Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T17:35:23.482Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Arthur von Hippel: The Scientist and the Man

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2011

Frank N. von Hippel
Get access

Abstract

“We will not be intimidated!” is one of the mottos Arthur R. von Hippel lived by. From refusing to salute Hitler to starting a unique interdisciplinary university laboratory–the Laboratory for Insulation Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology–von Hippel followed his principles, laying the foundations for modern materials research and distinguishing himself as a pioneering scientist, an inspirational mentor, and a devoted family man. This article shows the personal and professional contexts within which von Hippel–the namesake of the Materials Research Society's highest award–emerged as a scientific leader and role model of interdisciplinarity, as seen through the eyes of his son, Frank N. von Hippel, physicist, professor of public and international affairs, and co-director of the Program on Science & Global Security at Princeton University.

Keywords

Arthur R. von HippeldielectricsinterdisciplinaryMassachusetts Institute of Technologymaterials engineeringmaterials researchMIT
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Bulletin , Volume 30 , Issue 11: Arthur R. von Hippel, In Memoriam (1898–2003): A Tribute to the Interdisciplinary Materials Research He Spawned , November 2005 , pp. 838 - 844
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes and References

1Franck, James, who was Jewish, resigned his position as professor (a government appointment in Germany) when Hitler came to power but did not leave Germany until he had been able to place his Jewish assistants and von Hippel, who had married his daughter, Dagmar, safely abroad. Both Franck and Niels Bohr joined the secret U.S. nuclear weapons development program during World War II and separately tried to influence U.S. policy in a direction that they hoped would prevent a postwar nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. Von Hippel's book Dielectrics and Waves was dedicated to Franck and Bohr, and his first U.S.-born child, the author of this article, was named after them.Google Scholar
2Hippel, A.R. von, Materials Design and Molecular Understanding: A Scientific Autobiography (© 1980 Arthur R. von Hippel), http:// vonhippel.mrs.org/ (accessed October 2005).Google Scholar
3Hippel, A.R. von, Life in Times of Turbulent Transitions (© 1988 Hippel, Arthur R. von), http:// vonhippel.mrs.org/ (accessed October 2005).Google Scholar
4Hippel, A.R. von, ed., The Molecular Designing of Materials and Devices1 (MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1965) p. 1.Google Scholar
5Hippel, A.R. von, Lightning Strokes in Other Worlds (© 1982 Hippel, Arthur R. von) http:// vonhippel.mrs.org/ (accessed October 2005).Google Scholar
6Kemp, M., Nature 435 (2005) p. 888.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7A series of novels by James Fenimore Cooper named after their hero, Natty Bumppo, who also was known as “Leatherstocking” and “Hawkeye”: The Pioneers (1823), The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Prairie (1827), The Pathfinder (1840), and The Deerslayer (1841).Google Scholar
8Hippel, P.T. von, “A Man of Habit,” in Life in Times of Turbulent Transitions (© 1988 Hippel, Arthur R. von) p. 145, http://vonhippel.mrs.org/ (accessed October 2005).Google Scholar
9Von Hippel's father, Robert, is still well known in German jurisprudence as a pioneer in introducing the idea that prisons should be used for reforming as well as punishing criminals. His uncle, Eugen von Hippel, was co-discoverer of von Hippel–Lindau disease.Google Scholar
10Hippel, A. von, Ann. Phys. 75 (4) (1924) p. 521; A. von Hippel, Ann. Phys. 76 (4) (1925) p. 590.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11Wildes, K.L. and Lindgren, N.A., eds., A Century of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, 1882–1982 (MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1986) p. 166.Google Scholar
12The MIT Coax Instrument measured dielectric constants as a function of frequency by filling a section of a cylindrical standing-wave cavity with the material of interest and measuring the effects on the standing wave, first when the material was placed against the metal conductor at the closed end of the cavity and then a quarter wavelength in front of it. See Hippel, A.R. von, Dielectrics and Waves (John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1954) p. 74.Google Scholar
13Hippel, A.R. von, ed., Dielectric Materials and Applications (Technology Press of MIT, Cambridge, Mass., 1954, reissued by Artech House, Norwood, Mass., 1995).Google Scholar
14Hippel, A.R. von, Rev. Mod. Phys. 22 (1950) p. 221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15“[I]n the early 1950s, manufacturers of transistors were having problems in producing pure crystals of germanium and silicon. It was at this time (1952) that von Hippel brought Alexander Smakula … into LIR. Smakula … contributed to solving the problem. (Incidentally, Smakula had been the inventor of the antireflection coating for optical lenses so widely used today in camera lenses.).” Wildes, K.L. and Lindgren, N.A., eds., A Century of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, 1882–1982 (MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1986) p. 172.Google Scholar
16Hippel, A.R. von, Dielectrics and Waves (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1954).Google Scholar
17“Two books written by Professor von Hippel were translated and published in the Soviet Union shortly after the Second World War. These excellent books were popular among students in their final years, postgraduate students, and specialists in the fields of electrical engineering, physics, and dielectric materials.” Shuvalov, Lev A., “A Tribute to Professor Arthur von Hippel,” Ferroelectrics 135 (1992) p. 19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18Hippel, A.R. von, ed., Molecular Science and Molecular Engineering (Technology Press of MIT and John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1959).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19Wildes, K.L. and Lindgren, N.A., eds., A Century of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, 1882–1982 (MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1986) p. 177.Google Scholar
20Hippel, A.R. von, Mat. Res. Bull. 14 (1979) p. 273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21“In Memoriam: Arthur Robert von Hippel (1898–2003)” Web site, http://vonhippel.mrs. org/ (accessed October 2005).Google Scholar
22Hippel, A.R. von, ed., Molecular Science and Molecular Engineering (Technology Press of MIT and John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1959) p. 273.Google Scholar