David M. Lee
AKA
David Morris Lee
Born:
20-Jan
-
1931
Birthplace:
Rye, NY
Gender:
Male
Race or Ethnicity:
White
Sexual orientation:
Straight
Occupation:
Physicist
Party Affiliation:
Democratic
Nationality:
United States
Executive summary:
Superfluidity of helium-3
Military service:
US Army (1952-54, stateside)
American physicist David M. Lee discovered, with
Douglas D. Osheroff
and
Robert C. Richardson
in 1972, that helium-3 (He-3, a light, rare, non-radioactive isotope of helium comprised of two protons and one neutron) becomes a superfluid when it is cooled to near absolute zero. Superfluids have a complete absence of viscosity, and behave very differently than ordinary liquids. If circulated in a closed loop, for example, a superfluid could theoretically flow forever, with no friction. The work of Lee, Osheroff, and Richardson radically altered the scientific understanding of how matter behaves at sub-macroscopic scales, and these three scientists shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1996. Lee has also studied magnetic resonance, spin polarized hydrogen gas, superconductivity, ultra-low temperature cryogenics, and atomic hydrogen and nitrogen stabilized by matrix isolation in helium-impurity clusters.
Father:
Marvin Lee (electrical engineer)
Mother:
Annette Franks Lee (teacher)
Wife:
Dana (two sons)
Son:
Eric Lee (attorney)
High School: Rye High School, Rye, NY (1948)
University:
BS Physics, Harvard University (1952)
University:
MS Physics, University of Connecticut (1955)
University:
PhD Physics, Yale University (1959)
Teacher:
Physics, Cornell University (1959-69)
Scholar:
Visiting Scientist, Brookhaven National Laboratory (1966-67)
Professor:
Physics, Cornell University (1969-99)
Professor:
James G. White Dist. Prof. of the Physical Sciences, Cornell University (1999-2009)
Professor:
Texas A&M University (2009-)
Guggenheim Fellowship
1966-67
Guggenheim Fellowship
1974-75
IOP Sir Francis Simon Memorial Award
1976 (with
D. Osheroff
and
R. Richardson
)
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Fellowship, 1977
APS Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize
1981 (with
D. Osheroff
and
R. Richardson
)
Nobel Prize for Physics
1996 (with
Douglas D. Osheroff
and
Robert C. Richardson
)
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1990
American Association for the Advancement of Science
1982
American Physical Society
1982
National Academy of Sciences
1991
Optical Society of America
1982
Russian Academy of Sciences
Foreign Member, 1993
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
English Ancestry
Jewish Ancestry
Lithuanian Ancestry
Obama for America
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