Wendell H. Furry
Encyclopedia
Wendell Hinkle Furry was a professor of physics at Harvard University, and made notable contributions to theoretical and particle physics.
He was born in Prairieton Indiana on February 18. 1907, and died in Cambridge Massachusetts in December 1984. He received his Ph.D from the University of Illinois in 1932.
He made important contributions to the early development of Quantum Field Theory
with J. Robert Oppenheimer, Vladimir Fock
, and others.
During World War II he worked on radar
at MIT's Radiation Laboratory
.
He was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1949.
In 1953, he was subpoenaed several times as a suspected communist by the House Unamerican Activities Committee and by US Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, and invoked his Fifth Amendment
privilege
in refusing to answer questions about his past membership in the Communist Party. In early 1954 he dropped the Fifth Amendment defense in a nationally televised hearing before Senator McCarthy and answered questions about himself but refused to name others. Because of that refusal, he was indicted for contempt of Congress but the case was dropped several years later.
Furry was defended by newly-appointed Harvard president Nathan M. Pusey, who refused McCarthy's demands to fire him, and also by Nobel laureate in physics and fellow Harvard professor Edward M. Purcell.
He co-authored a general physics text of the time with Purcell and J. C. Street.
Prof. Furry, like so many other intellectuals of the depression era, had great interest in the then on-going Russian experiment in attempting to create a "communist" society. As part of that interest he taught himself Russian and for many years supplemented his income by translation and editing of Russian Physics journals published by the American Institute of Physics. He later played a significant role in the writing of Irving Emin's, "Russian - English Physics Dictionary," John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1963 (with his contribution acknowledged p. vii, "Preface") -- a work that is still widely used. A soft-spoken man, but an excellent, well-organized teacher, he is remembered by his former students for his many kindnesses. As part of his wartime work at the MIT Radiation Laboratory he made significant, still useful work on radar propagation that is documented in Chapter 2 (pp. 27–180)in Vol. 13, "Propagation of Short Radio Waves," edited by Donald E. Kerr, as a part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory Series, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1951. After the war, Prof. Furry continued teaching at Harvard, later becoming a full professor and serving for three years as chairman of the Physics Department. After several years of half-time partial retirement he accepted full retirement in 1977.
He was born in Prairieton Indiana on February 18. 1907, and died in Cambridge Massachusetts in December 1984. He received his Ph.D from the University of Illinois in 1932.
He made important contributions to the early development of Quantum Field Theory
Quantum field theory
Quantum field theory provides a theoretical framework for constructing quantum mechanical models of systems classically parametrized by an infinite number of dynamical degrees of freedom, that is, fields and many-body systems. It is the natural and quantitative language of particle physics and...
with J. Robert Oppenheimer, Vladimir Fock
Vladimir Fock
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Fock was a Soviet physicist, who did foundational work on quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics....
, and others.
During World War II he worked on radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
at MIT's Radiation Laboratory
Radiation Laboratory
The Radiation Laboratory, commonly called the Rad Lab, was located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts and functioned from October 1940 until December 31, 1945...
.
He was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1949.
In 1953, he was subpoenaed several times as a suspected communist by the House Unamerican Activities Committee and by US Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, and invoked his Fifth Amendment
Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure. Its guarantees stem from English common law which traces back to the Magna Carta in 1215...
privilege
Self-incrimination
Self-incrimination is the act of accusing oneself of a crime for which a person can then be prosecuted. Self-incrimination can occur either directly or indirectly: directly, by means of interrogation where information of a self-incriminatory nature is disclosed; indirectly, when information of a...
in refusing to answer questions about his past membership in the Communist Party. In early 1954 he dropped the Fifth Amendment defense in a nationally televised hearing before Senator McCarthy and answered questions about himself but refused to name others. Because of that refusal, he was indicted for contempt of Congress but the case was dropped several years later.
Furry was defended by newly-appointed Harvard president Nathan M. Pusey, who refused McCarthy's demands to fire him, and also by Nobel laureate in physics and fellow Harvard professor Edward M. Purcell.
He co-authored a general physics text of the time with Purcell and J. C. Street.
Prof. Furry, like so many other intellectuals of the depression era, had great interest in the then on-going Russian experiment in attempting to create a "communist" society. As part of that interest he taught himself Russian and for many years supplemented his income by translation and editing of Russian Physics journals published by the American Institute of Physics. He later played a significant role in the writing of Irving Emin's, "Russian - English Physics Dictionary," John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1963 (with his contribution acknowledged p. vii, "Preface") -- a work that is still widely used. A soft-spoken man, but an excellent, well-organized teacher, he is remembered by his former students for his many kindnesses. As part of his wartime work at the MIT Radiation Laboratory he made significant, still useful work on radar propagation that is documented in Chapter 2 (pp. 27–180)in Vol. 13, "Propagation of Short Radio Waves," edited by Donald E. Kerr, as a part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory Series, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1951. After the war, Prof. Furry continued teaching at Harvard, later becoming a full professor and serving for three years as chairman of the Physics Department. After several years of half-time partial retirement he accepted full retirement in 1977.