Gregory Breit (July 14, 1899 – September 11, 1981) was a Russian-born American
physicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
and professor at universities in
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
,
WisconsinWisconsin is one of the fifty U.S. states. Located in the north-central United States, Wisconsin is considered part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the...
,
YaleRapidMiner is an environment for machine learning and data mining experiments. It allows experiments to be made up of a large number of arbitrarily nestable operators, described in XML files which are created with RapidMiner's graphical user interface...
, and
BuffaloState University of New York at Buffalo, commonly known as the University at Buffalo or UB, is a public research university which has multiple campuses located in Buffalo and Amherst, New York, USA...
. Together with Eugene Wigner he gave a description of particle resonant states, and with
Edward CondonEdward Uhler Condon was a distinguished American nuclear physicist, a pioneer in quantum mechanics, a participant in the development of radar and nuclear weapons in World War II, research director of Corning Glass, director of the National Bureau of Standards, and president of the American...
, he first described proton-proton dispersion. He is also credited with deriving the
Breit equationThe Breit equation is a relativistic wave equation derived by Gregory Breit in 1929 based on the Dirac equation, which formally describes two or more massive spin-1/2 particles interacting electromagnetically to the first order in perturbation theory. It accounts for magnetic interactions and...
. In 1921, he was
Paul EhrenfestPaul Ehrenfest was an Austrian physicist and mathematician, who obtained Dutch citizenship on March 24, 1922. He made major contributions to the field of statistical mechanics and its relations with quantum mechanics, including the theory of phase transition and the Ehrenfest theorem...
's assistant in
LeidenLeiden is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands and has 118,000 inhabitants. It forms a single urban area with Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp, Voorschoten, Valkenburg, Rijnsburg and Katwijk, with 254,000 inhabitants. It is located on the Old Rhine, close to the cities...
.
Breit was Associate Editor of the
Physical ReviewPhysical Review is an American scientific journal, publishing research on all aspects of physics. It is published by the American Physical Society .- History :...
four times (1927-1929, 1939-1941, 1954-1956, and 1961-1963).
In April 1940, he proposed to the
National Research CouncilThe National Research Council of the USA is the working arm of the United States National Academy of Sciences and the United States National Academy of Engineering, carrying out most of the studies done in their names.-History:...
that American scientists observe a policy of self-censorship due to the possibility of their work being used for military purposes by enemy powers in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
During the early stages of the war, Breit was chosen by
Arthur ComptonArthur Holly Compton was an American physicist and Nobel laureate in physics for his discovery of the Compton effect. He served as Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis from 1945 to 1953.-Early years:...
to supervise the early design of the first atomic bomb during an early phase in what would later become the
Manhattan ProjectThe Manhattan Project was the codename for a project conducted during World War II to develop the first atomic bomb. The project was led by the United States, and included scientists from Denmark, The United Kingdom and Canada...
.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Gregory Breit' Start a new discussion about 'Gregory Breit' Answer questions from other users |
Gregory Breit (July 14, 1899 – September 11, 1981) was a Russian-born American
physicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
and professor at universities in
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
,
WisconsinWisconsin is one of the fifty U.S. states. Located in the north-central United States, Wisconsin is considered part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the...
,
YaleRapidMiner is an environment for machine learning and data mining experiments. It allows experiments to be made up of a large number of arbitrarily nestable operators, described in XML files which are created with RapidMiner's graphical user interface...
, and
BuffaloState University of New York at Buffalo, commonly known as the University at Buffalo or UB, is a public research university which has multiple campuses located in Buffalo and Amherst, New York, USA...
. Together with Eugene Wigner he gave a description of particle resonant states, and with
Edward CondonEdward Uhler Condon was a distinguished American nuclear physicist, a pioneer in quantum mechanics, a participant in the development of radar and nuclear weapons in World War II, research director of Corning Glass, director of the National Bureau of Standards, and president of the American...
, he first described proton-proton dispersion. He is also credited with deriving the
Breit equationThe Breit equation is a relativistic wave equation derived by Gregory Breit in 1929 based on the Dirac equation, which formally describes two or more massive spin-1/2 particles interacting electromagnetically to the first order in perturbation theory. It accounts for magnetic interactions and...
. In 1921, he was
Paul EhrenfestPaul Ehrenfest was an Austrian physicist and mathematician, who obtained Dutch citizenship on March 24, 1922. He made major contributions to the field of statistical mechanics and its relations with quantum mechanics, including the theory of phase transition and the Ehrenfest theorem...
's assistant in
LeidenLeiden is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands and has 118,000 inhabitants. It forms a single urban area with Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp, Voorschoten, Valkenburg, Rijnsburg and Katwijk, with 254,000 inhabitants. It is located on the Old Rhine, close to the cities...
.
Breit was Associate Editor of the
Physical ReviewPhysical Review is an American scientific journal, publishing research on all aspects of physics. It is published by the American Physical Society .- History :...
four times (1927-1929, 1939-1941, 1954-1956, and 1961-1963).
In April 1940, he proposed to the
National Research CouncilThe National Research Council of the USA is the working arm of the United States National Academy of Sciences and the United States National Academy of Engineering, carrying out most of the studies done in their names.-History:...
that American scientists observe a policy of self-censorship due to the possibility of their work being used for military purposes by enemy powers in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
During the early stages of the war, Breit was chosen by
Arthur ComptonArthur Holly Compton was an American physicist and Nobel laureate in physics for his discovery of the Compton effect. He served as Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis from 1945 to 1953.-Early years:...
to supervise the early design of the first atomic bomb during an early phase in what would later become the
Manhattan ProjectThe Manhattan Project was the codename for a project conducted during World War II to develop the first atomic bomb. The project was led by the United States, and included scientists from Denmark, The United Kingdom and Canada...
. Breit resigned his position in 1942, feeling that the work was going too slowly and that there had been security breaches on the project; his job went to
Robert OppenheimerJ. Robert Oppenheimer was an American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is best known for his role as the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, the World War II effort to develop the first nuclear weapons at the secret Los Alamos...
, who was later appointed to scientific director of the entire project.
External links