23 Facts About Julius Ashkin

Julius Ashkin was a leader in experimental and theoretical physics known for furthering the evolution of particle physics from nuclear physics.

Julius Ashkin was recognized for the quality of his research and teaching.

Julius Ashkin was born in Brooklyn, New York, on August 23,1920.

Julius Ashkin had two younger siblings, a brother, Arthur, a physicist, and a sister, Ruth.

Julius Ashkin is the uncle of the artist Michael Ashkin.

Julius Ashkin was awarded a scholarship to attend Columbia University, where he studied four years as an undergraduate from 1936 to 1940, and three as a graduate from 1940 to 1943.

Julius Ashkin entered the fall semester as an assistant lecturer and began work toward a master's degree.

Early work on the development of the atom bomb had taken place at Columbia during the six years Julius Ashkin was an undergraduate and graduate student there.

There's no information on how much, if at all, Julius Ashkin was involved in the effort at this early stage of his career, but it is certain that the Columbia physics department was the workplace for scientists who were devoted to the secret development of a new and phenomenally powerful weapon.

When Julius Ashkin accepted an invitation to join the Manhattan Project he was still working on his Ph.

Julius Ashkin spent the last few months of 1942 at the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago and then worked at the Los Alamos Laboratory from mid-1943 to mid-1945.

At Los Alamos Julius Ashkin was assigned to work in the Theoretical Division headed by Bethe.

T-4's group leader was Richard Feynman; Julius Ashkin was alternate leader.

On July 16,1945, Julius Ashkin was present at the first-ever explosion of a nuclear bomb at the Trinity test site, Alamogordo.

Julius Ashkin was probably there because of his work on radiation poisoning, begun at Met Lab and probably continued afterward.

Julius Ashkin said he believed Fuchs was less stand-offish with Ashkin and seemed friendly with him.

On leaving Los Alamos in 1946 Julius Ashkin obtained a position as assistant professor at the University of Rochester and in 1950 he moved to the Carnegie Institute of Technology.

Julius Ashkin remained at CMU for the rest of his life, serving as professor and for a period head of the physics department.

In 1950 Julius Ashkin joined the physics faculty of Carnegie Mellon University where Edward Creutz was department head and director of a new 450 MeV proton synchrocyclotron that CIT had built in nearby Saxonburg, Pennsylvania.

The cyclotron remained in use at the Saxonburg Nuclear Research Center until the mid-1970s when it was dismantled and, using it, Julius Ashkin was able to produce some of his best-known experimental results.

In 1953, with Bethe, his former director of theoretical work in Los Alamos, Julius Ashkin published an article closely related to the work they had then done.

Julius Ashkin served as chair of the physics department between 1961 and 1972.

Julius Ashkin died at Montefiore Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennslylvania on June 4,1982, after a lengthy illness.