George Volkoff
George Volkoff | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | February 23, 1914 Moscow, Russia |
| Died | April 24, 2000 (aged 86) Vancouver, Canada |
| Alma mater |
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| Known for | |
| Awards | Order of Canada Order of the British Empire |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Doctoral advisor | J. Robert Oppenheimer |
| Other academic advisors | Richard Chace Tolman Eugene Wigner |
George Michael Volkoff, OC MBE FRSC (February 23, 1914 – April 24, 2000) was a Russian-Canadian physicist and academic who helped, with J. Robert Oppenheimer, predict the existence of neutron stars before they were discovered.
Early life
He was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1914. His father, an engineer, relocated his family to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1924. Unable to find work, his father moved the family again to Harbin, Manchuria, in 1927 to teach at a Russian technical school. In 1936, after Volkoff's mother died, his father returned to Russia but found himself a victim of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge.[1] He was exiled to the arctic camps where he would die.[2]
Education and academic work
Volkoff returned to Vancouver in 1930 and attended the University of British Columbia, receiving a bachelor's degree in physics in 1934 and a master's degree in 1936. He then studied with J. Robert Oppenheimer at the University of California, Berkeley where he published his paper "On Massive Neutron Cores"[3] in 1939, his first and most famous scientific contribution,[1] and earned his Ph.D. in 1940.[1] He subsequently undertook further research on nuclear physics with Eugene Wigner at Princeton University.[1]
In 1940, he returned the University of British Columbia as an assistant professor in the Department of Physics. During World War II he worked on the Manhattan Project at the Montreal Laboratory. But except for this he remained at UBC for the rest of his career.[1] At UBC, a topic that interested him was nuclear magnetic resonance.[1] During the early Cold War, he served as a liaison with Russian scientists and translated numerous Russian scientific publications and Russian talks at the Rochester conferences into English.[1] From 1961 to 1970, he was the head of the department.[1] From 1970 to 1979, he was the dean of science.[1]
He was a member of the University of British Columbia Senate for three periods: 1950 to 1954, 1961 to 1963, and 1969 to 1979.
He was the editor of the Canadian Journal of Physics from 1950 to 1956,[2] and president of the Canadian Association of Physicists from 1962 to 1963.[4] He facilitated the development of high-energy physics in Canada and was an early proponent of the Tri-University Meson Facility (TRIUMF).[2]
Honours
In 1946, he chosen to be a member of the Order of the British Empire.[1] UBC gave him an honorary doctorate for his theoretical work on CANDU reactors during the Second World War.[1] In 1994, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada for having "contributed to the general development of physics in Canada and, in particular, at the University of British Columbia."[5]
He died in Vancouver in 2000, following a series of strokes that began in 1996.[2]
See also
- Oppenheimer–Snyder model
- List of contributors to general relativity
- Timeline of gravitational physics and relativity
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Vogt, Erich (November 1, 2000). "George Michael Volkoff". Physics Today. 53 (11). American Institute of Physics: 76. doi:10.1063/1.1333309. ISSN 0031-9228.
- ^ a b c d Vogt, Erich (2000). "In Memoriam – George Michael Volkoff" (PDF). Physics in Canada. 56 (5). Canadian Association of Physicists: 225. ISSN 0031-9147. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
- ^ Oppenheimer, J. Robert; Volkoff, George (1939). "On Massive Neutron Cores". Physical Review. 55 (374). doi:10.1103/PhysRev.55.374.
- ^ "CAP Presidents (Current and Former)". Canadian Association of Physicists. 2023. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
- ^ Order of Canada citation Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine