Russell McCormmach

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Russell Keith McCormmach (born 9 October 1933), the husband of the late Christa Jungnickel, is an American historian of physics. [1]

McCormmach grew up in Walla Walla, Washington and studied physics at Washington State College with bachelor's degree in 1955. As a Rhodes scholar, he studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University with bachelor's degree in 1959. He then worked as an electronics engineer at Bell Laboratories. In 1967 he received a Ph.D. in the history of science from Case Institute of Technology under Martin J. Klein. McCormmach was then a professor of the history of science at the University of Pennsylvania and the Johns Hopkins University (until 1983), and then at the University of Oregon. There he is a professor emeritus. [1]

McCormmach studied the history of German physics in the 19th and 20th centuries. His novel Night Thoughts of a Classical Physicist consists of the fictional reminiscences of an elderly German physics professor named Viktor Jacob who reflects on the revolutionary developments (relativity theory, quantum theory, and atomic physics) at the beginning of 20th century physics. The fictional character Viktor Jacob is partly based on Paul Drude (who died by suicide in 1906). In the novel, Viktor Jacob recalls Paul Drude as a friend.

With his wife Christa Jungnickel, Russell McCormmach co-authored a biography of Henry Cavendish and a history of German theoretical physics in the 19th and early 20th century. His biography of the 18th century English naturalist John Michell was published in 2012.

McCormmach received in 1987 the Pfizer Award from the History of Science Society, the John Frederick Lewis Award from the American Philosophical Society, and in 2010 the Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics from the American Physical Society. [1]

In 1969 he founded the journal Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences (now named Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences ), for which he was the editor-in-chief for its first ten years.

Selected publications

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Intellectual Mastery of Nature: Theoretical Physics from Ohm to Einstein is a two-volume reference work on the history of theoretical physics by Christa Jungnickel and Russell McCormmach that was initially published in 1986 by the University of Chicago Press. The book was well received and it won the 1987 Pfizer Award, given annually by the History of Science Society. In 2017, the duo released a revised and condensed version of the book through Springer International Publishing titled The Second Physicist: On the History of Theoretical Physics in Germany. The authors also wrote the 1996 and updated 1999 biography of Henry Cavendish, originally titled Cavendish, the book was given the subtitle The Experimental Life in the revised version of 1999.

References

  1. 1 2 3 2010 Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics Recipient, American Physical Society
  2. Lankford, John (1988). "Review of Intellectual Mastery of Nature: Theoretical Physics from Ohm to Einstein: Vol. 1, The Torch of Mathematics, 1800-1870 by Christa Jungnickel; Russell MacCormmach". The Journal of Higher Education. 59 (2): 231–233. doi:10.2307/1981694. JSTOR   1981694.
  3. Forman, Paul (March 1991). "Reviewed work: Intellectual Mastery of Nature; Theoretical Physics from Ohm to Einstein. Vol. 1, The Torch of Mathematics, 1800-1870; Vol. 2, The Now Mighty Theoretical Physics, 1870-1925 by Christa Jungnickel & Russell McCormmach". Philosophy of Science. 58 (1): 129–132. doi:10.1086/289603. JSTOR   187893.
  4. Home, R. W. (December 2016). "Review of "Russell McCormmach. The Personality of Henry Cavendish—A Great Scientist with Extraordinary Peculiarities" by Russell McCormmach". Isis. 107 (4): 845–846. doi:10.1086/689782.