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ROBERT EUGENE MARS HAK
October ~ I, ~ 9 ~ 6-December 23, ~ 992
BY ERNEST M. HENLEY AND HARRY LUSTIG
ROBERT MARSHAK WAS AN extraorclinarily imaginative en c!
productive physicist. After making important contribu-
tions to astrophysics, he turner! to nuclear en c! elementary
particle physics as his primary area of research. His en c!
Hans Bethe's two-meson hypothesis en c! the proposal with
George Suciarshan of the universal V - A weak interaction
were milestones in the history of twentieth-century physics.
Marshak was one of the great research guicles of our time,
his students en c! junior colleagues occupy important posi-
tions all over the worIcI. Never a loner or one to limit his
horizons, he became a leacling statesman of woric! science
en c! contributes! enormously to strengthening communica-
tions en c! cooperation among scientists across borclers en c!
consequently to woric! peace en c! well-being. Throughout
his life Marshak was driven not only by intellectual curiosity
en c! brilliance, as well as a desire for personal recognition,
but also by an unquenchable quest for social justice. This
lee! him to make many contributions to the public goocI,
most notably as president of the City College of New York
cluring a perioc! of wrenching change en c! renewal for that
institution. He was a born leacler en c! a practical cireamer
whose work will live on for many years to come.
219
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220
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
THE EARLY YEARS
Robert E. Marshak was born in 1916 in the Bronx, a
borough of New York City, to poor immigrants from Minsk,
Russia (now Belorus). In America his mother Rose became
a seamstress en c! his father Harry worker! as a garment cut-
ter en c! seller of fruits en c! vegetables from a horse-cirawn
cart. Marshak's ability en c! ambition were recognizec! early
en c! were strongly supporter! by his parents. (In later years
Bob often was mover! to tell the story of his father getting
up at four in the morning to shine Bob's shoes, advising
the son that his time was better spent in stucly than in
cleaning shoes.)
He gracluatec! from James Monroe High School at age
fifteen, having won virtually every prize offerer! by the New
York school system en c! having captaincy! the school's math
team to citywide victory. Like so many taTentec! but poor
New Yorkers, Marshak enrolled in the academically rigor-
ous, tuition-free College of the City of New York (CCNY).
After one semester he received a Pulitzer scholarship that
proviclec! full tuition en c! a stipenc! for stucly at Columbia
University. Initially he majored in philosophy and math-
ematics en c! servec! as ciance critic for the school newspa-
per. His first publisher! article, in Columbia Magazine, was a
critique of the ciancer Martha Graham. (Bob Marshak main-
tainec! a love for en c! a commitment to the arts en c! hu-
manities throughout his life. Almost five clecacles after Co-
lumbia, one of us kH.L.] attenclec! a concert with him at
CCNY~s newly inaugurates! Davis Center for the Performing
Arts, in whose creation Bob hac! playoc! a leacling role. He
toIc! of his discovery of Schubert fairly late in life en c! he
appeared moved to tears during the performance of that
composer's Octet.) In his senior year Marshak switched to
physics and came into contact with I. I. Rabi. Although
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ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK
221
Rabi originally was skeptical of Marshak's commitment to
physics, he later became a friend.
Marshak gracluatec! from Columbia in 1936 en c! went on
to graduate school at Cornell. There he stucliec! with Hans
Bethe, who at the time was working on problems pertaining
to energy procluction in stars, work that later won him a
Nobel Prize. Marshak wrote his dissertation on energy pro-
cluction in white dwarf stars, completing his Ph.D. degree
in 1939 at the age of twenty-two. He concluclec! that white
dwarfs conic! not contain hydrogen in their interior be-
cause it wouIc! immecliately burn up at the high tempera-
ture. This conclusion is consiclerec! basic by astrophysicists
who are expert on white dwarfs, en c! was confirmed! by ob-
servation over the following half century. Never one to miss
an opportunity, he persuaclec! Bethe to submit Bethe's pa-
per on the carbon cycle as a source of stellar energy to the
New York Academy of Sciences for the A. Cressy Morrison
Prize. Bethe won that prize en c! gave Marshak a 10% fincler's
fee. When Marshak finisher! his thesis, it was also submitter!
to the Academy, en c! Marshak won the Morrison prize. With
the money from it, he was able to buy his first car.
