Physicist, born in New York City, New York, USA. He spent his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he taught and performed research investigating intranuclear forces and statistical theories of nuclear reactions.
Herman Feshbach (born in 1917 in New York City — died 22 December 2000 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) was an American physicist. Feshbach is best known for Feshbach resonance and for writing, with Philip M.
Background
Feshbach was born in New York City and graduated from the City College of New York in 1937.
Career
Feshbach was invited to stay at MIT after he received his doctorate. From 1967 to 1973, he was the director of MIT's Center for Theoretical Physics, and from 1973 to 1983, he was chairman of the physics department. In 1983, Feshbach was named as an Institute Professor, the highest faculty honor at MIT. Feshbach was active in the nuclear disarmament movement and was a founder and first chairman of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
He became concerned about the condition of scientists behind the Iron Curtain, and worked to establish contacts between Western scientists and their Eastern Bloc counterparts. Feshbach wrote about meeting Sakharov after his release from internal exile, in an article that appeared in Physics Today. Feshbach was a strong believer in equality of opportunity, especially within the scientific community.
Death
Feshbach died of heart failure at Youville Hospital in Cambridge.
Awards and honors
Feshbach joined the National Academy of Sciences in 1969 and was president of the American Physical Society from 1980 to 1981.
In 1986, Feshbach was awarded the National Medal of Science.
In 1984, the physics department honored Feshbach for his decades of service by starting the annual Herman Feshbach Lectures. The physics department also has an endowed Herman Feshbach chair, established in 1999 to support theoretical physicists. Feshbach, Herman, Amos deShalit.
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