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ROBERT EUGENE MARS HAK October ~ I, ~ 9 ~ 6-December 23, ~ 992 BY ERNEST M. HENLEY AND HARRY LUSTIG ROBERT MARSHAK WAS AN extraorclinarily imaginative en c! productive physicist. After making important contribu- tions to astrophysics, he turner! to nuclear en c! elementary particle physics as his primary area of research. His en c! Hans Bethe's two-meson hypothesis en c! the proposal with George Suciarshan of the universal V - A weak interaction were milestones in the history of twentieth-century physics. Marshak was one of the great research guicles of our time, his students en c! junior colleagues occupy important posi- tions all over the worIcI. Never a loner or one to limit his horizons, he became a leacling statesman of woric! science en c! contributes! enormously to strengthening communica- tions en c! cooperation among scientists across borclers en c! consequently to woric! peace en c! well-being. Throughout his life Marshak was driven not only by intellectual curiosity en c! brilliance, as well as a desire for personal recognition, but also by an unquenchable quest for social justice. This lee! him to make many contributions to the public goocI, most notably as president of the City College of New York cluring a perioc! of wrenching change en c! renewal for that institution. He was a born leacler en c! a practical cireamer whose work will live on for many years to come. 219
220 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS THE EARLY YEARS Robert E. Marshak was born in 1916 in the Bronx, a borough of New York City, to poor immigrants from Minsk, Russia (now Belorus). In America his mother Rose became a seamstress en c! his father Harry worker! as a garment cut- ter en c! seller of fruits en c! vegetables from a horse-cirawn cart. Marshak's ability en c! ambition were recognizec! early en c! were strongly supporter! by his parents. (In later years Bob often was mover! to tell the story of his father getting up at four in the morning to shine Bob's shoes, advising the son that his time was better spent in stucly than in cleaning shoes.) He gracluatec! from James Monroe High School at age fifteen, having won virtually every prize offerer! by the New York school system en c! having captaincy! the school's math team to citywide victory. Like so many taTentec! but poor New Yorkers, Marshak enrolled in the academically rigor- ous, tuition-free College of the City of New York (CCNY). After one semester he received a Pulitzer scholarship that proviclec! full tuition en c! a stipenc! for stucly at Columbia University. Initially he majored in philosophy and math- ematics en c! servec! as ciance critic for the school newspa- per. His first publisher! article, in Columbia Magazine, was a critique of the ciancer Martha Graham. (Bob Marshak main- tainec! a love for en c! a commitment to the arts en c! hu- manities throughout his life. Almost five clecacles after Co- lumbia, one of us kH.L.] attenclec! a concert with him at CCNY~s newly inaugurates! Davis Center for the Performing Arts, in whose creation Bob hac! playoc! a leacling role. He toIc! of his discovery of Schubert fairly late in life en c! he appeared moved to tears during the performance of that composer's Octet.) In his senior year Marshak switched to physics and came into contact with I. I. Rabi. Although
ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK 221 Rabi originally was skeptical of Marshak's commitment to physics, he later became a friend. Marshak gracluatec! from Columbia in 1936 en c! went on to graduate school at Cornell. There he stucliec! with Hans Bethe, who at the time was working on problems pertaining to energy procluction in stars, work that later won him a Nobel Prize. Marshak wrote his dissertation on energy pro- cluction in white dwarf stars, completing his Ph.D. degree in 1939 at the age of twenty-two. He concluclec! that white dwarfs conic! not contain hydrogen in their interior be- cause it wouIc! immecliately burn up at the high tempera- ture. This conclusion is consiclerec! basic by astrophysicists who are expert on white dwarfs, en c! was confirmed! by ob- servation over the following half century. Never one to miss an opportunity, he persuaclec! Bethe to submit Bethe's pa- per on the carbon cycle as a source of stellar energy to the New York Academy of Sciences for the A. Cressy Morrison Prize. Bethe won that prize en c! gave Marshak a 10% fincler's fee. When Marshak finisher! his thesis, it was also submitter! to the Academy, en c! Marshak won the Morrison prize. With the money from it, he was able to buy his first car. Jobs were hare! to come by in the 1930s, especially for Jewish scientists. Marshak was nevertheless able to get a one-year position at the University of Rochester. It was "defi- nitely for only one year," because it hac! been promiser! to another man who hac! gone off for acivancec! study with a famous physicist. But that other man clic! not return, so this tenure track position wisely was given to Marshak. At Roch- ester he met en c! worker! with Victor Weisskopf. He remainec! at Rochester, with time off for the war effort en c! cluring later leaves, until 1970. In 1943 Marshak marries! Ruth Gup, a schoolteacher in Rochester. In 1950 they hac! a daughter, Ann, who is now professor of immunology in the Depart- ment of Microbiology at Boston University en c! five years
222 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS later a son, Stephen, who is professor of geology at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. THE WAR YEARS When the Uniter! States joiner! WorIc! War II in 1941, Marshak, like many other scientists, enlister! in the war ef- fort. At first, he worker! on cleveloping racier at the MIT Racliation Laboratory. In 1943-44 he was at the Montreal Atomic Energy Laboratory (which later became the Chalk River Laboratory), where he worker! for the British atomic bomb project on problems of neutron diffusion. In 1944 he joiner! the Manhattan Project, which was cleveloping the American atomic bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico. His position as deputy leacler of a group in theoretical physics allowed! him to be privy to the overall strategy of the cre- ation of the atomic bomb. One of his contributions was an explanation of how shock waves work uncler conditions of extremely high temperatures cluring a nuclear explosion, when most of the energy is in racliation. These waves are now caller! Marshak waves. His explanation became the sub- ject of renewer! interest many years later when it helpec! to describe the consequences of a supernova explosion. Both Robert en c! Ruth Marshak felt that Los Alamos was the most influential event in their lives. He worker! among the most select group of physicists in the worm, men like Bethe, Fermi, Bohr, Oppenheimer, en c! Feynman. With them he witnesses! the explosion of the first atomic bomb, an event that affecter! him profouncITy. The shock of the cle- struction of Hiroshima en c! Nagasaki lee! him to join in organizing the Federation of American Scientists, a group seeking to limit the proliferation of nuclear weapons and to ban the bomb. Marshak became chairman of the federa- tion in 1947. In later years he was active in other organiza- tions with similar goals, including the Pugwash Conference
ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK 223 en c! the Union of Concernec! Scientists. Driven by a desire to help bring about world peace and prosperity and with an unclerstancling of the unique role that science shouIc! play in achieving these goals, he was an effective woric! leacler in the internationalization of science. THREE DECADES AT ROCHESTER After the war Marshak returnee! to the University of Roch- ester, where he mover! quickly through the ranks to be- come a chairec! professor en c! in 1950 the heat! of the phys- ics department. During his fourteen-year chairmanship it became one of the top departments in the country en c! a recognizec! center for research. Many of the woricl's leacling physicists passer! through Rochester cluring those years en c! Ruth Marshak playoc! an inclispensable role as their hostess, as she clic! later as "First Lacly" of City College. In spite of the growing prestige of the physics department, Rochester was not consiclerec! to be in the same league with institu- tions such as Princeton, Harvard, MIT, Caltech, or the Uni- versity of California, Berkeley. To have students of high caliber in the department, Marshak sought out the best graduate students from overseas, notably from India, Paki- stan. en c! Tanan. en c! brought them to Rochester. a strate~v ' J 1 ' O ' OJ that was soon copier! by other departments on the move. Many of these students later became leaclers in their coun- tries' scientific communities. During the Rochester years, Marshak's output was procli- gious, it is recorclec! in 4 authorec! en c! 2 eclitec! books, some 120 articles in referees! scientific journals en c! in more than 20 contributions to magazines. (Over the rest of his busy life, these numbers increasec! to ~ books, IS0 scientific articles en c! close to 50 general articles.) He continues! his work in astrophysics en c! publisher! papers on solar moclels, on the internal temperature en c! opacities of white dwarfs,
224 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS en c! on the internal temperature-clensity distribution of main sequence stars. During this early perioc! Bob was also inter- estec! in nuclear forces, nuclear bincling energies, en c! beta- clecay theory. The discovery of the muon (then thought to be the Yukawa meson) lee! to papers on the scattering of spin ~ /2 mesons by nuclei. In ~ 947 Bethe en c! Marshak were among the first to realize that the weakly interacting muon conic! not be the Yukawa meson, en c! they proposer! the two-meson hypothesis, thus suggesting that a second, strongly interacting, meson (now caller! the pion) remainec! to be founcI. Marshak continues! to stucly the plan en c! muon en c! in particular the interaction of the former its procluc- tion, scattering, en c! absorption with nuclei. With several colleagues he worker! on charge inclepenclence in multiple plan production, X rays from pi-mesic atoms, en c! the me- son theory of nuclear forces. With his students Peter Signell en c! Ronalc! Bryan he proclucec! the Signell-Marshak poten- tial, which, by virtue of inclucling the spin-orbit contribu- tion in the nuclear force, was one of the first to give quanti- tative agreement with experiment. In 1952 his book Meson Physics was the first to be publisher! on that subject. Marshak was the driving force for the construction of the 240-MeV Rochester cyclotron, built by Sidney Barnes. It was the first meson-proclucing cyclotron after the IS4-inch cy- clotron at Berkeley, en c! in 1948 it proclucec! plans on nuclear targets that allowed! researchers to determine the pion's spin en c! parity. Unfortunately, its energy was too low ex- cept for threshoic! plan production, the accelerator conic! not reach the energy of the clelta resonance (1232 MeV) en c! the Rochester cyclotron was soon eclipses! by accelera- tors at the University of Chicago en c! Columbia University. In 1951 Marshak suggested that one could determine the spin of the positive pion experimentally by comparing the cross sections for the reactions pp ~ 7rv+c! en c! 7rv+c! ~ pp en c!
ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK 225 invoking the principle of cletailec! balance, which in turn is a result of the time reversal invariance of strong interac- tions. Immecliately after Marshak macle this proposal, ex- periments at Columbia en c! Rochester confirmed! the spin to be zero. The Rochester cyclotron also was important in showing that protons conic! be polarizer! easily by scattering from a nucleus of zero spin, such as carbon. Bob Marshak turner! his attention to the strange particles when they were cliscoverec! in the late 1950s. He stucliec! their expecter! properties: spins, magnetic moments, pro- cluction, interactions, en c! decays. Together with S. Okubo en c! with his student Suciarshan, he shower! for the first time that broken symmetries conic! account for the mag- netic moments en c! masses of the sigma hyperons. As early as 195S, Marshak en c! Suciarshan stucliec! chirality invari- ance ant! its effect on weak interactions. With Okubo, Suciarshan, W. Teutsch, en c! S. Weinberg, he investigatec! conservec! currents en c! K-meson decays. During all these years he continues! his interest in the nucleon-nucleon in- teraction, but after 1956, when parity violation was cliscov- erec! in the weak interactions, his primary attention shifter! to symmetries en c! the weak interaction. Two books recount the achievements of that periocI: Elementary Particle Physics (1961) by Marshak en c! Suciarshan en c! Theory of Weak Inter- actions in Particle Physics (1969), co-authorec! by Marshak, Riazzuclin en c! C. P. Ryan. Marshak's most significant scientific contribution argu ably was the proposal in 1957 of the V - A theory of weak interactions in collaboration with George Suciarshan. The theory, which emphasizec! the importance of chiral invari- ance, was a starting point for the stanciarc! unifier! electroweak theory of Glashow, Salam, en c! Weinberg. Marshak ant! Suciarshan at that time publisher! their theory only in the proceedings of a conference (the Paclua-Venice International
226 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS Conference on Mesons en c! Recently Discoverec! Particles). Six months later a different derivation was publisher! by Feynman en c! Gell-Mann in Physical Review. (An account of the rapicI-fire clevelopments in the origins of the universal V- A interaction appears in an article by Suciarshan en c! Marshak in the book A Gift of Prophecy mentionec! in the penultimate paragraph of this memoir. Although the V- A concept was a seminal contribution to theoretical ohvsics. a Nobel Prize was never awarclec! for it. 1 ~, Not content with making his own major research contri- butions to physics, Marshak became an enthusiastic en c! inclefatigable promoter some have caller! him a prophet of the fielcI, even at an age when he was much too young to figure as an elcler statesman. In 1950 Marshak felt that the successful conferences on present problems of physics, which had been held at Shelter Island ~ ~ 947), the Poconos ~ ~ 948), en c! OIcistone (1949), shouIc! be continues! en c! that Roch- ester was the place to clo so. The first of what was to be- come a series of annual Rochester conferences was hell! in December of 1950. It was attenclec! by fewer than 100 people, who at that time constituted almost all of the U.S. theorists and experimentaTists working in the field of high energy, the number also incluclec! a few from overseas. The meet- ing was expanclec! the following year en c! evolves! later into the International Conference on High Energy Physics. This series of conferences rapicIly became (anc! remain) the pre- eminent international gathering of high energy physicists. (It also server! as a mocle! for the establishment of interna- tional conferences in other fielcis.) Hell! in Rochester until 1957, the conferences then began to rotate among coun- tries, returning to Rochester in 1960. They are amazingly vital gatherings, where new results are often announced for the first time. It was at one of the early Rochester confer
ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK 227 ences that one of us tE.M.H.] first met Bob en c! was imme- diately impressed by his vitality. Marshak macle sure that all nations conic! be represented at the Rochester conference en c! worker! very hare! with the U.S. Department of State en c! with members of Congress to allow physicists from the Soviet Union en c! Eastern Europe to attend. In those years no one ever knew quite whom the Soviets wouIc! sent! to conferences en c! Bob Marshak hac! to insist that those who hac! been invites! to talk wouIc! be among those permitted to come. During those clays of the CoIc! War it was unusual to be able to discuss physics- much less politics with Soviet scientists. Bob's initiative was not only an immense boon to physics but helpec! to leac! the way to a rapprochement between the Uniter! States en c! the Soviet Union. Marshak's intense interest in promoting international