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IN MEMORIAM
ROMAN SMOLUCHOWSKI
Roman Smoluchowski, Emeritus Professor of Physics
and Astronomy, died in Austin on January 12, 1996. He is survived
by Louise, his wife of 44 years, two children and two grandchildren.
Roman, or Ro as he was affectionately called by his many friends,
was born in Zakopane, Poland (then Austria-Hungary) on August
31, 1910. He received his master's degree in physics from the
University of Warsaw in 1933 and his Ph.D. in physics and mathematics
from the University of Groningen in The Netherlands in 1935.
He then worked for a year at the Institute of Advanced Studies
in Princeton where, with fellow European postdoctoral fellow
Louis Bouckaert and future Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner, he wrote
the seminal paper applying group theory to solid state physics.
Roman returned to Poland in 1936 as head of the
department of physics of metals at the University of Warsaw.
During the early days of the German occupation he escaped from
Poland. An invitation from Princeton University to become an
instructor in physics enabled him to come to the U.S., where
he became a citizen in 1944. From 1941 to 1945 Roman was a research
physicist at the General Electric Laboratory in Schenectady,
New York. From 1946 to 1950 he was an associate professor of
physics and metallurgy and from 1950 to 1960 professor of physics
at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. Then from
1960 to 1978 he was professor of solid state sciences in the
mechanical engineering department, and until 1976 head of the
solid state and materials interdepartmental program at Princeton
University. He retired from Princeton as emeritus professor in
1978 and became professor of physics and astronomy at The University
of Texas at Austin, where he continued his active program of
research and teaching at both the graduate and undergraduate
level.
During his scholarly career, Roman made important
contributions to a number of areas: the role played by structural
defects in the properties of solids, magnetism and order-disorder
transformations in metals and alloys, the mechanisms of radiation
damage, the formation mechanisms and stability of point defects
in the alkali halides, the application of solid-state physics
to the properties of biological hard tissue and materials problems
in astrophysics. He applied his knowledge of radiation damage
phenomena to the structural nature of the lunar surface prior
to the lunar landings during the Apollo missions. He also turned
his attention to problems in solid-state astrophysics, including
the gravitational collapse and the resulting interior structure
and magnetic field of Jupiter and the outer planets. This work
is now being tested with data from the Galileo spacecraft and
its atmospheric probe. He made important contributions to our
understanding of the rings around Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune.
In 1991 the International Astronomical Society in honor of Roman's
80th birthday named asteroid number 4530 after him.
Roman published nearly 300 refereed papers, two
advanced books, and wrote numerous contributions to popular science
books, magazines, and encyclopedias. His popular book, The
Solar System: The Sun, Planets, and Life, written for the
Scientific American Library in 1983, has been published in at
least five languages. Roman served on or chaired many panels,
committees, or boards for the ONR, NRC, and NAS. In April 1944
Roman wrote a letter to the secretary of the American Physical
Society requesting the formation within the society of a "Division
of Metal Physics." Opposition immediately surfaced from
two camps: those who wanted the Division to include all solids,
to whom Roman wisely, if somewhat reluctantly, acceded and those
who opposed the fragmentation of physics and who found the inclusion
of a large number of industrial physicists in the Society distasteful.
It took three years, but at last in June 1947 the Division of
Solid State Physics (now Condensed Matter Physics) was recognized
by the APS with Ro as its first chairman. Without Ro's efforts
condensed matter physics might well have fragmented into many
sub-fields, some of which would have been lost to physics, becoming
part of engineering or chemistry.
Roman was always willing to give of his time and
share his insights with students and colleagues. In the early
1960s, when several Brazilian universities were establishing
modern research activities in materials science, Roman invited
several physicists from Brazil to join his research activities
in the U.S. and also visited their home universities. His kindness
to friends and strangers alike will not be forgotten. After a
talk given by a young scientist, Roman, even if he had no questions
or scientific comments to make, would introduce himself and say
how much he enjoyed the talk. Roman's warm and generous personality,
his scientific contributions, and his infectious booming laugh
will long be remembered by those who knew him.
<signed>
Larry R. Faulkner, President
The University of Texas at Austin
<signed>
John R. Durbin, Secretary
The General Faculty
This Memorial Resolution was prepared by a special
committee consisting of Professors Leonard Kleinman (Chair),
Frits de Wette, and William D. Cochran.
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