Professor Emeritus Lee Grodzins, pioneer in nuclear physics, dies at 98

Nuclear physicist and MIT Teacher Emeritus Lee Grodzins passed away on March 6 at his home in the Maplewood Elder Living Neighborhood at Weston, Massachusetts. He was 98.

Grodzins was a leader in nuclear physics research study. He was possibly best recognized for the extremely significant experiment figuring out the helicity of the neutrino, which caused a essential understanding of what’s referred to as theweak interaction He was likewise the creator of Niton Corp. and the not-for-profit Keystones of Scientific research, and was a founder of the Union of Concerned Researchers.

He retired in 1999 after offering as an MIT physics professor for 40 years. As a participant of the Research laboratory for Nuclear Scientific Research (LNS), he started the relativistic heavy-ion physics program. He released over 170 clinical documents and held 64 united state licenses.

” Lee was a great speculative physicist, particularly with his hands making devices,” states Heavy Ion Team and Francis L. Friedman Teacher Emeritus Wit Busza PhD ’64. “His interest for physics splashed right into his interest for exactly how physics was shown in our division.”

Laborious child of immigrants

Grodzins was birthed July 10, 1926, in Lowell, Massachusetts, the center youngster of Eastern European Jewish immigrants David and Taube Grodzins. He matured in Manchester, New Hampshire. His 2 sis were Ethel Grodzins Romm, reporter, writer, and businesswoman that later on ran his business, Niton Corp.; and Anne Lipow, that came to be a curator and collection scientific research professional.

His papa, that ran a filling station and a used-tire organization, passed away when Lee was 15. To aid sustain his household, Lee offered papers, a company he became the second-largest paper supplier in Manchester.

At 17, Grodzins went to the College of New Hampshire, finishing in much less than 3 years with a level in mechanical design. Nonetheless, he chose to be a physicist after differing with a book that made use of words “never ever.”

” I was respectable in mathematics and was unsure concerning my future,” G r odzins claimed in a 1958 New York City Daily Information short article. “It had not been up until my elderly year that I all of a sudden understood I intended to be a physicist. I read a physics message eventually when instantly this sentence struck me: ‘We will certainly never ever have the ability to see the atom.’ I claimed to myself that that was as dumb a declaration as I would certainly ever before review. What did he imply ‘never ever!’ I obtained so upset that I began feasting on various other authors to see what they needed to state and all simultaneously I discovered myself in the middle of modern-day physics.”

He created his elderly thesis on “Atomic Concept.”

After finishing in 1946, he came close to prospective companies by stating, “I have a level in mechanical design, however I do not wish to be one. I wish to be a physicist, and I’ll take anything because line at whatever you will certainly pay me.”

He approved a deal from General Electric’s Lab in Schenectady, New York City, where he operated in basic nuclear research study structure planetary ray detectors, while likewise seeking his master’s level at Union University. “I enjoyed,” he remembered. “I remained in the laboratory 12 hours a day. They needed to kick me out in the evening.”

Brookhaven

After making his PhD from Purdue College in 1954, he invested a year as a speaker there, prior to coming to be a scientist at Brookhaven National Lab (BNL) with Maurice Goldhaber’s nuclear physics team, penetrating the residential or commercial properties of the centers of atoms.

In 1957, he, with Goldhaber and Andy Sunyar, made use of an easy table-top experiment to gauge the helicity of the neutrino. Helicity defines the positioning of a fragment’s innate spin vector keeping that fragment’s instructions of activity.

The research study gave brand-new assistance for the concept that the concept of preservation of parity– which had actually been approved for thirty years as a standard regulation of nature prior to being disproven the year prior to, causing the 1957 Nobel Reward in Physics– was not as unbreakable as the researchers believed it was, and did not relate to the habits of some subatomic fragments.

The experiment took around 10 days to finish, complied with by a month of checks and rechecks. They sent a letter on ” Helicity of Neutrinos” to Physical Evaluation on Dec. 11, 1957, and a week later on, Goldhaber informed a Stanford College target market that the neutrino is left-handed, suggesting that the weak communication was most likely one pressure. This job showed essential to our understanding of the weak communication, the pressure that regulates nuclear beta degeneration.

” It was an actual turmoil in our understanding of physics,” states Grodzins’ long time coworker Stephen Steadman. The advancement was honored in 2008, with a seminar at BNL on “Neutrino Helicity at 50.”

