Henry Primakoff

Henry Primakoff ( born February 12, 1914 in Odessa, † July 25, 1983 in Philadelphia ) was a theoretical physicist who is known for he discovered Primakoff effect.

Primakoff studied at Columbia University (Bachelor 1935) and in 1938 received his doctorate at New York University. From 1938 he was instructor of physics at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and from 1940 onwards at Queens College in New York. During World War II he worked in military research at Columbia University. In 1945 he became assistant professor at New York University and in 1946 at Washington University in St. Louis. From 1960 he was professor of physics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Primakoff contributed to the understanding of weak interactions, the double beta decay, spin waves in ferro- magnetism and the interaction between neutrinos and nuclei. According to him, the Holstein - Primakoff bosons are also named.

Primakoff was married for 45 years with the biochemist and biophysicist who died in 2009 Mildred Cohn, a pioneer in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

He became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1968.