Victor Weisskopf
By Isaak Cherdak
Origins
As a man that began his career by advancing nuclear weapons research and later campaigning against their proliferation, “Viki” was a unique and influential character. Although Austrian born to a Jewish family in Vienna, Victor went to Germany to receive his doctorate in physics at the University of Göttingen. He was also recognized by and had the opportunity to work with some of the greatest physicists at the time. Victor died silently at his home on the 24th of April in 2002 at the age of 93.
Contributions, Positions, and Awards
Victor’s earliest contribution is in the field of Quantum Electrodynamics through his work on the structure of the atomic nucleus. Victor also managed to produce results demonstrating a phenomenon called Lamb Shift, named after Willis Lamb who published the results instead. However, Victor’s most notable contribution was perhaps his involvement as group leader in the theoretical division of the Manhattan project. By the end of World War 2, Victor joined MIT as the head of the Physics department. He was considered a memorable teacher that emphasized learning the mindset behind being a physicist over learning physics concepts. Victor soon made an important historical milestone for MIT where he co-founded the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), an organization focused on directing efforts of the scientific community away from the military and toward “pressing environmental and social problems” (En.wikipedia.org, 2018). Victor joined and served as Director General of CERN around the same time. He was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and president of the American Physical Society as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Over the course of his life, Victor received numerous awards including the Max Planck Medal, the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca, the National Medal of Science, the Wolf Prize, and National Academy of Science Public Welfare Medal. Victor even was appointed to a group chosen by the pope to dissuade at-the-time U.S. President Ronald Reagan from the use of nuclear weapons.
Challenges
Victor faced a number of challenges both due to his background and the nature of ethical concerns that arise from working with biological weapons. Victor had trouble in Europe, particularly because he was Jewish. This kind of discrimination was not uncommon, especially at the time. Luckily, Niels Bohr helped Victor find an appropriate position in the United States. Victor also was very insecure about his mathematical abilities; He once lost the opportunity for a Nobel Prize when somebody else published results that he was not completely sure of but turned out to be correct. After Victor’s work on the Manhattan project, his focus had shifted to campaigning against the use of nuclear weapons. His contributions to the development of nuclear weapons must have had a tremendous effect on him as he has since taken to dissuading their use.
Sources Cited
En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Victor Weisskopf. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Weisskopf [Accessed 9 Jan. 2018].
MIT News. (2018). Weisskopf dies at 93; was protégé of physicist Niels Bohr. [online] Available at: http://news.mit.edu/2002/weisskopf-0424 [Accessed 9 Jan. 2018].
Side Note: I know about discrimination against the Jews in these areas mostly from personal experience since this is the major reason my parents, and a large number of other people in areas formerly under control of the USSR, immigrated to the United States.