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Chronology
Biographical Note
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Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Felix Bloch papers
Identifier/Call Number: SC0303
Physical Description:
35.5 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1931-1987
Custodial History note
Gift of Mrs. Felix Bloch and family, 1984-1990.
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documents or their heirs. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the
Public Services Librarian of the Dept. of Special Collections and Univeristy Archives.
Cite As
[Identification of item], Felix Bloch Papers (SC0303). Dept. of Special Collections and
University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Chronology
Missing Title
1905 |
Born in Zurich, Switzerland on October 23 to Gustav and Agnes Bloch. |
1923 |
Begins study of engineering at the Federal Institute of Technology in
Zurich.
|
1924 |
Switches to the physics curriculum at the Institute. |
1927 |
Graduates and leaves for the University of Leipzig at the suggestion of his
instructor Peter Debye.
|
1927 |
Begins graduate work at Leipzig under the direction of Werner Heisenberg and
becomes his first graduate student.
|
1928 |
Publishes his first paper: Radiation Damping in Quantum Mechanics. |
1928 |
Obtains Ph.D. from University of Leipzig. Publishes thesis Uber die
Quantenmechanik der Elektronen in Kristallgittern, on the quantum mechanics of
electrons in crystal lattices.
|
1928-29 |
Assistant in theoretical physics to Wolfgang Pauli in Zurich. Begins work on
superconductivity.
|
1929-30 |
Fellow of the Lorentz Foundation with H. A. Kramers in Utrecht. |
1930-31 |
Assistant to Heisenberg at the University of Leipzig. |
1931 |
Fellow of the Oersted Foundation with Niels Bohr in Copenhagen. |
1932-33 |
Privatdozent in theoretical physics in Leipzig. Begins work on theories of
ferromagnetism and of electron conductivity.
|
1933 |
Offered position at Stanford University. |
1933-34 |
Fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation with Enrico Fermi in Rome. |
1934 |
Leaves Europe to become Acting Associate Professor of physics at Stanford
University.
|
1936 |
Appointed Professor of Physics at Stanford University. |
1937 |
Elected member of the American Physical Society. |
1939 |
Naturalized as American citizen. |
1939-40 |
Works with Dr. Luis Alvarez of the University of California at Berkeley on the
determination of the magnetic moment of the neutron.
|
1940 |
Marries Lore Clara Misch on March 14. |
1941 |
Twins George Jacob Bloch and Daniel Arthur Bloch born on January 15. |
1942-43 |
Conducts research at Los Alamos on uranium fission and implosion as part of the
Manhattan Project.
|
1943-45 |
Associate group leader in the theoretical division of the Radio Research
Laboratory at Harvard under direction of F. E. Terman.
|
1945 |
Son Frank Samuel Bloch born January 16. |
1945 |
Begins research at Stanford on nuclear magnetism. This leads to discovery of
nuclear induction.
|
1946 |
First paper on nuclear induction published. |
1948 |
Walker-Ames visiting professor at the University of Washington for the
summer.
|
1948 |
Elected member of the National Academy of Sciences. |
1948 |
Attended the Solvay Conference in Brussels. |
1949 |
Daughter Ruth Hedy Bloch born September 15. |
1952 |
Nobel Prize in Physics shared with Dr. E. M. Purcell of Harvard University for
developments in nuclear induction (nuclear magnetic resonance).
|
1954-55 |
First Director General of the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in
Geneva, Switzerland.
|
1958 |
Elected to the Board of Governors of the Weizmann Institute of Science in
Rehovoth, Israel.
|
1958 |
Elected honorary fellow of the Weizmann Institute of Science. |
1959 |
Awarded honorary Ph.D. from Grenoble University. |
1960 |
Awarded honorary Ph.D. from Oxford University. |
1962 |
Awarded honorary Ph.D. from University of Jerusalem. |
1962 |
Appointed Max H. Stein Professor of Physics at Stanford University. |
1962 |
Elected honorary fellow of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. |
1964 |
Elected Vice President of the American Physical Society. |
1964 |
Magnet used by Bloch for the first resonance measurements of organic molecules
transferred to Smithsonian Institute's Museum of History and Technology.
|
1965 |
President of the American Physical Society. |
1966 |
Awarded honorary Ph.D. from University of Zurich. |
1966 |
Conference at Stanford, Forty Years of Electrons in Metals, honoring Bloch's
scientific contributions.
