George Pake

George Edward Pake ( born April 1, 1924 in Jefferson ( Ohio), † 4 March 2004 in Tucson, Arizona ) was an American physicist. He is best known as the founder of the Xerox PARC research center.

Study

Pake grew up in Kent (Ohio ), studied at the Carnegie Institute of Technology ( first aeronautical engineering and mechanical engineering, then physics ) with a Bachelor 's and Master 's degree in 1945 at Immanuel Estermann (due to scoliosis, he was from military service exempt ) and was established in 1948 to doctorate from Harvard University in physics ( with Edward Purcell, who had just nuclear magnetic resonance ( NMR) developed ). The dissertation was on NMR of water molecules in solids - after Nicolaas Bloembergen had previously studied in his dissertation at Purcell NMR of water in the liquid state. As expected packets to confirm a larger line width, but also a doublet splitting due to the different spin orientation of the protons of the hydrogen. Splitting was the distance between the hydrogen atoms depends on the orientation of the external magnetic field and packets could determine a value for the distance, which was in accordance with the from the gas spectra of water, and the quantum-mechanically correct formula for splitting (as modified by a factor of 3 / 2 to confirm the spin degeneracy ). His experiment also provided values ​​for the magnetic moment of the proton. Further NMR studies, he performed with Herbert Gutowsky, confirmed the suitability of NMR to the study of solids.

Chairs

He then taught at Washington University, where in 1952 he took over the management of the physics faculty. In 1954/55 he was a visiting professor at Stanford University, where he moved in 1956 completely. In 1962 he was a visiting professor at the University of Illinois ( at Charles Slichter ), but then switched back to Washington University, where he was from 1962 to 1969 Provost of the University. In this capacity he took Wesley A. Clark at the University of Technology (MIT) had created a forerunner of the personal computer, including local computer networks in the 1960s with the LINC computer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose work was not further promoted at MIT. In 1965 he became a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and later by Richard Nixon. He also created the National Academy of Sciences a report on the state of physics ( Pake Report). In 1969 he resigned from the office of the Provost and was again a professor of physics.

Xerox Parc

In 1970 he left the university to the Xerox PARC research center of Xerox in Palo Alto to establish the invitation of the research director of Xerox Jack Goldman (whom he knew from Carnegie Tech and various committees in Washington). There the foundations for personal computer systems were down ( Alto), client-server architecture and graphical user interfaces, Ethernet, object -oriented programming ( Smalltalk, Alan Kay and others) and the laser printer in the 1970s. The inventor of the laser printer Gary Starkweather 1971 he invited the Xerox Parc center one after his boss George White pointed at the University of Rochester Pake on him ( Starkweather got no promotion at the University of Rochester for its development).

For the construction of the computer science department, Pake Bob Taylor took of the ARPA, who had helped him at Washington University to recruit Wesley Clark. Among other things, they brought Butler Lampson and Charles Thacker of the fallen into financial difficulty Berkeley Computer Company.

In 1986 he joined Xerox in retirement. He then founded the Institute for Research in Learning, its director until 1988.

Research

As a physicist, he worked on experimental solid state physics. In addition to NMR, he dealt in particular with electron spin resonance and wrote a textbook. His series of articles on NMR of 1950 was then often used as an introduction for students.

Prices

In 1986, he received the IRI Medal of the Industrial Research Institute and in 1987 the National Medal of Science. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1976. His awards honor the APS George E. Pake Prize to. In 1977 he was president of the American Physical Society.

Writings

• Nuclear magnetic resonance in bulk matter, Physics Today, 1993, Issue 10
• Paramagnetic resonance - an introductory monograph, Benjamin 1962
• With Thomas L. Estle The physical principles of electron paramagnetic resonance, Benjamin, 2nd edition 1973
• With Eugene Feenberg notes on the quantum theory of angular momentum, Addison -Wesley 1953, reprint by Dover in 1999
• A graduate student and young faculty physicists wanders into NMR, DM Grant, RK Harris ( Eds. ), Encyclopedia of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Wiley 1996, pp. 526-530
• Research at Xerox Parc -a founder's assessment, IEEE Spectrum, October 1985, pp. 54-61

He also wrote a memoir with Andrew Szanton.