sci- entific cooperation en c! worIc! peace manifesto! itself in many other activities. In 1956, after the cleath of Stalin, he was a member of the first clelegation of six American scien- tists to visit the Soviet Union, where he met the leaclers of the Soviet physics community, inclucling Lev Landau. He macle more trips to the Soviet Union in the late 1950s en c! became an acknowlecigec! expert on Soviet science. As a result, he publisher! articles about the subject in several magazines en c! was frequently interviewoc! by the news me- clia. His outspoken views may have lee! to his being sub- jectec! to an interrogation cluring the McCarthy era. He was fount! to be a loyal American en c! allowed! to retain his Q- clearance. Over the years Marshak also macle a large number of trips to other countries in Europe en c! to the MicicIle East, India, Pakistan, en c! Japan. In the 1960s he heaclec! clelega- tions of the National Academy of Sciences to negotiate ex- change agreements with Polanc! en c! Yugoslavia. His trips
228 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS proviclec! him with an opportunity to meet the scientific en c! occasionally the political leaclers of many countries, inclucling Prime Minister {awaharIal Nehru of India. He became friencis with physicists such as Hicleki Yukawa, Abclus Salam, en c! others not as well known in the Uniter! States but who playact major roles in the clevelopment of science in their countries. He was a founder of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics at Trieste en c! a member of its Science Council from 1965 to 1975 en c! again from 1984 until his cleath. He servec! as secretary of the Commission on High Energy Physics of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. Not one to slight the promotion of science in the Uniter! States, Marshak was involves! in lobbying to establish the National Science Foundation en c! in many issues that came before the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. In aciclition to numerous academic visiting professorships he also had con- nections to industry, acting as a consultant to General Elec- tric, Eastman Kociak, en c! the RAND Corporation. He server! as editor of two major series of physics books, one for McGraw- Hill, the other for Wiley-Interscience. In the late 1960s, as one of four Distinguishes! University Professors at the University of Rochester, as well as a clistin- guished physicist and by then elder statesman of science, Robert Marshak conic! have finisher! his career there in a secure and, from a professional viewpoint, an icleal posi- tion. However, in this era of the Vietnam War, conflicts between the conservative administration of Rochester Presi- clent W. Allen Wallis en c! the more liberal faculty en c! stu- clents surfacer! on a number of issues. The faculty electec! Marshak as president of the Faculty Senate en c! what fol- lowoc! was effectively a battle between him en c! Wallis. After the faculty passer! a vote of no confidence against Wallis
ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK 229 the two were never again on friencITy terms. Rochester's turmoil became City College's opportunity. PRESIDENT OF CITY COLLEGE ( 1970-79) By 1969 the venerable CCNY of Bob Marshak's youth was in the throes of a revolution. For one thing, it hac! become a unit of a nineteen-campus bureaucratic system, the City University of New York. Its clays as a leacling en c! wholly disproportionate producer of unclergracluates who wouIc! take their place among the country's leacling physicists (as well as of a large number of intellectual leaclers in most other fielcis of human encleavor) appearec! to be over. Many bright young New Yorkers for whom CCNYwouic! have been the only avenue to higher education en c! out of poverty now hac! the means ant! the opportunity to attenc! the Columbias en c! Harvarcis of the country. At the same time, Black en c! Hispanic New Yorkers, who conic! not meet the wholly meritocratic admissions criteria of City College, re- voTtec! against their "exclusion" en c! with their supporters occupier! the campus. Their clemancis for admissions quo- tas that reflected! their numbers in the high schools were answerer! with an "Open Admissions" policy for the City University. In 1970 this resultec! not only in a cloubling of freshman but, as public education en c! high-school graclua- tion requirements in New York further cleterioratecI, in an influx of unprepared students en c! an increasing new! to provicle remeclial education en c! new curricula for them. Prior to open admissions another revolution hac! been launchecI, one that was much less notices! by the public. Let! by a few "Young Turks," mostly from the physics cle- partment, which one of us tH.L.] then heaclecI, CCNY was transforming itself from an essentially unclergracluate col- lege to a research institution with on-campus graduate pro- grams in the sciences, engineering, en c! a few other fielcis.