|
1970 |
Elected honorary member of the Societe Francaise de Physique. |
1971-83 |
Professor Emeritus of Physics at Stanford University. |
1972 |
H. A. Lorentz Professor of Physics at the University of Leiden, Holland. |
1975 |
Awarded honorary Ph.D. from Gustavus Adolphus College. |
1976 |
Awarded honorary Ph.D. from Brandeis University. |
1977 |
Awarded honorary Ph.D. from the University of Pavia. |
1978 |
Received Honor Award from American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of
Science.
|
1980 |
Awarded honorary Ph.D. from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in
Zurich.
|
1982 |
Elected honorary member of the Physical Society of Zurich. |
1983 |
Dies in Zurich on September 10. |
Biographical Note
The Life and work of Felix Bloch
Felix Bloch was born in Zurich, Switzerland on October 23, 1905, the son of Jewish parents
Gustav and Agnes Bloch. From 1912 to 1918, Bloch attended the public primary school. After
attending the Gymnasium of the Canton of Zurich from 1918 to 1924, Bloch passed his Matura
examination, enabling him to study at an institution of higher learning. Interested in
science from an early age, he had studied astronomy and was fascinated by mathematics. But
his father was a wholesale grain dealer and Bloch recognized the practical necessity of
earning a living.
When Bloch enrolled at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich in the fall of 1924,
he began studying engineering. He soon found, however, that his interests really lay in
theoretical directions; after a year, he decided, putting all practicality aside, to switch
to the study of physics, considered at that time an entirely useless field since it led to
no material achievements. His instructors included several eminent physicists: Peter Debye,
Hermann Weyl, and Erwin Schroedinger. Debye, from whom Felix took his first introductory
course in physics, left in 1927 to take a position at the University of Leipzig in Germany
and urged his young student to join him. Bloch went to Leipzig and there began graduate work
under the newly appointed professor of theoretical physics, twenty-six year old Werner
Heisenberg.
Working with Heisenberg was a wonderful opportunity for Bloch. Heisenberg, one of the
founders of the young quantum mechanical theory of the atom, conveyed a thorough
understanding of this new physics, a foundation upon which Bloch's later work would be
based. As a first step, Heisenberg encouraged Bloch to complete some calculations on the
radiation damping of wave packets, work which Bloch had begun while still a student in
Zurich. After publication of this research, he turned to the problem of determining the
quantum mechanical structure of electrons in crystal lattices, again at Heisenberg's urging.
Bloch's thesis, published in 1928, established him as a brilliant young theorist and still
serves as the basis for the study of electron conduction in metals.
After completing his thesis, Bloch began the customary years of visiting and studying at
various centers of physics research in Europe. In the summer of 1928, he moved back to
Zurich to work as an assistant to Wolfgang Pauli. Pauli, considering superconductivity to be
the only interesting topic left in the theory of metals, set Bloch to work on this problem.
Unsuccessful in his attempts to formulate a theory of superconductivity, Bloch recognized
and clarified the fundamental theoretical difficulties involved.
From Zurich, Bloch traveled to Utrecht where he worked under Henrik Kramers as a Fellow of
the Lorentz Foundation. There he studied the theories of electric conductivity of metals and
of ferromagnetism at low temperatures. The following summer, Bloch assisted Adriaan Fokker
at the Teyler's Stichting in Haarlem in his studies of the spinning electron.
During the academic year beginning in the fall of 1930, Bloch returned to Germany to work
on the theory of ferromagnetism and remanent magnetization and to serve as Heisenberg's
assistant at the University of Leipzig. This research served as the basis for his
Habilitationsschrift when he became Privatdozent (lecturer) at Leipzig in 1932. In the
winter of 1931-32, as a Fellow of the Oersted Foundation, he traveled to Copenhagen to work
with Niels Bohr. Interested in the stopping power of charged particles in matter, Bloch
wrote a paper which bridged the gap between the classical and the quantum theory of stopping
power.
