally and internationally recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Colorado Environmental Center, the M. King Hubbert Award for Excellence in Energy Education, the Pacesetter Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Boulder Community, the Gilbert F. White Award of PLAN Boulder County, and the Global Media Award for Excellence in Population Reporting

Professor Bartlett was proceeded in death by his dear wife Eleanor Francis Roberts Bartlett, and he is survived by four daughters Carol, Jane, Lois, and Nancy.

An endowed scholarship in Professor Bartlett’s name was established by the University of Colorado in 2010 to assist physics students pursuing a high school science teaching career. The Albert A. Bartlett Scholarship is announced annually at the CU-Physics graduation ceremony in May. Professor Bartlett requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the University of Colorado Foundation Albert A. Bartlett Scholarship fund, in care of the Department of Physics, 390 UCB, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309.

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In Memoriam - Jack Kraushaar

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 21:53:27 +0000

In Memoriam - Jack Kraushaar Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/15/2013 - 15:53

Jack J. Kraushaar was one of a handful of talented young physicists who moved to Boulder in the late 1950’s, and built a world-class cyclotron at the edge of the prairie.

Jack earned a BS degree in Physics in 1944 from Lafayette College. He served in the Navy as a tactical radar officer during World War II. He earned a Ph.D. in physics at Syracuse University in 1952. He conducted doctoral research in nuclear physics at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and served on the physics faculty at Stanford University.

Professor Kraushaar joined the faculty of the CU Department of Physics in 1956, the same year as David Lind and George Gamow. This marked the beginning of a period of remarkable transformation for the department. Jack and David were the faculty leaders in creating, designing, and running the University of Colorado Cyclotron. They were the principal investigators of the contract from the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission for a design study of a cyclotron with azimuthally varying magnetic field. Such cyclotrons had been proposed to overcome the problem that conventional cyclotrons with azimuthally symmetric magnetic fields were limited to non-relativistic energies. Within a year, that contract had been modified to cover the design and construction of a 52-inch cyclotron capable of accelerating protons to 30 MeV, as well as accelerating deuterons, helium three ions, and alpha particles, one of only three similar cyclotrons in the country. The design process was led by Jack, David, Rod Smythe and Martin Rickey. A key feature of the machine was its ability to deliver particles to the target with a continuously variable range of energies.

The State of Colorado provided funds for a building to house the cyclotron, and the facility became the CU Nuclear Physics Laboratory with Jack and Dave as co-directors. It was one of only three similar machines in the nation, the competitors being Berkeley and Oak Ridge. All three laboratories reported successfully accelerating proton beams at the 1962 Accelerator Conference at UCLA. In addition, the CU Nuclear Physics Laboratory reported successfully accelerating negative hydrogen ions and extracting them from the magnetic field by stripping their electrons off by passing them through a thin foil. That technique led to the construction of a much larger negative ion cyclotron called TRIUMF at the University of British Columbia. The CU Nuclear Physics program conducted pioneering research for more than twenty-five years, providing research and educational opportunities for hundreds of undergraduate students, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows.

Jack was regarded as an excellent physicist, mentor, leader and, according to friends, provided a civilizing influence for the team of scientists.

Jack was also a first-rate teacher. He is most famous for creating CU Physics’ very successful course Energy and the Environment, which continues to enroll hundreds of students each year. He was co-author with Bob Ristinen of the very widely used undergraduate textbook with the same name, which is now in its fifth edition.

Jack retired from the University of Colorado in 1988 and was awarded the title Professor Emeritus. Together with Professor Emeritus Al Bartlett, Jack authored A History of the Department of Physics of the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2002. The book documents the remarkable evolution of the department from a single professor, William Waggener, to a world-class program culminating with our first Nobel laureates Carl Wieman and Eric Cornell.

Jack married Nancy Whiting Curtis, also a physicist, in 1951. Both were from New Jersey. They have three sons Jeffrey, Steven and Matthew, and four grandchildren.

Jack’s family requests that friends make donations to the American Friends Service Committee (http://afsc.org), 901 W 14th Ave # 7, Denver, CO 80204.

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In Memoriam: Professor Dick Mockler — 1925 - 2011

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 05:23:00 +0000

In Memoriam: Professor Dick Mockler — 1925 - 2011 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/21/2011 - 23:23

University of Colorado Physics Professor Emeritus Richard C. (Dick) Mockler passed away April 6, 2011 in Los Alamos, NM. He is survived by his sons Ted and Fritz.

Dick was born in Middleton, Ohio in 1925. He earned his B.S. in chemistry from Northwestern University in 1948, his M.S. in chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1950 and his Ph.D. from Duke University in 1954. He was an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky 1953-1954.

From 1954 to 1965, Dick Mocker was the Chief of the Atomic Frequency and Time Interval Standards Section of the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), later the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), in Boulder, Colorado. He was Chief of the Quantum Electronics Section of NBS 1965-1966. During his time at NBS, Dick was the scientific leader responsible for the construction of NBS-1 and NBS-2, the earliest NBS Cesium atomic clocks. Four decades of subsequent atomic clocks, NBS-3 through NBS-6, were based on the same fundamental design principles as NBS-1 and NBS-2. Dick’s influential paper “Atomic Beam Frequency Standards” in Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics (Academic, New York, 1961) assembled and synthesized many aspects of atomic clock construction and is still widely read by scientists today.

