Clifford G. Shull, Nobel Winner in Physics, Dies at 85

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@ICX.NET>]

Note:  ORNL is still a world leader in neutron research, and the

construction (currently underway) of the Spallation Neutron Source will

further advance its capabilities.



--Susan Gawarecki



Clifford G. Shull, Nobel Winner in Physics, Dies at 85

By KENNETH CHANG, New York Times



Dr. Clifford G. Shull, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1994

for developing a technique to probe the molecular structure of

materials by bouncing neutrons off them, died on Saturday at

Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Medford, Mass. A resident of

Lexington, Mass., he was 85.



 The technique Dr. Shull developed, neutron scattering, is widely

used by scientists examining things as different as superconductors

and viruses.



 After World War II, Dr. Shull joined what is now Oak Ridge

National Laboratory in Tennessee. 



 Together with the late Dr. Ernest O. Wollan, Dr. Shull realized

that the stream of neutrons ejected from the laboratory's nuclear

reactors could be tapped for experiments.



 Neutrons are a type of uncharged subatomic particle usually found

in the nuclei of atoms.



 Dr. Shull developed a method to select neutrons traveling at a

specific velocity and to aim them at the material he wanted to

study.



 By analyzing the pattern of neutrons bouncing off the material,

scientists are able to deduce the positions of atoms in the

material.



 "In a period of five or six years of true brilliance, he developed

most of the basic techniques," said Dr. Robert J. Birgeneau,

president of the University of Toronto and former dean of science

at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Dr. Shull

taught for decades. "He did a variety of pioneering experiments,

which really created the field."



 Physicists had earlier used X-rays to probe materials, but neutron

scattering was the first technique able to detect the position of

hydrogen atoms and to measure magnetic fields around atoms.



 Dr. Shull shared his Nobel Prize with Dr. Bertram N. Brockhouse,

an emeritus professor of physics at McMaster University in

Hamilton, Ontario, who had independently worked on the problem.



 "Clifford G. Shull has helped answer the question of where atoms

`are,' " the Nobel citation said.



 Born in Pittsburgh on Sept. 23, 1915, Clifford Shull received his

undergraduate degree from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in

1937 and received a doctorate in physics from New York University

in 1941.



 He left Oak Ridge in 1955 to become a professor at M.I.T. and

retired in 1986. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts

and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.



 He is survived by his wife, Martha- Nuel Summer; three sons, John

C., of San Antonio, Robert D., of Boyds, Md., and William F., of

Newberry, S.C., and five grandchildren.

-- 

.....................................................

Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director

Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee

                       -----                       

A schedule of meetings on DOE issues is posted on our Web site

http://www.local-oversight.org/meetings.html - E-mail loc@icx.net

.....................................................

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