James Franck Institute

James Franck Institute
Established 1945 (1945)
Field of research
 physics, chemistry and materials science
Director Aaron Dinner
Location Chicago, Illinois
Affiliations University of Chicago
Website jfi.uchicago.edu

The James Franck Institute of the University of Chicago conducts interdisciplinary research in physics, chemistry and materials science. Scientists at the institute include those interested in condensed matter physics, physical chemistry, synthetic materials chemistry, atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics, geophysics, and biophysics.[1]

Founded in 1945 by university President Robert Maynard Hutchins, as the Institute for the Study of Metals, it was renamed for Nobel Prize winning physicist James Franck in 1967.[2][3] It had its beginnings in the Metallurgical Laboratory, the World War II project that initiated the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, using the metal uranium. The Institute's founding director was Cyril Stanley Smith, former head of metallurgy at Los Alamos and the institute made early advances in pseudopotential theory and study of the Fermi surface.[3] According to a history written by Lillian Hoddeson and others, the Institute was an early pioneer in interdisciplinary research in wide ranging subjects: as it was organized like a "benevolent anarchy", a large percent of its early papers did not even deal with metals but other aspects of chemistry and physics.[3]

See also

Enrico Fermi Institute

References

  1. ↑ "James Franck Institute: About the Institute Director". uchicago.edu. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  2. ↑ "James Franck Institute: About the Institute History". uchicago.edu. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Hoddeson, Lillian, et.al (1992). Out of the Crystal Maze : Chapters from The History of Solid State Physics. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 208. ISBN 019505329X.

External links

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