Upon his return to Leipzig in the spring of 1932, Bloch became increasingly aware of the
emerging tensions in Germany. The students at the University of Leipzig were among Hitler's
most fervent supporters and anti-Semitism, though still a predominantly theoretical
attitude, was becoming more and more prevelant. When the first Jewish professors were
dismissed in 1933, Bloch, at Heisenberg's insistence, applied for a Rockefeller Fellowship
for the fall. Political events moved even more quickly than Bloch had anticipated; though
his Swiss citizenship prevented his dismissal for the time being, he resigned and left
Leipzig in March of 1933.
For the next few months, Bloch stayed mostly at his home in Zurich, but he also traveled to
France, Holland, and Denmark. During his summer visit to Copenhagen to see Niels Bohr, he
received his first offer from the chairman of the Stanford University physics department,
David Locke Webster. Originally, Bloch later confessed, he knew nothing about Stanford so he
mentioned the offer to Bohr and Heisenberg and asked for their advice. Heisenberg knew only
that Stanford was in California and that the students from Stanford and another school
nearby stole each other's axes. Bohr's opinion was definitive: Stanford was a good school;
he should go.
Since he had received the Rockefeller Fellowship, however, Bloch decided to postpone going
to Stanford until the spring of 1934. First he wanted to go to Rome to work with Enrico
Fermi. In Rome, Fermi, one of the few famous European physicists involved with both
experiment and theory, emphasized the need for Bloch to conduct experiments as a supplement
to his theoretical work.
Despite the additional provision in the Rockefeller Fellowship for six months of study with
Ernest Rutherford in England, Bloch left for Stanford in the spring of 1934. He knew little
about the University and the members of its physics department, though he had already met
several American physicists including Eugene Wigner, Johann Von Neumann, John Van Vleck,
William Houston, George Breit, and J. Robert Oppenheimer. After visiting Breit and Van Vleck
in New York, Bloch took a train across the country to Palo Alto where he was met by physics
chairman Webster.
Though the physics department at that time consisted of nine members, including P. A. Ross,
Paul Kirkpatrick, and William Hansen, Bloch was the only theorist. He found himself teaching
graduate courses on a variety of subjects: electrodynamics, mechanics, thermodynamics, and
quantum mechanics. Very soon after his arrival, Bloch established contact with Oppenheimer,
who was teaching at the University of California at Berkeley. Together they quickly
organized weekly theoretical seminars attended primarily by Berkeley physicists and graduate
students. Bloch's students from Stanford were also often in attendance. Though originally
quite small and informal, these seminars soon became very popular.
In the fall of 1935, Bloch returned to Europe to visit his family and friends. Bloch had
long suspected that the neutron might have a magnetic moment; what fascinated him about this
idea was that a chargeless particle could have magnetic properties. While still a student
with Heisenberg, he had stressed the importance both of demonstrating the neutron's magnetic
moment and of determining its magnitude. His trip to Europe reaffirmed his convictions; he
decided to begin research on neutron physics upon his return to Stanford. In early 1936,
heeding Fermi's advice about experimentation, he set out to build a neutron source. Using
mostly X-ray and microwave equipment from the physics labs, he and Norris Bradbury,
Oppenheimer's successor as director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, built the source
themselves. (Bloch later pointed out that this equipment was more important as a source of
inspiration than of neutrons.) Eventually, he extended his use of neutron sources to studies
of neutron polarisation, a link to his earlier research in ferromagnetism.
These studies served as a basis for a collaborative effort with Luis Alvarez (then a
graduate student at UC Berkeley, later a Nobel laureate). In the fall of 1938, Alvarez and
Bloch began working with Berkeley's 37" cyclotron to determine the magnetic moment of the
neutron. Because the machine at that time operated very sporadically, Bloch spent many days
simply waiting for news that the accelerator was functioning. By the summer of 1939, though,
they were able to publish very precise results. This experiment was, in fact, one of the
first important uses of Ernest Lawrence's cyclotron.
After publication of their measurements, Bloch felt that there was still neutron research
to be done with cyclotrons. Rather than continuing to commute to Berkeley, however, he and
some colleagues decided to build a cyclotron at Stanford. Support from both Lawrence and
Isidor Rabi proved crucial in obtaining funding for the project. The cyclotron, begun in the
fall of 1939, was built from scratch by Bloch and a few of his Stanford colleagues, notably
Hans Staub.
