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National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Julius Ashkin

Research AssociateLos Alamos, NM

Chicago, IL
Manhattan Project VeteranProject Worker/Staff
Julius Ashkin

Julius Ashkin was an American physicist.

Ashkin was born in Brooklyn, New York on August 23, 1920. He received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1943. At Columbia, Ashkin developed model with Edward Teller on the interaction of spins (a form of angular momentum carried by elementary particles) on a crystalline lattice. 

In late 1942 Ashkin began working at the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago in conjunction with his Ph.D. work. In 1943 Ashkin moved to Los Alamos to work in Hans Bethe’s Theoretical Division. 

Ashkin joined the faculty of Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in 1950. In 1953 Ashkin co-authored a paper with Bethe analyzing the energy loss of particles and radiation after passage through matter.

Later, he conducted experiments on unstable subatomic particles called pions using Carnegie Mellon’s synchrocyclotron. While on a sabbatical in 1958, he did experiments on the decay pions using European Organization for Nuclear Research’s (CERN) synchrocyclotron. 

Ashkin served as the chairman of the physics department at Carnegie Mellon from 1961 to 1972. 

Ashkin died on June 4, 1982 in Pittsburgh, PA.  

Julius Ashkin's Timeline
1920 Aug 23rd Born in Brooklyn, New York.
1940 Received a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University.
1941 Received a master’s degree from Columbia University.
1942 Began working on the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago.
1943 Received a Ph.D. from Columbia University.
19431946 Worked at Los Alamos.
1953 Co-authored a paper with Hans Bethe.
1954 Published results from experiments on pions at Carnegie Mellon.
1958 Conducted experiments at CERN.
19611972 Served as the chairman of the physics department at Carnegie Mellon.
1982 Jun 4th Died in Pittsburgh, PA.

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