HAMERMESH, Morton 1915-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born December 27, 1915, in Brooklyn, NY; died of a heart attack, November 14, 2003, in Minneapolis, MN. Physicist, educator, and author. Hamermesh was formerly the head of the school of physics and astronomy at the University of Minneapolis. His undergraduate work was completed at the City College of New York in 1936, and he earned his Ph.D. from New York University in 1940. His teaching career began at City College, where he was a physics instructor for two years. During the 1940s, he worked as a research associate at Harvard University for three years and as a professor at New York University until 1948. Hamermesh then joined the staff at Argonne National Laboratory, where he started as a senior physicist and eventually became director of the physics division and associate laboratory director. Leaving the laboratory in 1965, he returned to teaching as head of the school of physics and astronomy at the University of Minnesota for ten years, and remained as a professor there until his 1975 retirement. As a researcher, Hamermesh made several important contributions to physics, including designs to improve the function of particle accelerators and techniques to better understand atomic structures. A contributor to scientific journals and editor of the Journal of Mathematical Physics from 1970 to 1978, Hamermesh was the author of Group Theory (1962) and coauthor of A Review of Undergraduate Physics (1986).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Chronicle of Higher Education, November 28, 2003, p. A41.

Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), November 16, 2003, p. B6.

ONLINE

TwinCities,http://www.twincities.com/ (November 16, 2003).