Victor Weisskopf
- Born: September 19, 1908 (Vienna, Austria-Hungary)
- Died: April 22, 2002 (Newton, Massachusetts)
Education
- 1931: PhD, University of Göttingen (Physics)
Major Positions
- 1931–1931: University of Leipzig, Research Associate
- 1931–1932: University of Berlin, Research Associate
- 1932–1933: Cambridge University and University of Copenhagen, Rockefeller Foundation Fellow
- 1933–1936: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zurich, Research Associate
- 1936–1937: University of Copenhagen, Research Associate
- 1937–1939: University of Rochester, Instructor in Physics
- 1939–1945: University of Rochester, Assistant Professor of Physics
- 1945–1946: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Associate Professor of Physics
- 1946–1965: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Professor of Physics
- 1961–1965: European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Director General
- 1965–1974: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institute Professor
- 1974–2002: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Emeritus Institute Professor
Other Positions
- 1943–1946: Manhattan Project, Los Alamos Laboratory, Deputy Leader, Theory Division, and Leader, Efficiency Theory Group
- 1960–1960: American Physical Society, President
- 1967–1973: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Head, Department of Physics
- 1976–1979: American Academy of Arts and Sciences, President
Selected Part-Time Positions
- 1946–1947: Member, Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists
- 1966–1977: Member, Scientific Policy Committee, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
- 1967–1973: Chair, High Energy Physics Advisory Panel, United States Atomic Energy Commission
Selected Awards and Honors
- 1952: National Academy of Sciences, Member
- 1979: National Medal of Science
- 1981: Wolf Foundation Prize in Physics
- 1988: United States Department of Energy, Enrico Fermi Award
Archival Resources
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institute Archives and Special Collections, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Online Finding Aid
Oral History Interviews
- 1965: Available Online
- 1966: Available Online
Published Resources
J. David Jackson and Kurt Gottfried, "Victor Frederick Weisskopf: 1908-2002", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences
Luciano Miani, J. D. Jackson, Mervyn Hine, Kjell Johnsen, Maurice Jacob, Karen Worth, Francesco Calogero, Sidney Drell, Wolfgang Kummer, and Valentine Telegdi, "Victor Weisskopf: 1908-2002," CERN Courier Special Issue (2002).
David Kaiser, "Viki Weisskopf: Searching for Simplicity in a Complicated World," Physics @ MIT: MIT Physics Annual 20 (2007): 44-56.
Victor Weisskopf, The Privilege of Being a Physicist (New York: Freeman, 1989)
Victor Weisskopf, The Joy of Insight: Passions of a Physicist (New York: Basic Books, 1991)
V. Stefan, ed., Physics and Society: Essays in Honor of Victor Frederick Weisskopf (New York: Springer Verlag, 1998)
Victor Weisskopf, "My Life as a Physicist," in Physics in the Twentieth Century: Selected Essays of V. F. Weisskopf (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press: 1972), 1-21
Kurt Gottfried and J. David Jackson, "Mozart and Quantum Mechanics: An Appreciation of Victor Weisskopf," Physics Today 43 (2003): 43-47
