Class
| • | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | [X] |
| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Lipman Bers | | | Institution: | Columbia University | | | Year Elected: | 1980 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 104. Mathematics | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1914 | | | Death Date: | 10/29/93 | | | | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. Ronald Breslow | | | Institution: | Columbia University | | | Year Elected: | 1980 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1931 | | | Death Date: | October 25, 2017 | | | | | | |
Ronald Breslow was born in Rahway, New Jersey in 1931. He received his undergraduate and graduate training at Harvard University, where he did his Ph.D. research with Professor R.B. Woodward. He then spent a year in Cambridge, England as a postdoctoral fellow with Lord Todd and came to Columbia University in 1956 as instructor in chemistry. He was the Samuel Latham Mitchill Professor of Chemistry at Columbia, one of twelve University Professors, and a former Chairman of the Department. Professor Breslow's research interests can be described generally as involving the design and synthesis of new molecules with interesting properties, and the study of these properties. Examples include the cyclopropenyl cation, the simplest aromatic system and the first aromatic compound prepared with other than six electrons in a ring. His work establishing the phenomenon of anti-aromaticity has involved the synthesis of novel molecules, as well as their study. Even in work on purely mechanistic questions, such as his discovery of the chemical mechanism used by thiamine (vitamin B-1) in biochemical reactions, the synthesis and study of novel molecules played an important role. Although he continued his interest in unusual conjugated systems, his major emphasis in later years was on the synthesis and study of molecules that imitate enzymatic reactions. This work has included the development of remote functionalization reactions and the development of artificial enzymes. He developed a new group of cytodifferentiating agents with potential use in cancer chemotherapy. He is the author of over 400 publications. Professor Breslow was a member of the National Academy of Sciences (Chairman of the Chemistry Division 1974-77), the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the European Academy of Science. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1980. He was on the editorial board of a number of scientific journals, and had held over 150 named and visiting professorships. His major scientific awards include the American Chemical Society Award in Pure Chemistry (1966), the Baekeland Medal (1969), the Harrison Howe Award (1974), the Remsen Prize (1977), the Richards Medal (1984), the Allan Day Award (1990) and the U.S. National Medal of Science (1991). He won the Welch Award in Chemistry in 2003 and the Willard Gibbs Award in 2004 and also received the Mark Van Doren Medal of Columbia University and the Columbia University Great Teacher Award. Dr. Breslow added the 2010 Perkin Medal and the 2014 American Institute of Chemists Gold Medal to his long list of awards. Ronald Breslow died October 25, 2017, at the age of 86. | |
| 3 | Name: | Dr. E. Margaret Burbidge | | | Institution: | University of California, San Diego | | | Year Elected: | 1980 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1919 | | | Death Date: | April 5, 2020 | | | | | | |
English-born American astronomer Eleanor Margaret Burbidge was the first woman to be appointed director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory. She was at the forefront in obtaining and interpreting quasar data and made notable contributions to astrospectroscopy, radio galaxies, masses and evolution of normal galaxies, and the chemical composition of stars. Dr. Burbidge served as assistant director and acting director of the Observatory of the University of London from 1948-51. In 1955 her husband, theoretical astrophysicist Geoffrey Burbidge, obtained a Carnegie fellowship for astronomical research at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California. Because women were then ineligible for such an appointment, she chose to accept a minor research post at the California Institute of Technology. In 1957 she became Shirley Farr Fellow and, later, associate professor at Yerkes Observatory at Williams Bay, Wisconsin. She also served as research astronomer and professor of astronomy at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) before taking a leave of absence to serve as director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in 1972. Her Greenwich duties did not come with the traditional honorary title of Astronomer Royal, which instead was given to a male astronomer, in another instance of discrimination against women in the astronomical community. A longtime champion of opportunities in science for women, she refused the Annie J. Cannon Prize from the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in 1972 because, as it was an award for women only, it represented for her another facet of the same discrimination. Her action led to the formation of a standing AAS committee for the status of women in astronomy. From 1979-88 Dr. Burbidge directed UCSD's Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, where she helped develop some of the Hubble Space Telescope's original instruments. She became a professor emeritus of the university in 1990. E. Margaret Burbidge died on April 5, 2020 in San Francisco, California at the age of 100. | |
| 4 | Name: | Dr. Marvin L. Goldberger | | | Institution: | University of California, San Diego | | | Year Elected: | 1980 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 106. Physics | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1922 | | | Death Date: | November 26, 2014 | | | | | | |
Marvin Goldberger was an emeritus professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego at the time of his death on November 26, 2011, at the age of 92. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1948 and also served on the faculties of the University of Chicago, Princeton University and the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1959 Dr. Goldberger, along with Sam Treiman established the Goldberger-Treiman relations, which gave a quantitative connection between the strong and weak interaction properties of the proton and neutron. From 1978-87 he served as the president of the California Institute of Technology, where he stressed undergraduate education and oversaw the revision of teaching standards, the restructuring of curriculum, and the renovation of the undergraduate dorms. From 1987-91 he directed the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. Dr. Goldberger served as co-chairman of the National Research Council and as a member of the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation International Advisory Board. He authored works such as Collision Theory and was the editor of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States: Continuity and Change and Verification: Monitoring Disarmament. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and had been an active participant in national and international scientific affairs. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in1980. | |
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