Weisskopf, Victor Frederik#

b. Vienna, Sept. 19, 1908, nuclear physicist. 1937-1943 at the University of Rochester, later worked for the American nuclear bomb project at Los Alamos. 1961-1965 Director of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN, Centre europeen de recherches nucleaires); later professor at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology (USA). In 1937 introduced the idea of using temperature to help describe nuclear motions and developed an optical model for nuclear reactors. His principle work, "Theoretical Nuclear Physics" (1952, with John M. Blatt; German edition "Theoretische Kernphysik", 1959) is still a standard textbook. Awarded the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art in 1982.

Other works: Introduction to Field Theory, 1958; Physics and Our World, 1976; The Joy of Insight, 1991.

Literature#