39 Facts About Philip Morrison

Philip Morrison was a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Philip Morrison is known for his work on the Manhattan Project during World War II, and for his later work in quantum physics, nuclear physics high energy astrophysics, and SETI.

Philip Morrison wrote for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and helped found the Federation of American Scientists and the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies.

Philip Morrison was one of the few ex-communists to remain employed and academically active throughout the 1950s, but his research turned away from nuclear physics towards astrophysics.

Philip Morrison published papers on cosmic rays, and a 1958 paper of his is considered to mark the birth of gamma ray astronomy.

Philip Morrison was known for writing popular science books and articles, and appearing in television programs.

Philip Morrison was born in Somerville, New Jersey, November 7,1915, the only son of Moses Morrison and Tillie Rosenbloom.

Philip Morrison contracted polio when he was four, and as a result wore a caliper on one leg, and spent his last years in a wheelchair.

Philip Morrison then entered the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his PhD in theoretical physics in 1940 under the supervision of J Robert Oppenheimer, writing his thesis on "Three Problems in Atomic Electrodynamics".

In 1938, Philip Morrison married Emily Kramer, a girl he had known in high school, and a fellow Carnegie Tech graduate.

Philip Morrison took a position as an instructor at San Francisco State College.

Concerned about the danger from the German nuclear energy project, Morrison helped persuade the director of the Manhattan Project, Brigadier General Leslie R Groves, Jr.

Philip Morrison calculated that 6 kilograms would be sufficient.

Philip Morrison then worked with George Kistiakowsky on the explosive lenses required to detonate the implosion-type nuclear weapon.

Philip Morrison transported the core of the Trinity test gadget to the test site in the back seat of a Dodge sedan.

Philip Morrison was an eyewitness to the test on July 16,1945, and wrote a report on it.

Philip Morrison returned to Los Alamos, where he remained until 1946.

Philip Morrison turned down an offer from Ernest O Lawrence to return to Berkeley, and instead accepted an invitation from Hans Bethe to join him at the physics faculty at Cornell University.

Philip Morrison wrote for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and helped found the Federation of American Scientists and the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies.

Philip Morrison testified before Congress on the need for civilian control of nuclear energy, and participated in the Civil Rights Congress in New York and the Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace in 1949.

Philip Morrison had joined the Communist Party while he was at Berkeley.

Deane Malott, who became president of Cornell in 1951, was much less sympathetic, and instructed Philip Morrison to curtail all activities beyond his academic field.

In 1999, writer Jeremy Stone alleged that Philip Morrison had been the Soviet spy Perseus, a charge that Philip Morrison strongly and credibly rebutted.

Philip Morrison followed this up with a review of theories of the origins of cosmic rays in 1957.

In collaboration with Giuseppe Cocconi, Philip Morrison published a paper in 1959 proposing the potential of microwaves in the search for interstellar communications, a component of the modern SETI program.

Philip Morrison remained at Cornell until 1964, when he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Philip Morrison remained there for the remainder of his career, becoming Institute Professor in 1976, and Institute Professor Emeritus in 1986.

In 1963, working in collaboration with a student of his, James Felten, Philip Morrison had investigated the effect of inverse Compton scattering, an important source of cosmic x-rays and gamma rays.

At MIT, Philip Morrison teamed up with Bruno Rossi's x-ray group there, and with Riccardo Giacconi's group at nearby American Science and Engineering.

Philip Morrison became deeply involved in the exploration of the cosmos through its x-ray and gamma ray emissions.

Philip Morrison was known for his numerous books and television programs.

Philip Morrison produced 68 popular science articles between 1949 and 1976, ten in issues of Scientific American.

Philip Morrison provided the narration and script for Powers of Ten in 1977.

Philip Morrison appeared as himself in the science documentary film Target.

Philip Morrison authored or co-authored a number of books critical of the Cold War and the nuclear arms race, including Winding Down: The Price of Defense, The Nuclear Almanac, Reason Enough to Hope Beyond the Looking Glass.

Philip Morrison was a fellow of the American Physical Society, and chairman of the Federation of American Scientists from 1973 to 1976.

Philip Morrison was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the International Astronomical Union, the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

Philip Morrison delivered the 1968 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on Gulliver's Laws: The Physics of Large and Small, and the 1982 Jansky Lectureship before the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Philip Morrison died in his sleep of a respiratory failure at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on April 22,2005.