Jobs were hare! to come by in the 1930s, especially for
Jewish scientists. Marshak was nevertheless able to get a
one-year position at the University of Rochester. It was "defi-
nitely for only one year," because it hac! been promiser! to
another man who hac! gone off for acivancec! study with a
famous physicist. But that other man clic! not return, so this
tenure track position wisely was given to Marshak. At Roch-
ester he met en c! worker! with Victor Weisskopf. He remainec!
at Rochester, with time off for the war effort en c! cluring
later leaves, until 1970. In 1943 Marshak marries! Ruth Gup,
a schoolteacher in Rochester. In 1950 they hac! a daughter,
Ann, who is now professor of immunology in the Depart-
ment of Microbiology at Boston University en c! five years
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
later a son, Stephen, who is professor of geology at the
University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.
THE WAR YEARS
When the Uniter! States joiner! WorIc! War II in 1941,
Marshak, like many other scientists, enlister! in the war ef-
fort. At first, he worker! on cleveloping racier at the MIT
Racliation Laboratory. In 1943-44 he was at the Montreal
Atomic Energy Laboratory (which later became the Chalk
River Laboratory), where he worker! for the British atomic
bomb project on problems of neutron diffusion. In 1944 he
joiner! the Manhattan Project, which was cleveloping the
American atomic bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico. His
position as deputy leacler of a group in theoretical physics
allowed! him to be privy to the overall strategy of the cre-
ation of the atomic bomb. One of his contributions was an
explanation of how shock waves work uncler conditions of
extremely high temperatures cluring a nuclear explosion,
when most of the energy is in racliation. These waves are
now caller! Marshak waves. His explanation became the sub-
ject of renewer! interest many years later when it helpec! to
describe the consequences of a supernova explosion.
Both Robert en c! Ruth Marshak felt that Los Alamos was
the most influential event in their lives. He worker! among
the most select group of physicists in the worm, men like
Bethe, Fermi, Bohr, Oppenheimer, en c! Feynman. With them
he witnesses! the explosion of the first atomic bomb, an
event that affecter! him profouncITy. The shock of the cle-
struction of Hiroshima en c! Nagasaki lee! him to join in
organizing the Federation of American Scientists, a group
seeking to limit the proliferation of nuclear weapons and
to ban the bomb. Marshak became chairman of the federa-
tion in 1947. In later years he was active in other organiza-
tions with similar goals, including the Pugwash Conference
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ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK
223
en c! the Union of Concernec! Scientists. Driven by a desire
to help bring about world peace and prosperity and with an
unclerstancling of the unique role that science shouIc! play
in achieving these goals, he was an effective woric! leacler in
the internationalization of science.
THREE DECADES AT ROCHESTER
After the war Marshak returnee! to the University of Roch-
ester, where he mover! quickly through the ranks to be-
come a chairec! professor en c! in 1950 the heat! of the phys-
ics department. During his fourteen-year chairmanship it
became one of the top departments in the country en c! a
recognizec! center for research. Many of the woricl's leacling
physicists passer! through Rochester cluring those years en c!
Ruth Marshak playoc! an inclispensable role as their hostess,
as she clic! later as "First Lacly" of City College. In spite of
the growing prestige of the physics department, Rochester
was not consiclerec! to be in the same league with institu-
tions such as Princeton, Harvard, MIT, Caltech, or the Uni-
versity of California, Berkeley. To have students of high
caliber in the department, Marshak sought out the best
graduate students from overseas, notably from India, Paki-
stan. en c! Tanan. en c! brought them to Rochester. a strate~v
' J 1 ' O ' OJ
that was soon copier! by other departments on the move.
Many of these students later became leaclers in their coun-
tries' scientific communities.
