Robert Hofstadter

About Robert Hofstadter

Who is it?: Physicist
Birth Day: February 05, 1915
Birth Place: New York City, United States
Died On: November 17, 1990(1990-11-17) (aged 75)\nStanford, California
Birth Sign: Pisces
Alma mater: City College of New York Princeton University
Known for: Electron scattering Atomic nuclei Sodium iodide scintillator
Spouse(s): Nancy (Givan) Hofstadter (3 children including Douglas Hofstadter) (1920-2007)
Awards: Nobel Prize in Physics (1961) National Medal of Science (1986) Dirac Medal (1987)
Fields: Physics
Institutions: Stanford University University of Pennsylvania
Doctoral students: Carol Jo Crannell

Robert Hofstadter Net Worth

Robert Hofstadter was born on February 05, 1915 in New York City, United States, is Physicist. Robert Hofstadter was an American physicist famous for his discoveries concerning the structure of nucleons. His in-depth investigation of electron scattering in atomic nuclei led to the determination of the size and shape of the proton and the neutron, and earned him a share of the 1961 Nobel Prize in Physics which he was jointly awarded with Rudolf Mössbauer. Born into a Jewish family in New York, he grew up to be a brilliant student who excelled in the sciences and mathematics. He graduated magna cum laude from the City College of New York and was awarded a Charles A. Coffin Foundation Fellowship to attend graduate school at Princeton University. Armed with a doctorate degree by the time he was 23, he served as a physicist at the National Bureau of Standards during World War II before embarking on an academic career. He worked for a while at the Princeton University where he carried out research on crystal conduction counters, on the Compton effect. After leaving Princeton, he moved to Stanford University where he focused his efforts on electron-scattering measurements. In the later stages of his career he grew interested in astrophysics and played a major role in the development of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.
Robert Hofstadter is a member of Scientists

💰 Net worth: Under Review

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Biography/Timeline

1915

Hofstadter was born into a Jewish family in New York City on February 5, 1915, to Polish immigrants, Louis Hofstadter, a salesman, and the former Henrietta Koenigsberg. He attended elementary and high schools in New York City and entered City College of New York, graduating with a B.S. degree magna cum laude in 1935 at the age of 20, and was awarded the Kenyon Prize in Mathematics and Physics. He also received a Charles A. Coffin Foundation Fellowship from the General Electric Company, which enabled him to attend graduate school at Princeton University, where he earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at the age of 23. He did his post-doctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania and was an assistant professor at Princeton before joining Stanford University. Hofstadter taught at Stanford from 1950 to 1985.

1927

In his last few years, Hofstadter became interested in astrophysics and applied his knowledge of scintillators to the design of the EGRET gamma-ray telescope of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory named for fellow Nobel Laureate in Physics (1927), Arthur Holly Compton. Stanford University's Department of Physics credits Hofstadter with being "one of the principal Scientists who developed the Compton Observatory."

1942

In 1942 he married Nancy Givan (1920–2007), a native of Baltimore. They had three children: Laura, Molly - who was disabled and not able to communicate, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Douglas Hofstadter.

1948

In 1948 Hofstadter filed a patent on this for the detection of ionizing radiation by this crystal. These detectors are widely used for gamma ray detection to this day

1961

Robert Hofstadter coined the term fermi, symbol fm, in honor of the Italian Physicist Enrico Fermi (1901–1954), one of the founders of nuclear physics, in Hofstadter's 1956 paper published in the Reviews of Modern Physics journal, "Electron Scattering and Nuclear Structure". The term is widely used by nuclear and particle physicists. When Hofstadter was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize in Physics, it subsequently appears in the text of his 1961 Nobel Lecture, "The electron-scattering method and its application to the structure of nuclei and nucleons" (December 11, 1961).