Harrison M. Randall: Difference between revisions

In 1910 Randall moved abroad to work under Professor [[Friedrich Paschen]] at the [[University of TubingenTübingen]]—55 years before TubingenTübingen 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 TubingenTübingen 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" />