Philosophy
"Stuart Freedman - renowned physicist - dies"
by
David Perlman
November 21st, 2012
San Francisco Chronicle
Stuart Jay Freedman, a Berkeley nuclear physicist renowned for his pathbreaking investigations into the physics of the universe, died unexpectedly on Nov. 9 in Santa Fe, N.M., where he was attending a science conference. He was 68.
Dr. Freedman's inquiries into theory took him from exploring the nature of particles like quarks and axions to the nature of quantum mechanics, but he was also noted as an experimentalist for his work resolving the nature and mass of the fundamental particles called neutrinos.
"We have lost a great physicist," said James Symons, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's nuclear science division. "Stuart was a truly remarkable scientist, with extraordinarily diverse interests, and he was still very much at the height of his powers."
Dr. Freedman joined the laboratory and the UC Berkeley faculty in 1991, following an early career that began at Princeton University in 1972 immediately after he had earned his doctorate in physics at UC Berkeley.
He joined the physics faculty at Stanford in 1976, and then moved to the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago as a staff physicist in 1982. While at Argonne he was also a professor in the University of Chicago's Enrico Fermi Institute.
Dr. Freedman retained his connections to Argonne and the Fermi Institute after joining the Berkeley lab.
"Stuart was not only a brilliant experimentalist but a wise person who gave sage advice gently, often using his wonderfully wry sense of humor," said Michael Turner, a noted cosmologist at the Fermi institute. "We will sorely miss Stuart's scientific contributions, his friendship and wise counsel."
Dr. Freedman once recalled that in his early days as a graduate student in theoretical physics he had looked at the Berkeley lab as "big science," and said he wanted nothing to do with it.
"I believed that scientists should work alone in their laboratories," he said.
But he later changed his mind. From the Lawrence Berkeley lab, he led a team of physicists at 10 American universities in a historic "big science" Japanese project called KamLAND. It involved burying a huge nuclear detector deep in a zinc mine inside a mountain. Like a telescope, the nuclear detector successfully captured neutrinos zipping through Earth and down from the sun. It was a first for science.
For his work with that project, Dr. Freedman was named a senior scientist at the Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe in Tokyo, a post he held until his death even while he remained at his Berkeley posts.
Dr. Freedman was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and in his service to America's science community he chaired the National Research Council's 10-year survey of the state of nuclear physics in 2010. He also was a member of the academy's board on physics and astronomy.
In 1999, UC Berkeley honored him with the Luis W. Alvarez Memorial Chair in Experimental Physics.
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Maurice Goldhaber April 18th, 1911 to May 11th, 2011 "Maurice Goldhaber, Atomic Physicist, Is Dead at 100" by Kenneth Chang May 17th, 2011 The New York Times Maurice Goldhaber, a physicist who delved into the intricacies of atoms and headed the Brookhaven...
- Deceased--andrew Lange
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Philosophy
Deceased--Stuart Freedman
Stuart Freedman
January 13th, 1944 to November 9th, 2012
January 13th, 1944 to November 9th, 2012
"Stuart Freedman - renowned physicist - dies"
by
David Perlman
November 21st, 2012
San Francisco Chronicle
Stuart Jay Freedman, a Berkeley nuclear physicist renowned for his pathbreaking investigations into the physics of the universe, died unexpectedly on Nov. 9 in Santa Fe, N.M., where he was attending a science conference. He was 68.
Dr. Freedman's inquiries into theory took him from exploring the nature of particles like quarks and axions to the nature of quantum mechanics, but he was also noted as an experimentalist for his work resolving the nature and mass of the fundamental particles called neutrinos.
"We have lost a great physicist," said James Symons, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's nuclear science division. "Stuart was a truly remarkable scientist, with extraordinarily diverse interests, and he was still very much at the height of his powers."
Dr. Freedman joined the laboratory and the UC Berkeley faculty in 1991, following an early career that began at Princeton University in 1972 immediately after he had earned his doctorate in physics at UC Berkeley.
He joined the physics faculty at Stanford in 1976, and then moved to the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago as a staff physicist in 1982. While at Argonne he was also a professor in the University of Chicago's Enrico Fermi Institute.
Dr. Freedman retained his connections to Argonne and the Fermi Institute after joining the Berkeley lab.
"Stuart was not only a brilliant experimentalist but a wise person who gave sage advice gently, often using his wonderfully wry sense of humor," said Michael Turner, a noted cosmologist at the Fermi institute. "We will sorely miss Stuart's scientific contributions, his friendship and wise counsel."
Dr. Freedman once recalled that in his early days as a graduate student in theoretical physics he had looked at the Berkeley lab as "big science," and said he wanted nothing to do with it.
"I believed that scientists should work alone in their laboratories," he said.
But he later changed his mind. From the Lawrence Berkeley lab, he led a team of physicists at 10 American universities in a historic "big science" Japanese project called KamLAND. It involved burying a huge nuclear detector deep in a zinc mine inside a mountain. Like a telescope, the nuclear detector successfully captured neutrinos zipping through Earth and down from the sun. It was a first for science.
For his work with that project, Dr. Freedman was named a senior scientist at the Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe in Tokyo, a post he held until his death even while he remained at his Berkeley posts.
Dr. Freedman was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and in his service to America's science community he chaired the National Research Council's 10-year survey of the state of nuclear physics in 2010. He also was a member of the academy's board on physics and astronomy.
In 1999, UC Berkeley honored him with the Luis W. Alvarez Memorial Chair in Experimental Physics.
- Deceased--john Jungerman
John JungermanDecember 28th, 1921 to March 28th, 2014 "UC Davis nuclear physics lab founder, John Jungerman, dies" by Jillian Sullivan May 5th, 2014 SFGate John Jungerman, founding director of the nuclear physics research laboratory at UC Davis...
- Deceased--john Killeen
John Killeen 1925 to August 15th, 2012 "IN MEMORIAM: Professor Emeritus John Killeen, pioneer in fusion, computational physics" September 5th, 2012 UCDAVIS Professor Emeritus John Killeen knew fusion science as a pioneer in the field, from around the...
- Deceased--maurice Goldhaber
Maurice Goldhaber April 18th, 1911 to May 11th, 2011 "Maurice Goldhaber, Atomic Physicist, Is Dead at 100" by Kenneth Chang May 17th, 2011 The New York Times Maurice Goldhaber, a physicist who delved into the intricacies of atoms and headed the Brookhaven...
- Deceased--andrew Lange
Andrew Lange July 23rd, 1957 to January 22nd, 2010 "Andrew Lange, noted universe researcher at Caltech, dies" by Janette Williams January 25th, 2010 Pasadena Star-News Andrew E. Lange, Goldberger Professor of Physics at Caltech and a preeminent cosmologist...
- Death Of An "atom Smasher"
"Historic Atom Smasher Reduced to Rubble and Revelry" by Alexis Madrigal July 8th, 2009 Wired Science BERKELEY, California — What was once the world's biggest atom smasher will soon be nothing more than a collection of old photos and the dust...