During the Rochester years, Marshak's output was procli-
gious, it is recorclec! in 4 authorec! en c! 2 eclitec! books,
some 120 articles in referees! scientific journals en c! in more
than 20 contributions to magazines. (Over the rest of his
busy life, these numbers increasec! to ~ books, IS0 scientific
articles en c! close to 50 general articles.) He continues! his
work in astrophysics en c! publisher! papers on solar moclels,
on the internal temperature en c! opacities of white dwarfs,
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
en c! on the internal temperature-clensity distribution of main
sequence stars. During this early perioc! Bob was also inter-
estec! in nuclear forces, nuclear bincling energies, en c! beta-
clecay theory. The discovery of the muon (then thought to
be the Yukawa meson) lee! to papers on the scattering of
spin ~ /2 mesons by nuclei. In ~ 947 Bethe en c! Marshak
were among the first to realize that the weakly interacting
muon conic! not be the Yukawa meson, en c! they proposer!
the two-meson hypothesis, thus suggesting that a second,
strongly interacting, meson (now caller! the pion) remainec!
to be founcI. Marshak continues! to stucly the plan en c! muon
en c! in particular the interaction of the former its procluc-
tion, scattering, en c! absorption with nuclei. With several
colleagues he worker! on charge inclepenclence in multiple
plan production, X rays from pi-mesic atoms, en c! the me-
son theory of nuclear forces. With his students Peter Signell
en c! Ronalc! Bryan he proclucec! the Signell-Marshak poten-
tial, which, by virtue of inclucling the spin-orbit contribu-
tion in the nuclear force, was one of the first to give quanti-
tative agreement with experiment. In 1952 his book Meson
Physics was the first to be publisher! on that subject.
Marshak was the driving force for the construction of the
240-MeV Rochester cyclotron, built by Sidney Barnes. It was
the first meson-proclucing cyclotron after the IS4-inch cy-
clotron at Berkeley, en c! in 1948 it proclucec! plans on nuclear
targets that allowed! researchers to determine the pion's
spin en c! parity. Unfortunately, its energy was too low ex-
cept for threshoic! plan production, the accelerator conic!
not reach the energy of the clelta resonance (1232 MeV)
en c! the Rochester cyclotron was soon eclipses! by accelera-
tors at the University of Chicago en c! Columbia University.
In 1951 Marshak suggested that one could determine the
spin of the positive pion experimentally by comparing the
cross sections for the reactions pp ~ 7rv+c! en c! 7rv+c! ~ pp en c!
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ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK
225
invoking the principle of cletailec! balance, which in turn is
a result of the time reversal invariance of strong interac-
tions. Immecliately after Marshak macle this proposal, ex-
periments at Columbia en c! Rochester confirmed! the spin
to be zero. The Rochester cyclotron also was important in
showing that protons conic! be polarizer! easily by scattering
from a nucleus of zero spin, such as carbon.
Bob Marshak turner! his attention to the strange particles
when they were cliscoverec! in the late 1950s. He stucliec!
their expecter! properties: spins, magnetic moments, pro-
cluction, interactions, en c! decays. Together with S. Okubo
en c! with his student Suciarshan, he shower! for the first
time that broken symmetries conic! account for the mag-
netic moments en c! masses of the sigma hyperons. As early
as 195S, Marshak en c! Suciarshan stucliec! chirality invari-
ance ant! its effect on weak interactions. With Okubo,
Suciarshan, W. Teutsch, en c! S. Weinberg, he investigatec!
conservec! currents en c! K-meson decays. During all these
years he continues! his interest in the nucleon-nucleon in-
teraction, but after 1956, when parity violation was cliscov-
erec! in the weak interactions, his primary attention shifter!
to symmetries en c! the weak interaction. Two books recount
the achievements of that periocI: Elementary Particle Physics
(1961) by Marshak en c! Suciarshan en c! Theory of Weak Inter-
actions in Particle Physics (1969), co-authorec! by Marshak,
Riazzuclin en c! C. P. Ryan.
Marshak's most significant scientific contribution argu
ably was the proposal in 1957 of the V - A theory of weak
interactions in collaboration with George Suciarshan. The
theory, which emphasizec! the importance of chiral invari-
ance, was a starting point for the stanciarc! unifier! electroweak
theory of Glashow, Salam, en c! Weinberg. Marshak ant!
Suciarshan at that time publisher! their theory only in the
proceedings of a conference (the Paclua-Venice International
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226
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
Conference on Mesons en c! Recently Discoverec! Particles).
Six months later a different derivation was publisher! by
Feynman en c! Gell-Mann in Physical Review. (An account of
the rapicI-fire clevelopments in the origins of the universal
V- A interaction appears in an article by Suciarshan en c!
