Harrison M. Randall

Harrison McAllister Randall (1870–1969) was an American physicist whose leadership from 1915 to 1941 brought the University of Michigan to international prominence for its research in experimental and theoretical physics.

Prior to 1910, the Michigan Physics Department had been focused on precision metrology. Dr. Randall, who took all of his degrees at Michigan, also initially specialized in metrology. In 1902, he wrote his PhD thesis on his work measuring the coefficient of expansion of quartz. But during his 1910-11 sabbatical year in Tübingen, Germany he met Friedrich Paschen, and became an expert in performing infrared spectroscopy. Randall then introduced these techniques to the University of Michigan.

It was not long before Randall and his Michigan collaborators produced molecular spectra of unprecedented quality and detail. At that time Walter Colby was the only resident theorist, so, with Randall’s encouragement, Colby recruited Oskar Klein. Although Klein returned to Europe after two years, the importance of theoretical colleagues was firmly established. Subsequently, the University of Michigan added Otto Laporte, Samuel Goudsmit, George Uhlenbeck, and David Dennison to the physics faculty. Drs. Colby and Randall also started the Michigan Summer Symposia in Theoretical Physics, an annual, multi-week gathering that occurred from 1927 to 1941. This conference provided short courses from prominent theorists, including Bohr, Dirac, Fermi, Heisenberg, Pauli and others, to audiences that sometimes exceeded 100.

Meanwhile, Randall also oversaw Michigan’s substantial growth in atomic physics and nuclear physics. In the mid 1930s he secured the funding to build what was then the world's most energetic cyclotron.

Randall was elected to the presidency of the American Physical Society in 1937. He remained as chairman of the Michigan physics department until his retirement in 1941, but continued for another 25 years to explore the use of infrared spectroscopy in biophysics.

References

Harrison M. Randall, On the Coefficient of Expansion of Quartz, Phys Rev 20. pp 1–37. (1905) (this is a refinement of his 1902 thesis experiment)

H. M. Randall, Infrared Spectroscopy at Michigan, Journal of the Optical Society of America, Vol. 44, pp 97–103 (1954) (overview of work in Ann Arbor)

H. H. Nielsen, A Half-Century of Infrared Spectroscopy, Journal of the Optical Society of America, Vol. 50, p. 1147 (1960) (Ives medal encomium for Harrison M. Randall)

H. M. Randall and D. W. Smith, Infrared Spectroscopy in Biological Research, Journal of the Optical Society of America, Vol. 53, 1086–1092 (example of work done after his retirement)

Ralph A. Sawyer, Obituary: Harrison M. Randall applied infrared studies to Bacteria, Physics Today, Vol. 23, #1, pp 127-128 (1970)