Steadman likewise remembers Grodzins’ tale concerning one evening at Brookhaven, where he was working with an experiment that entailed a contaminated resource inside a chamber. Lee discovered that an air pump had not been functioning, so he played with it a while prior to heading home. Later on that evening, he obtains a telephone call from the laboratory. “They claimed, ‘Do not go anywhere!'” remembers Steadman. It ends up the radiation resource in the laboratory had actually blown up, and the pump filled up the laboratory with radiation. “They were really able to map his contaminated impacts from the laboratory to his home,” states Steadman. “He type of shrugged it off.”

The MIT years

Grodzins signed up with the professors of MIT in 1959, where he showed physics for 4 years. He acquired Robley Evans’ Radiation Research laboratory, which made use of contaminated resources to research residential or commercial properties of centers, and led the Relativistic Heavy Ion Team, which was associated with the LNS.

In 1972, he released a program at BNL making use of the then-new Tandem Van de Graaff accelerator to research communications of hefty ions with centers. “As the BNL tandem was obtaining appointed, we began a program, along with Doug Cline at the College of Rochester, tandem to examine Coulomb-nuclear disturbance,” states Steadman, a elderly research study researcher at LNS. “The speculative outcomes were crucial however rather questionable at the time. We plainly identified the disturbance impact.” The speculative job was released in Physical Evaluation Letters

Grodzins’ group sought super-heavy components making use of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Super-Hilac, checked out heavy-ion fission and various other heavy-ion responses, and discovered heavy-ion transfer responses. The last research study revealed with specific information the underlying analytical habits of the transfer of nucleons in between the heavy-ion projectile and target, making use of an academic analytical version of Surprisal Evaluation established by Rafi Levine and his college student. Recalls Steadman, “these outcomes were both exceptional in their accuracy and originally questionable in analysis.”

In 1985, he performed the very first computer axial tomographic experiment making use of synchrotron radiation, and in 1987, his team was associated with the very first run of Experiment 802, a collective trying out concerning 50 researchers from all over the world that researched relativistic hefty ion crashes at Brookhaven. The MIT obligation was to develop the drift chambers and create the flexing magnet for the experiment.

” He made considerable payments to the preliminary style and building stages, where his wide knowledge and understanding of little location business with one-of-a-kind abilities was important,” states George Stephans, physics elderly speaker and elderly research study researcher at MIT.

Teacher emeritus of physics Rainer Weiss ’55, PhD ’62 remembers working with a Mossbauer experiment to develop if photons altered regularity as they took a trip with brilliant areas. “It was a concept held by some to describe the ‘evident’ red change with range in our cosmos,” states Weiss. “We came to be terrific close friends while doing so, and obviously, amateur cosmologists.”

” Lee was terrific for creating great concepts,” Steadman states. “He would certainly get going on one concept, however after that obtain sidetracked with an additional terrific concept. So, it was important that the group would certainly lug these experiments to their verdict: they would certainly obtain the documents released.”

MIT advisor

Prior to retiring in 1999, Lee managed 21 doctoral argumentations and was a very early supporter of ladies college students in physics. He likewise looked after the undergraduate thesis of Sidney Altman, that years later won the Nobel Reward in Chemistry. For years, he aided instruct the Junior Laboratory called for of all undergraduate physics majors. He obtained his preferred pupil examination, nevertheless, for a various program, billed as providing a “shallow introduction” of nuclear physics. The remark read: “This physics program was not shallow sufficient for me.”

” He truly suched as to collaborate with trainees,” states Steadman. “They can constantly enter into his workplace anytime. He was a extremely helpful advisor.”

” He was a fantastic advisor, avuncular and helpful of everybody,” concurs Karl van Bibber ’72, PhD ’76, currently at the College of The Golden State at Berkeley. He remembers handing his very first paper to Grodzins for remarks. “I was resting at my workdesk anticipating a rub on the head. Fairly on the contrary, he grimaced, tossed the manuscript on my workdesk and reprimanded, ‘Do not also grab a pencil once more up until you have actually reviewed a Hemingway book!’ … The following variation of the paper had an ordinary sentence size of concerning 6 words; we sent it, and it was promptly approved by Physical Evaluation Letters“

Van Bibber has actually considering that shown the “Grodzins Approach” in his grad workshops on expert alignment for researchers and designers, consisting of circulating a couple of compilations of Hemingway narratives. “I offered a duplicate of among the dog-eared compilations to Lee at his 90th birthday celebration lecture, which generated rips of giggling.”