Dr. Mockler was awarded a Department of Commerce Exceptional Service Gold Medal Award in 1961 for “scientific leadership and personal technical contribution of the highest order in the achievement of a frequency and time interval standard of previously unknown accuracy, one which has brought the U.S. frequency standard to a level of accuracy and precision believed to exceed any other similar standard in the world.”

While at NIST, Dick was also a Professor Adjoint in the University of Colorado Department of Physics from 1960-1966. In 1966 he joined the faculty of the Department of Physics as a Full Professor. During his tenure at the University of Colorado, Dick’s research field evolved to experimental condensed matter physics. His laser scattering measurements of the critical properties of fluids in collaboration with William J. (Bill) O’Sullivan led to 38 papers in the 1970s and 1980s. During that time, they jointly supervised an excellent series of graduate students including Bruce Ackerson (Oklahoma State University), Stephen Casalnuovo (Sandia National Laboratories), Alan Hurd (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Ken Lyons (AT&T Labs) and Chris Sorensen (Kansas State University).

Dick was instrumental in the design and construction of the Duane Physical Sciences Complex at the University of Colorado, especially those underground low vibration laboratory spaces that laser scientists love. He was an excellent teacher and a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Dick retired in 1990 and later moved to New Mexico. He left lasting and tangible legacies at NIST and the University of Colorado. He will be missed.

Dick Mockler, a requiem

by Bill O’Sullivan

Dick Mockler was my primary research colleague from 1969 until my retirement at the Century’s turn. The story behind the formation of our unique two-faculty research group is worth telling: The Experimental Solid State Physics Program at CU became lifeless in the late 1960s. I was hired from Sandia as Professor sans tenure with the promise of a $500K startup package (that’s a half a Mil in 1969 dollars!) to bring to CU a successful, but narrowly focused research program in pressure effects upon the energy band behaviors in solids. Duane Physics was a deep hole in the earth with a smattering of concrete and steel eruptions signaling progress and hope. Our Department’s home was the pre-remodeled Ramaley, and I was assigned lab space in the sub-basement of the building.

The greatest fear I had upon arriving at CU was how I could manage to spend all my startup funds on a limited scope research effort without ending up in Canon City. Serendipity stepped in! The weight of the massive Varian Electromagnet that was central to my research exceeded the floor loading capacity of the lab. I was informed that it would have to be warehoused for the two years or so that it would take to complete Duane. This disappointment for me led to a common change in both Dick’s and my future, beginning with our first meeting within the bowels of Ramaley that we were to share.

But first the space: Imagine perhaps Cavendish’s personal lab after it had been struck by a disaster of natural or otherwise origin. Dark, light bulbs hanging down, ceilings 5’10’’ to 6’ high composed of some earthy material that continued to drop scabrous pieces of itself on the concrete floor; scattered about my part of the space were huge Ammeters. Voltmeters, numerous other brass objects of obvious historical import, old ionization tubes with curling bare wires hanging from their ports, old tables, benches, and on and on. And there was Dick emerging from another dark recess away from mine. Dick was short and moved about easily. I was 6’4” at the time and was forced to crouch. Dick was a senior Atomic Physicist who had come to CU from NBS after playing a key role in the development of the earliest Atomic Clocks. His equipment comprised a nice vacuum chamber with a function opaque to me, and no research funding. In addition to the half Mil of startup funds, I came with assured DOE support for the program I’d exported from Sandia. But I had no program to pursue! We were a perfect fit!

Dick and I began talking about what we might do with my money and his brains. I had started my first student Dennis Toms on a project involving Raman Scattering from single magnons in anti-ferromagnets. Dick had harbored an interest in studying phase transitions in fluids with lasers. We cobbled together our first proposal to the Department of Energy where much surprise was evinced at my sudden change in direction from pressure effects on solid state electronics to light scattering near fluid phase transitions,. But funding came and was maintained for another 25 years.

We occupied most of the basement research area in Duane when it opened and named our enterprise “Underground Quantum Optics”. We had the “Underground” right, but neither of us had a background in the “Quantum Optics” part. We attracted and lived off great students! The list of our students is extensive and includes University Distinguished Professors, Lab Directors, Science Advisors to Governors, and, perhaps closest to Dick as any, Christopher Sorensen, the 2007 National Professor of the Year in the Research University category.

Dick loved his research. He was a fine teacher, on “top” of every subject he taught. He was a quiet, serious man, a gentleman. I treasured him as a colleague, a friend and mentor to our students, and a friend of mine. He battled multiple sclerosis for years. He was an avid gymnast, and when we first met he was an advanced performer on the parallel bars. As time progressed, so did the disease, and his moves were less vigorous and impressive. But he fought on; never quit. Eventually, after his beloved wife Nina died, and after retiring from his professorship, Dick required the help of others and moved to New Mexico to live with his son.

I’ll leave it to others to assemble and discuss the numerous items of recognition assigned Dick by his colleagues in the community of physicists. I’ll remember Dick as my alter ego at CU, with whom I shared many laughs, very few times of discord, and as I think back now, many wonderful experiences. I miss him. His students will miss him.

Bill O’Sullivan

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