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Kohn (Walter) papers
UArch FacP 34
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Title: Walter Kohn papers
Identifier/Call Number: UArch FacP 34
Language of Material:
English
.
Contributing Institution:
UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Research Collections
Physical Description:
133.37 Linear Feet;
(104 document boxes; 90 cartons)
Creator:
Kohn, Walter
Date (inclusive): approximately 1942-2014
Abstract: The Walter Kohn Papers contain materials related to the career of the Nobel Prize winning physicist Walter Kohn and is primarily
comprised of physics-related research notes, professional travel files, and correspondence.
Physical Location: A portion of the collection is located at the Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF).
The collection is open for research. Letters of recommendation (Boxes 15-21) and Global Peace & Security student files (Box
56) contain confidential information and are closed pending staff review. A portion of the collection is stored offsite. Advance
notice is required for retrieval.
Property rights to the collection and physical objects belong to the Regents of the University of California acting through
the Department of Special Research Collections at the UCSB Library. All applicable literary rights, including copyright to
the collection and physical objects, are protected under Chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code and are retained by the creator
and the copyright owner, heir(s), or assigns.
All requests to reproduce, quote from, or otherwise reuse collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Department
of Special Research Collections at UCSB at special@ucsb.edu. Consent is given on behalf of the Regents of the University of
California acting through the Department of Special Research Collections at UCSB as the owner of the physical items and is
not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright
owner, heir(s), or assigns. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or their assigns for permission to publish where the UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
[Identification of Item], Walter Kohn papers, UArch FacP 34. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara
Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donations by W. Kohn, 2002; 2003; 2016.
The Walter Kohn Papers contain materials related to the career of the Nobel Prize winning physicist Walter Kohn and are primarily
comprised of physics-related research notes, professional travel files, and correspondence. Also included are files related
to Kohn's other professional interests, including Peace and Security Studies and Judaic Studies, as well as class notes from
his student days and research-related reprints of articles written by other scientists.
General
Autobiographical and bibliographical materials, including day planners from 1980-1984. (Box 1)
Correspondence (Arranged in loose chronological order)
Correspondence, incoming and outgoing combined, ca.1950-1996 (Boxes 1-14)
Primarily professional correspondence, including a substantial amount of interoffice mail, with some personal correspondence
intermixed. Also includes drafts of public letters/statements as well as some clippings and miscellaneous ephemera related
to correspondence. Some travel related materials are included as well in relation to correspondence. Some correspondence is
also interspersed in professional files.
Letters of Recommendation, 1979-1998 (Boxes 15-21)
Letters and related documents primarily recommending students and colleagues for new positions. Closed pending review; contains
confidential information.
Class Notes (Lecture notes)
Undergraduate, 1942-1944 (Box 22)
Graduate, 1945-1950 (Box 23)
Research (includes some reprints of scientific articles by others)
Contracts and Grants, 1983-1998 (Boxes 24-28)
General Research, ca. 1950s (Boxes 29-33)
Bloch Electrons, 1958-1959 (Box 34)
General Research, 1960-1972 (Boxes 35-39)
Professional Files (Arranged chronologically)
Files related to professional involvement in both the Physics Department and other departments on campus, as well as involvement
in professional organizations
Professional Lecture Notes (See above for Class Notes)
Taken, 1952-1960 (Box 41) Given, 1952-1959, 1976 (Box 42)
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), 1968-1978 (Box 43)
Judaic Studies Files, 1972-1978 (Boxes 44-47)
Files from the development of the Judaic Studies program at UCSD.
General Files, 1978-1986 (Boxes 48-51)
Kohn's alphabetical file related to professional activities. Also includes related correspondence. Includes records from the
Institute of Theoretical Physics and the National Academy of Sciences.
Global Peace and Security (GPS), 1984-1993 (Boxes 52-61)
Includes information about Kohn's involvement as well as general program information.
Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC), 1983-1987. Part of the GPS Department. Also includes information from
his participation in the chancellor search committee of 1986 which resulted in the hiring of Barbara Uehling.
General Files, 1987-1992 (Boxes 62-64)
Includes files on USA/USSR Faculty Exchange Program and Direct Relief International assistance in St. Petersburg that Kohn
assisted in organizing.
Trip Files, 1984-1997 (Arranged chronologically. Records from older trips were not separated by Kohn and are interspersed
in professional files.) (Boxes 65-98)
Includes correspondence, trip planning notes, meeting notes, itineraries, article reprints, written reports, expense reports
and ephemera (postcards, university brochures, maps, etc.) primarily related to business travel locally, nationally, and internationally.