Early in George Stephans’ MIT occupation as a study researcher, he dealt with Grodzins’ freshly created Relativistic Heavy Ion Team. “In spite of his vast array of rate of interests, he paid very close attention to what was taking place and was constantly extremely helpful people, particularly the trainees. He was a really motivating and handy advisor to me, along with being constantly pleasurable and appealing to collaborate with. He proactively pressed to obtain me advertised to major research study researcher fairly early, in acknowledgment of my payments.”

” He constantly appeared to understand a whole lot concerning whatever, however never ever acted supercilious,” states Stephans. “He appeared happiest when he was deeply involved excavating right into the nitty-gritty information of whatever one-of-a-kind and uncommon job among these business was providing for us.”

Al Lazzarini ’74, PhD ’78 remembers Grodzins’ examinations making use of proton-induced X-ray discharge (PIXE) as a delicate device to gauge trace important quantities. ” Lee was an exceptional physicist,” states Lazzarini. “He offered a fascinating workshop on an examination he had actually performed on a lock of Napoleon’s hair, trying to find proof of arsenic poisoning.”

Robert Ledoux ’78, PhD ’81, a previous teacher of physics at MIT that is currently program supervisor of the united state Advanced Research Study Projects Firm with the Division of Power, dealt with Grodzins as both a trainee and coworker. “He was a ‘nuclear physicist’s physicist’– an exceptional experimentalist that absolutely liked structure and carrying out experiments in lots of locations of nuclear physics. His enthusiasm for exploration was matched just by his kindness in sharing understanding.”

The research study financing dilemma beginning in 1969 led Grodzins to come to be worried that his college students would certainly not locate occupations in the area. He aided develop the Economic Issues Board of the American Physical Culture, for which he created a significant record on the “Workforce Situation in Physics” (1971 ), and provided his outcomes prior to the American Organization for the Development of Scientific research, and at the Karlsruhe National Laboratory in Germany.

Grodzins played a considerable function in bringing the very first Chinese college student to MIT in the 1970s and 1980s.

Among the trainees he invited was Huan Huang PhD ’90. “I am for life happy to him for transforming my trajectory,” states Huang, currently at the College of The Golden State at Los Angeles. “His undeviating assistance and ‘go do it’ perspective motivated us to check out physics at the start of a brand-new research study area of high power hefty ion crashes in the 1980s. I have actually been attempting to be a ‘wonderful teacher’ like Lee all my scholastic occupation.”

Also after he left MIT, Grodzins stayed offered for his graduates. ” Several inform me just how much my way of life has actually affected them, which is pleasing,” Huang states. “They have actually been a main component of my life. My bio would certainly be blatantly insufficient without them.”

Niton Corp. and post-MIT job

Grodzins liked what he called “tabletop experiments,” like the one made use of in his 1957 neutrino experiment, which entailed a couple of individuals constructing a tool that can fit on a table top. “He really did not appreciate functioning in big cooperations, which nuclear physics accepted.” states Steadman. “I assume that’s why he inevitably left MIT.”

In the 1980s, he released what totaled up to a brand-new occupation in discovery innovation. In 1987, after creating a scanning proton-induced X-ray microspectrometer for usage gauging important focus in air, he started the Niton Corp., which established, produced, and marketed examination packages and tools to gauge radon gas in structures, lead-based paint discovery, and various other nondestructive screening applications. (” Niton” is an outdated term for radon.)

” At the time, there was a large scare concerning radon in New England, and he believed he can create a radon detector that was cost-effective and simple to make use of,” states Steadman. “His radon detector came to be an industry.”

He later on established tools to spot dynamites, medicines, and various other contraband in travel luggage and freight containers. Portable tools made use of X-ray fluorescence to establish the make-up of steel alloys and to spot various other products. The portable XL Spectrum Analyzer can spot hidden and surface area bait coloured surface areas, to safeguard youngsters residing in older homes. 3 Niton X-ray fluorescence analyzers gained R&D 100 honors.

” Lee was extremely practically talented,” states Steadman.

In 1999, Grodzins relinquished MIT and dedicated his powers to market, consisting of routing the R&D team at Niton.

His sis Ethel Grodzins Romm was the head of state and chief executive officer of Niton, complied with by his child Hal. Most of Niton’s workers were MIT grads. In 2005, he and his household offered Niton to Thermo Fisher Scientific, where Lee stayed as a primary researcher up until 2010.

In the 1990s, he was vice head of state of American Scientific research and Design, and in between the ages of 70 and 90, he was granted 3 licenses a year.