Marshak in the book A Gift of Prophecy mentionec! in the
penultimate paragraph of this memoir. Although the V- A
concept was a seminal contribution to theoretical ohvsics. a
Nobel Prize was never awarclec! for it.
1 ~,
Not content with making his own major research contri-
butions to physics, Marshak became an enthusiastic en c!
inclefatigable promoter some have caller! him a prophet
of the fielcI, even at an age when he was much too young to
figure as an elcler statesman. In 1950 Marshak felt that the
successful conferences on present problems of physics, which
had been held at Shelter Island ~ ~ 947), the Poconos ~ ~ 948),
en c! OIcistone (1949), shouIc! be continues! en c! that Roch-
ester was the place to clo so. The first of what was to be-
come a series of annual Rochester conferences was hell! in
December of 1950. It was attenclec! by fewer than 100 people,
who at that time constituted almost all of the U.S. theorists
and experimentaTists working in the field of high energy,
the number also incluclec! a few from overseas. The meet-
ing was expanclec! the following year en c! evolves! later into
the International Conference on High Energy Physics. This
series of conferences rapicIly became (anc! remain) the pre-
eminent international gathering of high energy physicists.
(It also server! as a mocle! for the establishment of interna-
tional conferences in other fielcis.) Hell! in Rochester until
1957, the conferences then began to rotate among coun-
tries, returning to Rochester in 1960. They are amazingly
vital gatherings, where new results are often announced for
the first time. It was at one of the early Rochester confer
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ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK
227
ences that one of us tE.M.H.] first met Bob en c! was imme-
diately impressed by his vitality.
Marshak macle sure that all nations conic! be represented
at the Rochester conference en c! worker! very hare! with the
U.S. Department of State en c! with members of Congress to
allow physicists from the Soviet Union en c! Eastern Europe
to attend. In those years no one ever knew quite whom the
Soviets wouIc! sent! to conferences en c! Bob Marshak hac! to
insist that those who hac! been invites! to talk wouIc! be
among those permitted to come. During those clays of the
CoIc! War it was unusual to be able to discuss physics-
much less politics with Soviet scientists. Bob's initiative
was not only an immense boon to physics but helpec! to
leac! the way to a rapprochement between the Uniter! States
en c! the Soviet Union.
Marshak's intense interest in promoting international sci-
entific cooperation en c! worIc! peace manifesto! itself in
many other activities. In 1956, after the cleath of Stalin, he
was a member of the first clelegation of six American scien-
tists to visit the Soviet Union, where he met the leaclers of
the Soviet physics community, inclucling Lev Landau. He
macle more trips to the Soviet Union in the late 1950s en c!
became an acknowlecigec! expert on Soviet science. As a
result, he publisher! articles about the subject in several
magazines en c! was frequently interviewoc! by the news me-
clia. His outspoken views may have lee! to his being sub-
jectec! to an interrogation cluring the McCarthy era. He was
fount! to be a loyal American en c! allowed! to retain his Q-
clearance.
Over the years Marshak also macle a large number of
trips to other countries in Europe en c! to the MicicIle East,
India, Pakistan, en c! Japan. In the 1960s he heaclec! clelega-
tions of the National Academy of Sciences to negotiate ex-
change agreements with Polanc! en c! Yugoslavia. His trips
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
proviclec! him with an opportunity to meet the scientific
en c! occasionally the political leaclers of many countries,
inclucling Prime Minister {awaharIal Nehru of India. He
became friencis with physicists such as Hicleki Yukawa, Abclus
Salam, en c! others not as well known in the Uniter! States
but who playact major roles in the clevelopment of science
in their countries. He was a founder of the International
Centre for Theoretical Physics at Trieste en c! a member of
its Science Council from 1965 to 1975 en c! again from 1984
until his cleath. He servec! as secretary of the Commission
on High Energy Physics of the International Union of Pure
and Applied Physics.
Not one to slight the promotion of science in the Uniter!
States, Marshak was involves! in lobbying to establish the
National Science Foundation en c! in many issues that came
before the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. In aciclition to
numerous academic visiting professorships he also had con-
nections to industry, acting as a consultant to General Elec-
tric, Eastman Kociak, en c! the RAND Corporation. He server!
as editor of two major series of physics books, one for McGraw-
Hill, the other for Wiley-Interscience.