230 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS into this somewhat schizophrenic reality of CCNY Robert Marshak was recruitec! to serve. Those who knew of his extraordinary achievements en c! commitment to academic excellence, combiner! with his unusual cleclication to social programs en c! equality, believer! that he was the right per- son to replace the clismissec! president of the college. As one of the faculty members of the search committee, I tH.L.] traveler! to Rochester to recruit Bob to become City College's eighth president. Before speaking with him, I had the privi- lege of attending one of his legenciary seminars. It became easy to convince the search committee en c! the Boarc! of Trustees that here was an incliviclual who was superior to all other cancliciates. What Bob Marshak set out to do as soon as he became president was to take City College into the big leagues of the public en c! private universities of the seventies. He en- gagec! a public relations firm en c! user! pageantry to make friends en c! influence people. He launcher! an unprececlentec! $25 million fund-raising campaign. To help carry out his programs he liberally aciclec! cleans, directors, en c! vice-presi- clents to the administration, en c! he summer! up his vision in a master plan that he namer! "The Urban Eclucational Model. " To be sure, there were solic! academic goals en c! achieve- ments behind this structure and facade. Bob Marshak wanted to improve every department, whether it wan tee! to be im- proved or not, and he succeeded with about a dozen, phys- ics most prominently among them. With the help of a ma- jor National Science Foundation clevelopment grant, the groundwork for the transformation of the physics clepart- ment from a procligiously successful unclergracluate teach- ing operation to a research-active Ph.D. department hac! been lair! before Bob's arrival. However, his presence at the helm en c! his strong if critical support macle it possible to
ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK 23 bring in such scientists as Bob Alfano, Joe Birman, Me! Lax, Sam Linclenbaum, Rabi Mohapatra, Bunji Sakita, en c! Harry Swinney. To much of the woricI, Bob's most visible en c! sometimes controversial achievements were evident in the new pro- grams he created. Most of these were motivated, at least in part, by Bob's unshakable conviction en c! confidence that he hac! the obligation to clo for the economically still poor (anc! socially en c! acaclemically very clifferent) students what the students en c! faculty previously hac! clone for themselves. The new programs were often macle possible en c! some- times even shaper! by the wishes en c! ambitions of clonors. In rapic! succession he createc! a major Center for the Per- forming Arts, an Urban Legal Studies Program, the Center for Biomeclical Education, en c! several other new structures en c! programs. The Center (later School) for Biomeclical Education can serve as a paradigm of Bob's vision en c! determination, as well as of his occasionally less than completely realistic ex- pectations. As he conceivec! it, the center was to serve all of the following purposes: I) to retain en c! win back giftec! students through an acceleratec! curriculum (they wouic! obtain a meclical degree in a total of six years, the first four at City College en c! the last two at prestigious meclical schools with which Bob hac! negotiatec! transfers to the thirc! year classy, 2) to have 50% of this group composed of minority students, 3) to direct the students into primary health care (rather than into specialties) en c! practices in unclerservec! areas, en c! 4) implicitly to show the meclical establishment en c! the country that a meclical education conic! be pro- viclec! at a much Tower cost than was (anc! is) the practice. Experience soon showocI, unsurprisingly, that these goals were somewhat incompatible. The program experienced clifficulties en c! controversy, inclucling a successful reverse
232 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS discrimination lawsuit, en c! hac! to be moclifiecI. It is a trib- ute to Bob Marshak's vision en c! determination that the program still exists twenty-five years after its creation en c! still makes a major contribution to the City College en c! to society. During the City College perioc! Marshak also vigorously pursued his lifelong commitment to international coopera- tion en c! to cleveloping countries. Among other initiatives, he trier! to set up a far-reaching exchange program with the University of Ife in Nigeria en c! he organizer! en c! chairec! a workshop at CCNY on "Technological Development of Nigeria." On the domestic front he organizer! en c! co-chairec! with Hans Bethe a conference on "American Energy Choices Before the Year 2000." At City College itself, Bob Marshak, motivates! by his social conscience en c! sympathies, was ex- traorclinariTy responsive to all clemancis. He createc! not two (as hac! originally been clemanclecI) but four ethnic studies departments: Black, Puerto Rican, Asian, en c! Jewish. He worker! hare! to establish ties with the Harlem community. All of these acts of creation were initiates! in the face of a rapidly deteriorating economic and political situation for CCNY, largely caused by the impending bankruptcy of New York City. This lee! to the abandonment after 128 years of free tuition en c! to severe buciget cuts (which became even more traumatic in the eighties and nineties). Marshak's acts of creation were also carrier! out against a backgrounc! of ethnic strife en c! agitation that was manifestly much worse than what Bob hac! expecter! when he took the job. Incleec! it harcIly shouIc! be caller! a background, because it con- sumec! so much of Bob's time en c! effort, unfortunately, it also took a toll on his health. He sufferer! a stroke cluring a confrontation with a student group. It affected his physical balance for the remainder of his life, but it did not stop the intensity of his commitments and his work habits.
ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK 233 Not surprisingly, during his extraordinarily demanding presidency, Marshak heroically tried to keep up with phys- ics and, stealing away to his little hideout in the physics department on as many Friday afternoons as he could, he worked with Mohapatra and others to make new contribu- tions. His papers in Physical Review and in Physical Review Letters were mostly on CP violation and the strange par- ticles. In the end, the deprivation of not being at the cen- ter of science, as well as the accumulated frustrations of life at City College, got to him, and at the age of sixty-three he again became a full-time physicist, at the Virginia Polytech- nic Institute and State University. THE BLACKSBURG YEARS Robert Marshak joined the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1979 as a University Distinguished Professor, the announcement of his appointment was made by the governor of Virginia. He continued to work in the area of quark-lepton symmetry and the construction of grand unification schemes with his former student at Rochester and colleague at CCNY, R. N. (Rabi) Mohapatra, who had moved to Virginia Tech, and with others. The failure to detect proton decays predicted by the SW(5) theory had increased interest in experimental tests of alternative op- tions. Bob proposed tests of the SU(IO) grand unification theory by studying neutron-antineutron oscillations in the nucleus, and by looking for finite mass Majorana neutrinos. With students and research associates, Marshak worked on models of quarks and leptons. He recognized the impor- tance of anomaly cancellations as a necessary condition in the construction of a new theory. He authored several pa- pers on chiral gauge anomalies and on the relations be- tween the perturbative and non-perturbative ones. Continuing a lifelong practice of good citizenship and
234 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS service in his local en c! the wicler national en c! interna- tional community, Bob Marshak organizer! several memo- rable physics meetings at VPI en c! was active in numerous scientific organizations. Among his contributions were ser- vice on the National Academy of Sciences' Commission on Human Resources en c! the Committee on Scientific Ex- changes with the People's Republic of China, the vice-chair- manship of the Uniter! States National Committee for the International Union of Pure en c! Applier! Physics, member- ship on the Governing Boarc! of the American Institute of Physics, the chairmanship of an Acivisory Committee of the U.S. Agency for International Development, en c! the orga- nization of the 1984 Trieste conference on physics en c! cle- velopment. He was electec! president of University Research Associates, but he hac! to relinquish that responsibility be- cause of a heart bypass operation. A most important, if not the principal, beneficiary in the early eighties of Bob's intellect en c! energy was the Ameri- can Physical Society (APS) en c! its programs en c! influence. After serving on its council from 1965 to 1969 en c! as chair- man of its Division of Particles en c! Fielcis in 1969-70, he allowed! himself to be nominates! as vice-presiclent after his retirement from CCNY. This lee! to the presidency in 1983. The recollections of his colleagues en c! a perusal of council minutes, as well as newspaper reports, attest that his term was very eventful en c! effective. Bob Marshak clic! not leave strong activism and controversy behind when he left City College. An example is his use of the weight of the APS to debate the Reagan Administration on the issue of placing an anti-ballistic missile system in space, a program popu- larly know as Star Wars. One result was an unprececlentec! statement on nuclear arms control that the council issues! on January 23, 1983, under Bob's energetic leadership, which evokes! an extraordinary negative response from George
ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK 235 Keyworth, President Reagan's science Divisor. Another per- haps more influential outcome was the procluction by the APS some years later of an objective scientific stucly of the feasibility of clirectec! energy weapons. A seconc! major Marshak creation was the approval en c! initiation of the China Program ("Chinese-American Cooperative Basic Re- search Program in Atomic, Molecular, en c! Conclensec! Mat- ter Physics" of the American Physical Society, 1983-1991. ) It is now seen as one of the great contributions of the APS. This program passer! the council also on January 23, 1983, by a vote of thirteen members in favor, eleven opposed, en c! three abstaining. Bob Marshak clic! not require una- nimity to forge ahead, he en c! his convictions often consti- tutec! a strong working majority. Marshak retiree! officially from his chair at Virginia Tech in 1992 at the age of seventy-five. During the four years before that en c! for the remaining months of his life, he worker! intensely on his last book Conceptual Foundations of Modern Particle Physics (1993~. He finisher! the final correc- tions on December 22, 1992. When he ciroppec! the manu- script in the mailbox, he turner! to his wife en c! sail! jok- ingly: "It's clone, now I can clie." The last communication I kH.L] hac! from Bob Marshak was also ciatec! December 22, 1992. It is a note proucIly telling us that he hac! been se- lectec! as the first recipient of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Awarc! for International Sci- entific Cooperation, for which I hac! nominates! him on behalf of the APS. The next clay, December 23, 1992, the Marshak family gatherer! in Cancun to celebrate Bob en c! Ruth's fiftieth wocicling anniversary. Minutes after their ar- rival Bob took the grancichiTciren to the beach. While they playocI, he stepper! into the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico. The undertow was unexpectecIly strong, en c! he apparently lost his balance the final manifestation of his stroke. He
236 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS fell into the water, conic! not stanc! up, en c! cirownec! a few feet from shore. ENVOI Beginning early in his life and lasting throughout his career, Robert Marshak receiver! wicle recognition en c! a plenitucle of honors. He was electec! to the National AcacI- emy of Sciences in 1958 en c! to the American Academy of Arts ant! Sciences in ~ 962. He was an Alexancler von Humboicit awarclee, three times a Guggenheim fellow, a Sigma Xi national lecturer, a Phi Beta Kappa scholar, en c! a Nobel lecturer. He hell! clistinguishec! visiting appointments at some twenty foreign en c! domestic institutions. He re- ceivec! three honorary degrees. On his retirement from CCNY the science builcling was namer! in his honor, in defiance of a policy he hac! establishec! cluring his presidency of selling the names of builclings to clonors. An c! his students en c! colleagues honoree! him with no fewer than three Festschriften, one on his retirement from Rochester in 1970 ("R. E. Marshak: The Rochester Years"~; the second, in ob servation of his sixtieth birthday at City College ("Interna- tional Symposium on Five Decacles of Weak Interactions," proceedings published in Ann. N. ~ A cad. Sci., vol. 294, ed. N. P. Chang, 1977), and, upon his death, with the book A Gift of Prophecy-Essays in Celebration of the Life of Robert Eugene Marshak (ecI. E. C. G. Suciarshan, WorIc! Scientific, 1994~. Bob Marshak was manifestly not a prophet without honor in his own country or abroad. Scores of colleagues have testifier! to his seminal contributions to science. The work on the V- A interaction has been clescribec! by a clisinter- estec! colleague as "a crucial turning point in twentieth cen- tury physics." Others have spoken eloquently about the many other results of Bob's "deep physical intuition" and of their admiration for him as a "deep and creative theoretical physi
ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK 237 cist." His leaclership in the woric! scientific community has evokoc! equally strong expressions of tribute. His successful pursuit of the presidency of City College has been hailed as "an act of great courage en c! human compassion." In spite of these tributes en c! Bob Marshak's immense achievements, his life was sometimes punctuates! by clisap- pointment en c! controversy. Although Marshak was anything but self-effacing or reluctant to claim credit for his accom- plishments, he was not always satisfier! with himself or with the recognition he received. He was extraorclinariTy persis- tent but not always patient in pursuing his ambitious goals in science en c! society. He clic! not suffer fools (or for that matter wise men en c! women who clisagreec! with him) glacITy, en c! he occasionally exasperated colleagues en c! persons in high places as much as they must have exasperated him. His interaction with people was anything but weak. At the same time he was a most generous frienc! en c! mentor, particularly to students en c! junior colleagues. Many have testifies! about his graciousness, his approachability, en c! the unexpected amount of time that he took to discuss their problems. A severe workaholic, he hac! an enormous sense of duty to deliver, fully and promptly, on everything he promised. George Suciarshan reports that "any manu- script or notes hanclec! to him were returnee! with cletailec! comments within forty-eight hours, irrespective of how busy he was." Although physics usually took precedence over other cluties (anc! his commitments as a statesman of science over personal concerns), he was involves! in everything en c! he enricher! the lives of more people than he or the public ever knew. FORTUNATELY, THE LIFE and achievements of Robert E. Marshak have been well documented by himself and by others. In addition to items cited in the Selected Bibliography and other material, includ