Some photographs are included with post-visit correspondence. Some records also related to personal travel between business
trips and on sabbaticals and on cancelled travel plans.
Writings by Others (Boxes 99-104)
Reprints of Articles (arranged alphabetically)
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Pamphlets, 1984-1992
Resources in Special Collections
Walter Kohn: personal stories and anecdotes told by friends and collaborators, edited by Matthias Scheffler & Peter Weinberger.
(Special Collections QC16.K636 W35 2003)
Resources in the Davidson Library
Film Reflections of a physicist after an encounter with the Vatican and Pope John Paul II by Kohn (Media Collection BL241
.K596 2001)
Many of Kohn's articles can be retrieved through our databases, such as INSPEC or Web of Science.
Relevant Websites
Curriculum vitae: http://www.physics.ucsb.edu/~kohn/
Official Nobel website: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1998/
Autobiography on Nobel website: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1998/kohn-autobio.html
Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics: http://www.itp.ucsb.edu/
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation: http://www.wagingpeace.org/index.htm
Walter Kohn is a Professor Emeritus of Physics at UCSB, with an emphasis in theoretical physics. On October 13, 1998 he was
awarded half of the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his development of the density-functional theory.
Kohn was born on March 9, 1923 to Jewish parents in Vienna, Austria. He lived for a year and a half under the Austrian Nazi
regime until he fled as a refugee first to England in 1939 and later to Canada in 1940. Both of his parents, unable to leave
Austria, became victims of the Holocaust. Throughout his life he has maintained a strong Jewish identity and he was instrumental
in the establishment of the Judaic Studies program at UC San Diego. He also has been involved in social justice issues, including
participating in the American Physical Society's Committee on the International Freedom of Scientists which petitions foreign
governments and fellow scientists to end the persecution of scientists.
He attended University of Toronto from 1942 to 1945 where he received his undergraduate degree in mathematics and physics
and his graduate degree in applied mathematics. During 1945-46, between his studies for the two degrees, he also completed
a year of service in the Canadian Infantry, fighting in the last year of World War II. He then attended Harvard where he was
awarded a PhD in physics in 1948. After graduation Kohn accepted his first position at Harvard as an instructor of physics.
In 1950 Kohn was offered a position at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) where he would work
for the next ten years. While at Carnegie Mellon his research focused on Bloch electrons and semiconductor physics. Before
starting, however, he was awarded a National Research Council fellowship and as a result postponed his appointment for two
years to do research in Copenhagen. This would be the first of many temporary research positions he would hold abroad. He
also later worked for months at a time in Tel Aviv, Israel; Les Houches, France; and Zurich, Switzerland; among other countries.
During the last few weeks before beginning at Carnegie, Kohn was invited to work under the direction of Robert Oppenheimer
at Princeton to finish his project begun in Copenhagen. During the summers of 1953 and 1954 Kohn also worked at Bell Labs
doing research in solid state physics.
Kohn's career with the University of California began in 1960 when he left Carnegie to begin working at UC San Diego. It was
while at UCSD that he began his work on density functional theory.
Kohn was invited in 1979 to come to UC Santa Barbara to assist in the establishment of the Institute of Theoretical Physics
at UCSB, now known as the Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics, and to work as its founding director. Here he would continue
his work on density functional theory and other subjects. He held this position until 1984 when he became a full time professor
in UCSB's Department of Physics. He has been a Professor Emeritus since 1991.
Also noteworthy is that throughout his life Kohn has been an outspoken advocate of peace and has opposed the use of nuclear
weapons. Throughout the Cold War he worked towards US-Soviet nuclear disarmament. He was on the faculty advisory committee
for the Global Peace and Security Program at UCSB and the affiliated Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. He actively
advocated, although unsuccessfully, for the removal of the University of California as manager of Lawrence-Livermore National
Laboratories. Kohn was also a consultant for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, based out of Santa Barbara.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Density functionals -- Research
Solid state physics -- Research
Bloch oscillations -- Research
Nobel Prize winners -- California -- Santa Barbara -- Archives
Nuclear disarmament
Research notes
Business correspondence
Lecture notes
Articles
Academic theses
Records (documents)
Technical reports
Class notes
University of California, Santa Barbara -- Faculty -- Archives
University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation -- Archives
University of California, San Diego. Judaic Studies Program -- Archives
University of California, Santa Barbara. Department of Physics -- Archives