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“It
troubles me that the public sees physics only as the mother of technology.
No one any longer pays attention to—if I may call it—the spirit
of physics, the idea of discovery, the idea of understanding. I
think it’s difficult to make clear to the non-physicist the beauty
of how it fits together, of how you can build a world picture, and
the beauty that the laws of physics are immutable.” |
 Hans
Albrecht Bethe (1906-2005)
was born July 2, 1906, in Strasbourg, then part of Germany. He received
his doctorate in theoretical physics at the University of Munich in
1928. He married Rose Ewald in 1939, a daughter of P.P. Ewald, the well
known X-ray physicist.
In 1933, Bethe was dismissed
by the Nazi regime from his faculty position at the University of Tübingen
in Germany. He was hired by Cornell University in 1935, and remained
associated with it until his death. After Pearl Harbor, Bethe joined
the MIT Radiation  Laboratory
radar project. In 1943 he was appointed head of the theoretical division
of the newly created Los Alamos Laboratory, helping to create the fission
and, later, fusion bombs. However, he was dedicated to peace and a world
free of nuclear armaments and often spoke and wrote on the topic. He
received the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his contributions
to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries concerning
the energy production in stars." Bethe's other scientific accomplishments,
mainly in the areas of nuclear and quantum physics and continuing into
his old age, are too numerous to list here (there are several good biographies
on the Web - see Physics Today's article Hans
in War and Peace). He died on March 6, 2005.
 Bethe
loved history, and understood its importance in setting the record straight.
He was a long-time supporter of the AIP Center for History of Physics,
and one of its first Friends. Since the earliest funding appeals, Bethe
signed or co-signed letters on behalf of the Center to the Friends,
and continued his support through his last years. On his death, he left
the Center a generous bequest.
 L-R:
Fermi; Bethe; Staub; Weisskopf; and unknown. Sitting: Mrs. Staub;
Mrs. Segre; and unknown. On a ski break near Los Alamos, 1943.
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Photos
courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Segrè
Collection.
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RETURN to Fall 2005
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