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Edward Mills Purcell, August 30, 1912–March 7, 1997

Abstract

I discuss the life, education, personality, and contributions of Edward Mills Purcell (1912–1997) to physics, radio astronomy, astrophysics, biological physics, physics teaching and education, and to the nation.

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References

  1. John S. Rigden, “Edward Mills Purcell,” in Noretta Koertge, Editor-in-Chief, New Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 6 (Detroit: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2008), pp. 178-183, on 178.

  2. Interview of Edward Purcell by Katherine R. Sopka on June 8, 1977, Niels Bohr Library and Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD USA, website http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/4835_1.html, p. 4.

  3. Edward M. Purcell, an oral history conducted by John Bryant on June 14, 1991, IEEE History Center, New Brunswick, NJ, USA, p.1.

  4. Interview of Purcell by Sopka (ref. 2), p. 4.

  5. Interview of Purcell by Sopka (ref. 2), p. 9.

  6. Interview of Purcell by Sopka (ref. 2), p. 21.

  7. Quoted in John S. Rigden, Rabi: Scientist and Citizen (New York: Basic Books, 1987; second edition Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard University Press, 2000), p. 164.

  8. C.G. Montgomery, R.H. Dicke, and E.M. Purcell, Principles of Microwave Circuits [Vol. 8, Radiation Laboratory Series] (New York, Toronto, London: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1948).

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  9. Ursula Pavlish, “Robert Vivian Pound and the Discovery of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in Condensed Matter, Physics in Perspective 12 (2010), 180-189, on 183.

  10. Interview of Purcell by Sopka (ref. 2), pp. 29-30.

  11. E.M. Purcell, H.C. Torrey, and R.V. Pound, “Resonance Absorption by Nuclear Magnetic Moments in a Solid, Physical Review 69 (1946), 37-38; F. Bloch, W.W. Hansen, and Martin Packard, “Nuclear Induction,” ibid., 127; John S. Rigden, “Quantum states and precession: The two discoveries of NMR,” Reviews of Modern Physics 58 (1986), 433-448.

  12. N. Bloembergen, E.M. Purcell, and R.V. Pound, “Relaxation Effects in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Absorption,” Phys. Rev. 73 (1948), 679-712.

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  13. Quoted in John S. Rigden, Hydrogen: The Essential Element (Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard University Press, 2002), p. 177.

  14. H.I. Ewen and E.M. Purcell, “Radiation from Galactic Hydrogen at 1,420 Mc./sec.,” Nature 168 (September 1, 1951), 356.

  15. C.A. Muller and J.H. Oort, “The Interstellar Hydrogen Line at 1,420 Mc./sec., and an Estimate of Galactic Rotation, Nature 168 (September 1, 1951), 357-358.

  16. J.L. Pawley, [Note on cable dated July 12 received from Sydney, N.S.W., Australia], Nature 168 (September 1, 1951), 358.

  17. Doc Ewen, personal communication, June 19, 2010.

  18. Interview of Purcell by Sopka (ref. 2), pp. 40-41.

  19. Edward M. Purcell and Lyman Spitzer, Jr., “Orientation of Rotating Grains,” The Astrophysical Journal 167 (1971), 31-62.

  20. Howard C. Berg and Edward M. Purcell, “Physics of Chemoreception,” Biophysical Journal 20 (1977), 193-219.

  21. Edward M. Purcell, “Life at low Reynolds number,” American Journal of Physics 45 (1977), 3-11, on 7.

  22. S.J. Smith and E.M. Purcell, “Visible Light from Localized Surface charges Moving across a Grating,” Phys. Rev. 92 (1953), 1069.

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  23. E.M. Purcell and N.F. Ramsey, “On the Possibility of Electric Dipole Moments for Elementary Particles and Nuclei,” Phys. Rev. 78 (1950), 807.

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  24. E.M. Purcell and R.V. Pound, “A Nuclear Spin System at Negative Temperature,” Phys. Rev. 81 (1951), 279-280.

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  25. Quoted in James R. Killian, Jr., Sputnik, Scientists, and Eisenhower: A Memoir of the First Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology (Cambridge, Mass. and London: The MIT Press, 1977), p. 123.

  26. Ibid.

  27. Introduction to Outer Space (The White House, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, March 26, 1958); website <http://www.fas.org/spp/guide/usa/intro1.jpg>.

  28. Robert V. Pound, “Edward Mills Purcell, August 30, 1912-March 7, 1997,” Biographical Memoirs. Vol. 78 (Washington, D.C.: The National Academy Press, 2000), pp. 1-24, on p. 4.

  29. W.H. Furry, E.M. Purcell, and J.C. Street, Physics for Science and Engineering Students (New York, Toronto, London: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1952).

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  30. Edward M. Purcell, Electricity and Magnetism [Vol. 2, Berkeley Physics Course] (New York, St. Louis, San Francisco, Toronto, London, Sydney: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1963).

  31. Edward M. Purcell, “The Back of the Envelope,” American Journal of Physics 51 (1983), 11.

  32. Claude Bernard, personal communication, July 7, 2010.

  33. Purcell, “Back of the Envelope” (ref. 31).

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Correspondence to John S. Rigden.

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John S. Rigden is Adjunct Professor of Physics at Washington University in St. Louis.

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Rigden, J.S. Edward Mills Purcell, August 30, 1912–March 7, 1997. Phys. Perspect. 13, 91–103 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-010-0042-5

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Keywords

  • Edward M. Purcell
  • Kenneth T. Bainbridge
  • Howard Berg
  • Felix Bloch
  • Nicholas Bloembergen
  • Harold I. Ewen
  • Wendell H. Furry
  • Karl Lark-Horovitz
  • H.C. van de Hulst
  • Frank J. Kerr
  • James R. Killian, Jr.
  • Robert V. Pound
  • I.I. Rabi
  • Norman Ramsey
  • Stephen J. Smith
  • J. Curry Street
  • Henry C. Torrey
  • John H. Van Vleck
  • Isidor Walerstein
  • Purdue University
  • Karlsruhe Technische Hochschule
  • Harvard University
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Philco Company
  • Western Electric
  • American Physical Society
  • American Association of Physics Teachers
  • Royal Society of London
  • National Academy of Sciences
  • Nobel Prize
  • Oersted Medal
  • National Medal of Science
  • Presidents Science Advisory Committee
  • nuclear physics
  • magnetron
  • nuclear magnetic resonance
  • radio astronomy
  • astrophysics
  • biological physics
  • Smith-Purcell effect
  • physics teaching