” Inquisitiveness and imagination do not quit after a particular age,” Grodzins claimed to UNH Today “You choose you understand specific points, and you do not wish to alter that reasoning. However assuming outside package truly suggests assuming outdoors your box.”

” I miss his interest,” states Steadman. “I saw him concerning a pair of years back and he was still on the step, constantly prepared to release a brand-new initiative, and he was constantly attempting to draw you right into those initiatives.”

A far better globe

In the 1950s, Grodzins and various other Brookhaven researchers signed up with the American delegation at the 2nd United Nations International Meeting on the Relaxed Uses Atomic Power in Geneva.

Early, he signed up with a number of Manhattan Task alums at MIT in their problem concerning the repercussions of a-bombs. In Vietnam-era 1969, Grodzins co-founded the Union of Concerned Researchers, which requires clinical research study to be routed far from armed forces innovations and towards addressing pushing ecological and social troubles. He worked as its chair in 1970 and 1972. He likewise chaired boards for the American Physical Culture and the National Research Study Council.

As vice head of state for innovative items at American Scientific research and Design, that made homeland safety and security tools, he came to be a professional on flight terminal safety and security, particularly adhering to the 9/11 strikes. As a skilled witness, he affirmed at the renowned test to establish whether Frying pan Am was irresponsible for the battle of Trip 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and he participated in a tools evaluation journey on the Black Sea. He likewise was regularly called as a skilled witness on license instances.

In 1999, Grodzins started the not-for-profit Keystones in Scientific research, a town library campaign to enhance public involvement with scientific research. Based initially at the Curtis Memorial Collection in Brunswick, Maine, Cornerstones currently companions with collections in Maine, Arizona, Texas, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and The golden state. Amongst their efforts was one that has actually aided provide telescopes to collections and astronomy clubs around the nation.

” He had a solid feeling of wishing to do helpful for the human race,” states Steadman.

Honors

Grodzins authored greater than 170 technological documents and holds greater than 60 united state licenses. His various awards consisted of being called a Guggenheim Other in 1964 and 1971, and an elderly von Humboldt other in 1980. He was an other of the American Physical Culture and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and got an honorary physician of scientific research level from Purdue College in 1998.

In 2021, the Denver X-Ray Meeting gave Grodzins the Birks Award in X-Florescence Spectrometry, for having actually presented “a portable XRF device which broadened evaluation to in-field applications such as ecological research studies, ancient expedition, mining, and extra.”

Individual life

One night in 1955, soon after beginning his operate at Brookhaven, Grodzins chose to stroll and check out the BNL university. He discovered simply one structure that had lights on and was open, so he entered. Inside, a team was practicing a play. He was promptly smitten with among the stars, Lulu Anderson, a young biologist. ” I signed up with the acting business, and a year-and-a-half later on, Lulu and I were wed,” Grodzins had actually remembered. They were gladly wed for 62 years, up until Lulu’s fatality in 2019.

They elevated 2 kids, Dean, currently of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Hal Grodzins, that stays in Maitland, Florida. Lee and Lulu possessed a sequence of cherished huskies, a lot of them called after physicists.

After residing in Arlington, Massachusetts, the Grodzins household relocated to Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1972 and acquired a 2nd home a couple of years later on in Brunswick, Maine. Beginning around 1990, Lee and Lulu invested every weekend break, year-round, in Brunswick. In both locations, they were passionate advocates of their libraries, galleries, cinemas, harmonies, arboretums, public radio, and television terminals.

Grodzins took his household along to seminars, fellowships, and various other invites. They all resided in Denmark for 2 recess, in 1964-65 and 1971-72, while Lee operated at the Neils Bohr Institute. They likewise took a trip with each other to China for a month in 1975, and for 2 months in 1980. As component of the last journey, they were amongst the very first American site visitors to Tibet considering that the 1940s. Lee and Lulu likewise took a trip the globe, from Antarctica to the Galapagos Islands to Greece.

His homes had cellar workshops well-stocked with devices. His kids appreciated a game room he developed for them in their Arlington home. He likewise as soon as created his very own high-fidelity document gamer, covered his old Volvo with fiberglass, altered his very own oil, and place on the winter season tires and chains himself. He was a very early adopter of the pc.

” His operate in scientific research and innovation belonged to a basic love of devices and of dealing with and making points,” his child, Dean, created in a Facebook article.

Lee is made it through by Dean, his partner, Nora Nykiel Grodzins, and their little girl, Lily; and by Hal and his partner Cathy Salmons.

A remembrance and party for Lee Grodzins is prepared for this summer season. Contributions in his name might be made to Cornerstones of Science.