Kusch, Polykarp

Kusch, Polykarp,

1911–93, American physicist, b. Blankenburg, Germany, Ph.D. Univ. of Illinois, 1936. Kusch was a researcher, professor, and administrator at Columbia from 1937 to 1972 and a professor at the Univ. of Texas, Dallas, from 1972 until his retirement in 1982. He and Willis LambLamb, Willis Eugene, Jr.,
1913–2008, American physicist, b. Los Angeles, Ph.D. Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1938. Lamb was a professor at Columbia (1938–51), Stanford (1951–56), Oxford (1956–62), Yale (1962–74), and the Univ.
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 were jointly awarded the 1955 Nobel Prize in Physics, with Kusch cited for determining in 1947 the magnetic moment of the electron. He demonstrated through precise atomic beam studies that the actual value of the magnetic moment is greater than the theoretical value, which led to new findings and developments in quantum electrodynamicsquantum electrodynamics
(QED), quantum field theory that describes the properties of electromagnetic radiation and its interaction with electrically charged matter in the framework of quantum theory.
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.

Kusch, Polykarp

 

Born Jan. 26, 1911, in Blankenburg, Germany. American physicist.

Kusch graduated from Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland in 1931. Between 1931 and 1941 he taught at the universities of Illinois and Minnesota and New York University. He was an engineer with Westinghouse from 1941 to 1942 and worked in the Columbia University laboratories from 1942 to 1944. He worked for Bell Telephone Laboratories from 1944 to 1946. He joined the faculty of Columbia University in 1946 and was appointed professor there in 1949.

Kusch’s major work has been in nuclear physics and the physics of elementary particles. Using magnetic resonance in atomic beams, he obtained a value for the intrinsic magnetic moment of an electron that agreed closely with the theoretical value calculated on the basis of modern quantum electrodynamics. Kusch was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1955 (jointly with W. Lamb).

Kusch, Polykarp

(1911–93) physicist; born in Blankenburg, Germany. Taken to the U.S.A. in 1912, he was naturalized in 1922. He taught at Columbia University (1937–41, 1946–72), performing military research during World War II. He shared the 1955 Nobel Prize in physics (with Willis Lamb) for his precise determination of the magnetic moment of the electron. His last academic position was at the University of Texas (1972–82).