Soon after the work on the cyclotron began, Bloch met Lore Misch through mutual friends in
New York. Lore, also a physicist, had done graduate work at Goettingen under the supervision
of V. M. Goldschmidt, an eminent geophysicist. In 1935, she received her Ph.D. in the field
of crystallography. After leaving Germany in 1936, she served for two years as assistant in
physics at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. She came to the United States in 1938
and was appointed research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Felix and
Lore were married in March 1940. Twins George Jacob and Daniel Arthur were born the
following year. Frank Samuel was born in 1945, and Ruth Hedy in 1949.
During these early years at Stanford, Bloch instituted a summer program for visiting
professors. Through this program, many eminent physicists, including Fermi, Rabi, George
Gamow, Willis Lamb, Viktor Weisskopf, Hans Bethe, and Edward Teller, visited the physics
department and helped to establish its reputation as a center of physics research on the
west coast.
In 1942, Oppenheimer asked Bloch to work on the Manhattan Project. Bloch, collaborating
with Bethe, Teller, and Staub, used the homemade Stanford cyclotron for the first
experimental determination of the energy distribution of neutrons from fission. After this
was completed, Bloch left for Los Alamos, New Mexico where he worked on special theoretical
problems under Bethe's supervision. Quickly bored with this, however, he joined Seth
Neddermeyer's implosion group.
After only a few months at Los Alamos, unhappy with the military atmosphere and feeling
that he was no longer useful, Bloch left to work at the Harvard Radio Research Laboratory
under the direction of Stanford engineer Frederick E. Terman. Bloch did both experimental
and theoretical work: although primarily interested in theoretical problems with radar, he
also relied on earlier Stanford experiences with microwave research to conduct some
experiments on the reflectivity of certain materials. Bloch found the civilian life in
Boston much more pleasant than the military one in Los Alamos.
By early 1945, with the end of the war in sight, Bloch's thoughts turned to post-war
research. He spent a lot of time with both William Hansen, who had developed the klystron
and had done a lot of work with microwaves, and Rabi, who had received the 1944 Nobel
Physics Prize for his use of molecular beams in the determination of nuclear moments.
Bloch's experiences with radio techniques at the Harvard Laboratory and with the measurement
of the magnetic moment of the neutron convinced him that there might be a simpler way of
making Rabi's measurements.
When Bloch returned to Stanford in September 1945, he began work on this new project
immediately. Martin Packard built the original radio equipment using Hansen's design
specifications; Bloch worked primarily with the magnet and its properties. At a meeting of
the American Physical Society in December, Bloch met Edmund Purcell of Harvard University
and the two discussed their recent research. Both recognized that the theoretical basis of
their respective projects was the same, although they had been using slightly different
techniques to achieve experimental results. So they decided to split up the field: Bloch
would use the effect in the study of liquids; Purcell would examine crystals. The Stanford
group gathered its first positive results in January 1946 (see
Physical Review 69, 127(L) (1946)).
Because of its simplicity and accuracy, the nuclear induction technique, or nuclear
magnetic resonance (NMR) as it has come to be known, could be used in a variety of ways in
many different fields. It allowed physicists, for example, to measure the magnetic moments
of nuclei, important for the development of the shell model of the nucleus. And it served as
the basis for many modern developments in chemistry, biology, and medicine. (For a clear
description of nuclear induction, see Bloch's article Nuclear Magnetism,
American Scientist, 43 (1955): 48-62.)
Recognition for the achievements of both Bloch and Purcell came in 1952 when they were
jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for the development of new methods for the exact
measurement of nuclear magnetism and for the discoveries made in the development of these
methods. Felix Bloch thus became Stanford University's first Nobel Prize winner.
Further recognition for Bloch came in 1954 when he was asked to serve as the first
Director-General of the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN). He originally heard
that he was being considered for the position in the fall of 1953 when he received letters
in quick succession from both Bohr and Heisenberg. The selection committee settled on Bloch
because he was a man dominating in an exceptional way both the fields of theory and
experiment and who could have a deep understanding of the theoretical deductions on which
the whole of the big synchrotron project (was) based.
From the beginning, Bloch was not enthusiastic about the offer. Though he considered it a
great honor, he felt that he was not well-suited for the sort of administrative
responsibilities which would be so much a part of the first Director's job. But he was under
great pressure from his friends in Europe and received their repeated assurances that he
would merely oversee the administrative tasks while remaining primarily responsible for
scientific programs at CERN. In the spring of 1954, after the unanimous approval of the
international governing Council, Bloch accepted the offer for a period of two years.
