ACHIEVING THE RARE: ROBERT F CHRISTY'S JOURNEY IN PHYSICS AND BEYOND - Softcover

Christy, I-juliana

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9814460249 ISBN 13: 9789814460248

Publisher: World Scientific Pub Co Inc, 2013

Synopsis

Robert F Christy was a fascinating physicist who was one of the key players in some of the most dramatic events of the 20th century.He was one of Oppenheimer's students, whom Oppenheimer hailed as one of the best in the world. He was a co-creator of the world's first nuclear reactor and the first atom bombs, of which the most practical design was called the Christy Gadget. Later, he became a leader in the effort to contain nuclear proliferation, leading up to the SALT talks, and headed a study on long-term health effects of radiation crucial for medical safety standards. He also made pioneering contributions in the field of astrophysics, working on the variable stars (Cepheids) that are key distance indicators in the universe.Robert was equally fascinating as a person. He remarried at nearly 60 to an astrophysicist 26 years younger from some 6,000 miles initial separation. They had two daughters late in his life. Robert stayed active both professionally and physically into his nineties. He would still gallop on his horse at the age of 93.This biography is brought alive not only with words, but also with the many treasured photographs of Robert, his family, and his colleagues.

About this title

About the Author

I-Juliana Christy was born in the eastern part of Germany during World War II. Her mother immigrated to Canada with her three young daughters in 1955 when Juliana was 13 years old. Juliana studied physics, astronomy, and astrophysics at the University of Toronto, obtaining a PhD in astrophysics in 1968. She first encountered Prof. Robert Christy at an international astrophysics meeting in Toronto at this time.

Juliana was awarded a NATO Fellowship and worked in Germany as a post-doctoral research fellow with Prof. Rudolf Kippenhahn at the University of Göttingen and at the Heisenberg Biermann Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics in Munich. In 1970 she met Prof. Robert Christy again at international conferences in England and Portugal. Juliana won a Senior von Humboldt Award in 1971, and at the end of that year came to the US to work with Prof. William A Fowler at Caltech as a postdoctoral fellow in nuclear astrophysics. Since then Juliana has continued her research in astrophysics as a Caltech faculty member.

Robert and Juliana were married in 1973; she was 31 and he was 57. Over the ext four decades they built a family together, enriching each others' lives.

Review

"From 'Christy's Gadget' (the first plutonium-based atomic bomb) and the war that it helped end, to the forces that drive a star's pulsations, to intercontinental romance, this biography illuminates the life, passions, and intellect of one of the 20th century's great theoretical physicists. It is a fitting tribute to Robert Christy, whom I admired as a man as well as a scientist." -- Kip S Thorne, The Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics Emeritus, California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

"From the atom bomb to the frontiers of astrophysics, Bob Christy's contributions were brilliant and seminal. In an intimate account rich with personal detail, we see up close a man of enormous energy, grace, and wisdom." -- H David Politzer, Caltech, Nobel Prize in Physics 200

"Bob Christy was an exemplary research scientist, teacher and university administrator at Caltech, playing an important role in the development of the atomic bomb and in the efforts after World War II to assure that nuclear weapons would not be used again. This informative biographical memoir by his widow reveals the warmer side of his personality, remembered by his friends but hidden from public view by his austere and analytic manner. " --Harold Brown, President of Caltech 1969-1977, US Secretary of Defense 1977-1981

"The deeper you get into this book, the more fascinating it becomes. Christy lived the problems of the 20th century which are defining many of the problems of the 21st " -- Rose Bethe, widow of Hans Bethe, Nobel Prize in Physics 1967

"An accomplished scientist in her own right, I-Juliana Christy has written a richly-detailed biography. Drawing on unpublished letters and interviews, she weaves together the political drama of World War II with the personal story of Christy." --Judith R Goodstein, Founding Head of Caltech Archivesand, author of Millikan's School

"Juliana Christy has created a remarkable blend of historical biography and personal memoir. She presents here for the first time unique source material from Robert Christy's personal papers, along with interviews, photographs and other documentation, much of it newly published. The book is an intimate yet carefully weighed account of this great physicist's life and work." -- Charlotte E Erwin, Head of Archives, Special Collections, Caltech

"A must-read for people interested in history and pioneering physics. Mentored by Oppenheimer, Christy transformed nuclear science from intellectual theory to explosive reality. A warm and compas-sionate man, he labored mightily against nuclear proliferation." --Frank D Rubin, attorney and history buff

Edition details

• Publisher: World Scientific Pub Co Inc
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9814460249
• ISBN 13: 9789814460248
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 349