Content deleted Content added
migrating Persondata to Wikidata, please help, see challenges for this article |
|||
(20 intermediate revisions by 17 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{Short description|American physicist}}
{{primary sources|date=August 2012}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Harrison M. Randall
| birth_date = 17 December 1870
| birth_place = [[Burr Oak, Michigan]]
| death_date = 10 November 1969
| workplaces = [[University of Michigan]]
| alma_mater = [[University of Michigan]]
| doctoral_students = [[Nelson Fuson]]
}}
'''Harrison McAllister Randall''' (
==Biography==
▲'''Harrison McAllister Randall''' (1870–1969) was an American physicist whose leadership from 1915 to 1941 brought the [[University of Michigan]] to international prominence in experimental and [[theoretical physics]].
Randall was born in [[Burr Oak, Michigan]], on December 17, 1870. His family then moved to Ann Arbor, where he spent his formative years and most of his life. He graduated from the Ann Arbor High School (now [[Pioneer High School (Ann Arbor, Michigan)|Pioneer High School]]) in 1889, and then earned his bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Michigan in 1893.<ref name=faculty-history-project>{{cite web|last1=University of Michigan|title=Harrison McAllister Randall.|url=http://um2017.org/faculty-history/faculty/harrison-mcallister-randall|website=Faculty History Project|
On August 24, 1898, he married Ida, then in 1899 he returned to the University of Michigan to work as an instructor and finish his doctorate. He completed his PhD in physics in 1902, and immediately took a position on the faculty of the
▲Randall was born in [[Burr Oak, Michigan]] on December 17, 1870. His family then moved to Ann Arbor, where he spent his formative years and most of his life. He graduated from the Ann Arbor High School (now [[Pioneer High School (Ann Arbor, Michigan)|Pioneer High School]]) in 1889, and then earned his bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Michigan in 1893.<ref name=faculty-history-project>{{cite web|last1=University of Michigan|title=Harrison McAllister Randall.|url=http://um2017.org/faculty-history/faculty/harrison-mcallister-randall|website=Faculty History Project|accessdate=2 April 2015}}</ref> A year later he completed a master's degree, then spent a few years teaching in high schools in [[West Bay City]] and [[Saginaw]], living with his girlfriend Ida Muma who had a degree in [[classical studies]] from Michigan.<ref name="oral-history">{{cite web|last1=Dennison|first1=David M.|last2=King|first2=W. James|title=Oral History Transcript: Dr. Harrison M. Randall|url=http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/4840_1.html|website=American Institute of Physics|accessdate=2 April 2015}}</ref>
In 1910 Randall moved abroad to work under Professor [[Friedrich Paschen]] at the [[University of
▲On August 24, 1898 he married Ida, then in 1899 he returned to the University of Michigan to work as an instructor and finish his doctorate. He completed his PhD in physics in 1902, and immediately took a position on the faculty of the University, where he remained for the next 38 years.<ref name="faculty-history-project" />
Prior to 1910, the Michigan Physics Department had focused on precision [[metrology]]. Dr. Randall, who took all of his degrees at Michigan, initially specialized in that subject. In 1902, his PhD thesis measured the [[thermal expansion|coefficient of expansion]] of quartz. During his 1910-11 sabbatical year in [[Tübingen]], [[Germany]], he met [[Friedrich Paschen]] and became an expert in [[infrared spectroscopy]]. [[Quantum mechanics]] did not yet exist as a field, and the study of atomic spectra was largely ''ad hoc'' experimentation with very little theoretical underpinning. This was also the training Randall received as a young physicist. But Randall came home from his 1910 sabbatical at
▲In 1910 Randall moved abroad to work under Professor [[Friedrich Paschen]] at the [[University of Tubingen]]—55 years before Tubingen and Ann Arbor would become [[Twin towns and sister cities|sister cities]]. This was shortly after Paschen had discovered what is now called the Paschen series in the spectrum of hydrogen, and about 20 years after the discovery of what is now called [[Paschen's Law]] of electrical discharges. Randall said that he knew nothing about spectroscopy at the time and Paschen simply handed him a spectrometer and expected him to get to work—which he ultimately did. Even to the end of his life Randall considered Paschen his greatest mentor.<ref name="oral-history" />
▲Prior to 1910, the Michigan Physics Department had focused on precision [[metrology]]. Dr. Randall, who took all of his degrees at Michigan, initially specialized in that subject. In 1902, his PhD thesis measured the [[thermal expansion|coefficient of expansion]] of quartz. During his 1910-11 sabbatical year in [[Tübingen]], [[Germany]] he met [[Friedrich Paschen]] and became an expert in [[infrared spectroscopy]]. [[Quantum mechanics]] did not yet exist as a field, and the study of atomic spectra was largely ''ad hoc'' experimentation with very little theoretical underpinning. This was also the training Randall received as a young physicist. But Randall came home from his 1910 sabbatical at Tubingen with new ideas (as well as some new equipment Paschen had helped him develop), and went on to lead a radical overhaul of physics research at Michigan.<ref name="oral-history" />
==Theoretical physics==
Line 18 ⟶ 28:
One of Randall's central changes was to spend more resources on theorists as well as experimentalists, including a controversial program in which theoretical physicists would get a sabbatical every two years to work with theoretical physicists in Europe. At the time most of the best theoretical physics was being done in Europe, and it was partly through Randall's leadership that top-notch theoretical physics came to the United States.<ref name="oral-history" />
Randall was very persuasive when it came to securing funding; despite resistance from deans and presidents he managed to add on several new faculty as well as commission the construction of the East Physics Building (which is now named Randall Laboratory in his honor).<ref name="faculty-history-project" /> The
==Career==
Line 24 ⟶ 34:
Randall oversaw Michigan’s substantial growth in atomic physics and nuclear physics. In the mid-1930s he secured funding to build what was then the world's most energetic [[cyclotron]].
From 1917 to 1919 Randall was a researcher at the [[National Bureau of Standards]]. In 1925 Randall became vice-president of the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]]. Randall was President of the [[American Physical Society]] in 1937, and remained
Harrison Randall died on November 10, 1969, at the age of 98.<ref>{{cite
==Personality==
Line 33 ⟶ 43:
Despite his skills in leadership and many acquaintances (some of them world-renowned physicists), Randall had a difficult time making close friends. He considered his wife Ida to be his closest friend and most important source of emotional support.<ref name="oral-history" />
His daughter Mary Foote Randall married geneticist [[Sterling Howard Emerson]].
==References==
Line 38 ⟶ 50:
==Publications==
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{Presidents of the American Physical Society|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Randall, Harrison McAllister}}
[[Category:1870 births]]
Line 54 ⟶ 67:
[[Category:University of Michigan faculty]]
[[Category:American physicists]]
[[Category:University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni]]
[[Category:People from St. Joseph County, Michigan]]
[[Category:Scientists from Ann Arbor, Michigan]]
[[Category:Presidents of the American Physical Society]]
[[Category:Pioneer High School (Ann Arbor, Michigan) alumni]]
|