In the late 1960s, as one of four Distinguishes! University
Professors at the University of Rochester, as well as a clistin-
guished physicist and by then elder statesman of science,
Robert Marshak conic! have finisher! his career there in a
secure and, from a professional viewpoint, an icleal posi-
tion. However, in this era of the Vietnam War, conflicts
between the conservative administration of Rochester Presi-
clent W. Allen Wallis en c! the more liberal faculty en c! stu-
clents surfacer! on a number of issues. The faculty electec!
Marshak as president of the Faculty Senate en c! what fol-
lowoc! was effectively a battle between him en c! Wallis. After
the faculty passer! a vote of no confidence against Wallis
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ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK
23
bring in such scientists as Bob Alfano, Joe Birman, Me!
Lax, Sam Linclenbaum, Rabi Mohapatra, Bunji Sakita, en c!
Harry Swinney.
To much of the woricI, Bob's most visible en c! sometimes
controversial achievements were evident in the new pro-
grams he created. Most of these were motivated, at least in
part, by Bob's unshakable conviction en c! confidence that
he hac! the obligation to clo for the economically still poor
(anc! socially en c! acaclemically very clifferent) students what
the students en c! faculty previously hac! clone for themselves.
The new programs were often macle possible en c! some-
times even shaper! by the wishes en c! ambitions of clonors.
In rapic! succession he createc! a major Center for the Per-
forming Arts, an Urban Legal Studies Program, the Center
for Biomeclical Education, en c! several other new structures
en c! programs.
The Center (later School) for Biomeclical Education can
serve as a paradigm of Bob's vision en c! determination, as
well as of his occasionally less than completely realistic ex-
pectations. As he conceivec! it, the center was to serve all of
the following purposes: I) to retain en c! win back giftec!
students through an acceleratec! curriculum (they wouic!
obtain a meclical degree in a total of six years, the first four
at City College en c! the last two at prestigious meclical schools
with which Bob hac! negotiatec! transfers to the thirc! year
classy, 2) to have 50% of this group composed of minority
students, 3) to direct the students into primary health care
(rather than into specialties) en c! practices in unclerservec!
areas, en c! 4) implicitly to show the meclical establishment
en c! the country that a meclical education conic! be pro-
viclec! at a much Tower cost than was (anc! is) the practice.
Experience soon showocI, unsurprisingly, that these goals
were somewhat incompatible. The program experienced
clifficulties en c! controversy, inclucling a successful reverse
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
discrimination lawsuit, en c! hac! to be moclifiecI. It is a trib-
ute to Bob Marshak's vision en c! determination that the
program still exists twenty-five years after its creation en c!
still makes a major contribution to the City College en c! to
society.
During the City College perioc! Marshak also vigorously
pursued his lifelong commitment to international coopera-
tion en c! to cleveloping countries. Among other initiatives,
he trier! to set up a far-reaching exchange program with
the University of Ife in Nigeria en c! he organizer! en c! chairec!
a workshop at CCNY on "Technological Development of
Nigeria." On the domestic front he organizer! en c! co-chairec!
with Hans Bethe a conference on "American Energy Choices
Before the Year 2000." At City College itself, Bob Marshak,
motivates! by his social conscience en c! sympathies, was ex-
traorclinariTy responsive to all clemancis. He createc! not two
(as hac! originally been clemanclecI) but four ethnic studies
departments: Black, Puerto Rican, Asian, en c! Jewish. He
worker! hare! to establish ties with the Harlem community.
All of these acts of creation were initiates! in the face of a
rapidly deteriorating economic and political situation for
CCNY, largely caused by the impending bankruptcy of New
York City. This lee! to the abandonment after 128 years of
free tuition en c! to severe buciget cuts (which became even
more traumatic in the eighties and nineties). Marshak's acts
of creation were also carrier! out against a backgrounc! of
ethnic strife en c! agitation that was manifestly much worse
than what Bob hac! expecter! when he took the job. Incleec!
it harcIly shouIc! be caller! a background, because it con-
sumec! so much of Bob's time en c! effort, unfortunately, it
also took a toll on his health. He sufferer! a stroke cluring a
confrontation with a student group. It affected his physical
balance for the remainder of his life, but it did not stop the
intensity of his commitments and his work habits.
