As a child, Fisk was intrigued by chemistry, but his father disapproved of his interest and did not allow him to have a chemistry set. Fisk pursued chemistry in secret, creating his own chemistry set in the basement using materials from around the house and in nature. Chemists who visited Fisk's home, such as William O. Baker, would help him with his experiments discreetly.[4]
Fisk was an assistant professor of physics at the University of Chicago from 1970 to 1971.[4] In 1972,[1] Fisk returned to UCSD to work with Matthias as a research physicist. As a part of Matthias' research group, he worked with Brian Maple and other young researchers to discover new high-temperature superconductors. The research group received general advice from Matthias, but were otherwise free to pursue their own research interests. The group sought to understand the physics of the samples they synthesized, but the samples had defects and polycrystalline. To remedy this, Fisk started refining the technique of growing flux crystals. This fast, clean technique allowed him to grow a high-quality single crystal of Niobium-tin whose Fermi surface could be measured to understand its superconductivity. During the 1970s Fisk visited Los Alamos Laboratory multiple times, collaborating with other associates of Matthias.[4]
On October 27, 1980, Matthias died, leaving his research group on their own. The day after he died, Los Alamos National Laboratory offered Fisk a job. He joined the laboratory as a fellow in 1981.[1][4] The decision to join the laboratory was difficult for Fisk, as his wife, Jehanne Telheit-Fisk, was a tenured professor at UCSD. Fisk became interested in actinides while at UCSD and began researching them at Los Alamos, as they were unavailable at UCSD. Fisk and co-workers discovered superconductivity in uranium compounds UBe13 and UPt3. These superconductors came to be known as heavy-fermion superconductors. In 1991, Fisk began splitting his time between Los Alamos and UCSD.[4]
In 1985, Fisk was the recipient of an American Physical Society fellowship for "important contributions to the synthesis and understanding of new materials in single crystal form, particularly high critical temperature superconductors and heavy Fermion superconductors."[11] In 1995, Fisk was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[12] In 1996, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences.[13] On April 24, 2010, he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.[14][15]
Personal life
Fisk was married to Mary Bayley Fisk from 1964 to 1979. They had one daughter, Rebekah Worsley Fisk.[16][17] He remarried Jehanne Telheit-Fisk. Jehanne was an art historian, with a PhD in art history from University of California, Los Angeles. They had a daughter, Samantha Fisk. On August 28, 2002, Jehanne died of brain cancer.[18]
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