Polykarp Kusch; Shared ’55 Nobel Prize in Physics

Polykarp Kusch, who shared a Nobel Prize in physics in 1955 for atomic measurements, has died. He was 82.

Kusch died Saturday at his home in Dallas following a series of strokes.

A professor at Columbia University, Kusch shared the Nobel with Dr. Willis E. Lamb of Stanford University for their work in determining the magnetic moment of the electron. Their research was considered a major advance in learning what goes on inside the atom, enabling scientists to calculate the properties of some of its component parts.

The two men laid the basis for an area of physics known as quantum electrodynamics, which uses quantum theory to explain electromagnetic phenomena.

Born in Blankenburg, Germany, on Jan. 26, 1911, Kusch was the son of a Lutheran missionary and came to the United States when he was 1 year old. He became a U.S. citizen in 1922.

Kusch earned a bachelor of science degree in 1931 from what became Case Western Reserve University and a Ph.D. degree in physics from the University of Illinois in 1936.

He taught briefly at the universities of Illinois and Minnesota, and during World War II he joined the Radiation Laboratory of the National Defense Research Committee working on radar equipment. He next worked for Bell Telephone Laboratories developing vacuum tubes and microwave generators.

In 1946, Kusch joined the faculty of Columbia University, where he taught until 1971 and served as vice president and provost from 1969 to 1971. He served two terms as chairman of the physics department and in 1959 earned the Great Teacher Award.

Kusch was regental professor of physics at the University of Texas at Dallas from 1971 until his retirement in 1982.