Appointed with him were Edoardo Amaldi as Deputy Director and Cornelis J. Bakker as
representative of the scientific groups in charge of the construction of the machines.
Upon his arrival in Geneva in October of 1954, though, Bloch found the situation quite
different from what he had expected. Amaldi, whom Bloch thought would be handling most of
the administrative matters, had been very active in the preliminary stages of the
organization but planned to spend the majority of his time working elsewhere once Bloch
arrived. Left with the responsibility of managing the day to day administrative work, Bloch
found it almost impossible to conduct his own scientific research, the possibility of which
had been one of the primary reasons for his acceptance.
Within a few months of his arrival, Bloch realized that he didn't want to stay at CERN for
two years. Citing a passage in a letter to Bohr which gave him the option of leaving after
only a year, Bloch asked the Council in the spring of 1955 to accept his resignation. With
much regret, the request was granted; Bakker was appointed in his stead.
Bloch returned to Stanford and began teaching again the following fall. During the next few
years, he and Leonard Schiff, department chairman from 1954 through 1966, built one of the
leading physics teaching and research facilities in the world. They and the other senior
members of the department persuaded the Atomic Energy Commission to construct the huge
linear accelerator (SIAC) on the Stanford campus. They appointed outstanding faculty members
and continued to invite distinguished physicists to visit the department. They oversaw the
development of the undergraduate curriculum through their emphasis on the importance of
introductory courses. And they set consistently high standards for both their students and
their colleagues.
Though Bloch was considered by most a theoretical physicist, as Anatole Abragam said in his
memorial:
As such a well-known scientist, Bloch was involved with many professional organizations and
received numerous distinctions. The extensive list of organizations to which he belonged
includes the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the
National Academy of Sciences, the Weizmann Institute of Science, and the American Physical
Society. He was appointed an honorary member of the Swiss Physical Society and received
honorary degrees from Grenoble University, Oxford University, the University of Jerusalem,
and the University of Zurich. In 1965, he served as president of the American Physical
Society, one of the largest scientific organizations in the country.
But Bloch was also active in many humanitarian causes. He was a member of the American
Professors for Peace in the Middle East, the Committee for UN Integrity, the Committee of
Concerned Scientists, the Universities' National Anti-War Fund, and Scientists and Engineers
for Secure Energy. He was especially concerned with the fate of his colleagues trapped in
Soviet-bloc countries.
Bloch's Stanford colleagues Robert Hofstadter, Marvin Chodorow, Arthur Schawlow, and J.
Dirk Walecka describe him this way:
Scope and Content
The Bloch papers document Felix Bloch's role in twentieth century physics as a scientist,
teacher and administrator. The collection includes correspondence, grant proposals, lecture
notes, minutes and accompanying documentation regarding departmental, university and
national committees, research notebooks, grants, patents, and designs; files regarding
organizations in which Bloch played an active role; publications (predominantly reprints) by
Bloch; and photographs.
While the collection includes some correspondence from the 1930's, the bulk of the
collection dates from the period of his research in nuclear induction (1946-52) to 1983. Of
special note is extensive correspondence with Stanford colleagues during his tenure as
Director of CERN regarding the growth of Big Science and his reservations about the
influence of large federally funded projects at the University, particularly the creation of
the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Also well documented is the growth of the physics
Department during the 1950s through 1980s and Bloch's presidency of the American Physical
Society.
Arrangement
The materials are arranged in five series and four additions.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Physics.
Physics -- Research.
Physics -- Study and teaching.
Quantum theory.
Nuclear induction.
Nuclear magnetic resonance.
Nuclear magnetism.
Hofstadter, Robert,
Schiff, Leonard I. (Leonard Isaac)
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Heisenberg, Werner
Amaldi, Edoardo.
Meyerhof, Walter E. (Walter Ernst)
Perrin, Frances.
Stanford University. Department of Physics
Hansen, W. W. (William Webster)
European Organization for Nuclear Research
Terman, Frederick Emmons, 1900-1982
Kirkpatrick, Paul.
Varian Associates.
American Physical Society.
Bohr, Niels
Cockcroft, John,, Sir,
Shockley, William, 1910-1989
Webster, David Locke