238 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS ing personal reminiscences, we have found the following documents particularly useful: 1) Robert E. Marshak: A Brief Biography. Special Collections Department, University Libraries, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va., 1996. This informa- tive and poignant work, authored by Marshak's son, Prof. Stephen Marshak, is so felicitously written that we have with permission in- corporated some passages verbatim; 2) Harry Lustig. Two presiden- cies: The City College of New York and the American Physical Soci- ety. In A Gift of Prophecy. Essays in Celebration of the Life of Robert Eugene Marshak, ed. E. C. G. Sudarshan, pp. 303-309. Singapore: World Scientific, 1994. Permission to quote from this article has been granted by the publisher; and 3) Harry Lustig, Susumo Okubo, E. C. G. Sudarshan. Robert E. Marshak (obituary). Phys. Today, p.l05, Nov. 1993. We are very grateful to Prof. Hans Bethe for his critical read- ing of our manuscript and his contributions, which improved it considerably. Finally we are pleased to acknowledge the assistance of Eric Ackermann, special collections librarian at Virginia Tech, and of Prof. Robin Villa of CCNY.
ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 1939 239 With H. A. Bethel Physics of stellar interiors and stellar evolution. Rep. Prog. Phys. VI:1. 1940 With H. A. Bethel Generalized Thomas-Fermi method applied to stars. Astrophys. f. 91:239. The internal temperature of white dwarf stars. Astrophys. f. 92:321. 1941 With V. F. Weisskopf. On the scattering of mesons of spin 1/2 by atomic nuclei. Phys. Rev. 59:130. 1947 Theory of slowing down of neutrons by elastic collision with atomic nuclei. Rev. Mod. Phys. 19:185. With H. A. Bethel On the two meson hypothesis. Phys. Rev. 72:506. With E. C. Nelson and L. I. Schiff. Our Atomic World. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 1949 On mesons ,u and 7~. Phys. Rev. 75:700. 1952 With N. Francis. Elastic photoproduction of 7~° mesons in deute- rium. Phys. Rev. 85:496. With L. Van Hove and A. Pals. Charge independence and multiple pion production. Phys. Rev. 88:1211. Meson Physics. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1954 With M. M. Levy. Present status of the meson theory of nuclear forces. In Proceedings of the Glasgow Conference. Oxford, U.~: Pergamon. 1957
240 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS With P. Signell. Phenomenological two-nucleon potential up to 150 MeV. Phys. Rev. 106:832. With E. C. G. Sudarshan. Nature of the four-fermion interaction. In Proceedings of the Padua-Venice Conference on Mesons and Newly Dis- covered Particles. V-14. 1958 With E. C. G. Sudarshan. Chirality invariance and the universal Fermi interaction. Phys. Rev. 109:1860. With S. Okubo, E. C. G. Sudarshan, W. B. Teutsch, and S. Weinberg. The interaction current in strangeness-violating decays. Phys. Rev. 112:665. Scientific research in the Soviet Union. Science 124:1125. 1959 With S. Okubo and E. C. G. Sudarshan. V - A theory and the decay of the ~ hyperon. Phys. Rev. 113 :944. With S. Okubo and E. C. G. Sudarshan. Isotopic spin selection rules and K2 decay. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2:12. 1961 With E. C. G. Sudarshan. Elementary Particle Physics. New York: John Wiley. 1969 With Riazuddin and C. Ryan. Theory of Weak Interactions in Particle Physics. New York: John Wiley. 1970 My answer to the Sakharov manifesto. Lecture in "Public Under- standing of Science" series. University of Texas. 1982 With the assistance of Gladys Wurtenburg. Academic Renewal in the 1970s: Memoirs of a City College President. Washington, D.C.: Uni- versity Press of America.
ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK 241 1988 The pragmatic humanism of Bohr, Einstein, and Sakharov. Proc. Am. Phil. Soc. 132:268. 1993 Conceptual Foundations of Modern Particle Physics. Singapore: World Scenic.