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ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK
233
Not surprisingly, during his extraordinarily demanding
presidency, Marshak heroically tried to keep up with phys-
ics and, stealing away to his little hideout in the physics
department on as many Friday afternoons as he could, he
worked with Mohapatra and others to make new contribu-
tions. His papers in Physical Review and in Physical Review
Letters were mostly on CP violation and the strange par-
ticles. In the end, the deprivation of not being at the cen-
ter of science, as well as the accumulated frustrations of life
at City College, got to him, and at the age of sixty-three he
again became a full-time physicist, at the Virginia Polytech-
nic Institute and State University.
THE BLACKSBURG YEARS
Robert Marshak joined the Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University in 1979 as a University Distinguished
Professor, the announcement of his appointment was made
by the governor of Virginia. He continued to work in the
area of quark-lepton symmetry and the construction of grand
unification schemes with his former student at Rochester
and colleague at CCNY, R. N. (Rabi) Mohapatra, who had
moved to Virginia Tech, and with others. The failure to
detect proton decays predicted by the SW(5) theory had
increased interest in experimental tests of alternative op-
tions. Bob proposed tests of the SU(IO) grand unification
theory by studying neutron-antineutron oscillations in the
nucleus, and by looking for finite mass Majorana neutrinos.
With students and research associates, Marshak worked on
models of quarks and leptons. He recognized the impor-
tance of anomaly cancellations as a necessary condition in
the construction of a new theory. He authored several pa-
pers on chiral gauge anomalies and on the relations be-
tween the perturbative and non-perturbative ones.
Continuing a lifelong practice of good citizenship and
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234
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
service in his local en c! the wicler national en c! interna-
tional community, Bob Marshak organizer! several memo-
rable physics meetings at VPI en c! was active in numerous
scientific organizations. Among his contributions were ser-
vice on the National Academy of Sciences' Commission on
Human Resources en c! the Committee on Scientific Ex-
changes with the People's Republic of China, the vice-chair-
manship of the Uniter! States National Committee for the
International Union of Pure en c! Applier! Physics, member-
ship on the Governing Boarc! of the American Institute of
Physics, the chairmanship of an Acivisory Committee of the
U.S. Agency for International Development, en c! the orga-
nization of the 1984 Trieste conference on physics en c! cle-
velopment. He was electec! president of University Research
Associates, but he hac! to relinquish that responsibility be-
cause of a heart bypass operation.
A most important, if not the principal, beneficiary in the
early eighties of Bob's intellect en c! energy was the Ameri-
can Physical Society (APS) en c! its programs en c! influence.
After serving on its council from 1965 to 1969 en c! as chair-
man of its Division of Particles en c! Fielcis in 1969-70, he
allowed! himself to be nominates! as vice-presiclent after his
retirement from CCNY. This lee! to the presidency in 1983.
The recollections of his colleagues en c! a perusal of council
minutes, as well as newspaper reports, attest that his term
was very eventful en c! effective. Bob Marshak clic! not leave
strong activism and controversy behind when he left City
College. An example is his use of the weight of the APS to
debate the Reagan Administration on the issue of placing
an anti-ballistic missile system in space, a program popu-
larly know as Star Wars. One result was an unprececlentec!
statement on nuclear arms control that the council issues!
on January 23, 1983, under Bob's energetic leadership, which
evokes! an extraordinary negative response from George
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ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK
235
Keyworth, President Reagan's science Divisor. Another per-
haps more influential outcome was the procluction by the
APS some years later of an objective scientific stucly of the
feasibility of clirectec! energy weapons. A seconc! major
Marshak creation was the approval en c! initiation of the
China Program ("Chinese-American Cooperative Basic Re-
search Program in Atomic, Molecular, en c! Conclensec! Mat-
ter Physics" of the American Physical Society, 1983-1991. ) It
is now seen as one of the great contributions of the APS.
This program passer! the council also on January 23, 1983,
by a vote of thirteen members in favor, eleven opposed,
en c! three abstaining. Bob Marshak clic! not require una-
nimity to forge ahead, he en c! his convictions often consti-
tutec! a strong working majority.
Marshak retiree! officially from his chair at Virginia Tech
in 1992 at the age of seventy-five. During the four years
before that en c! for the remaining months of his life, he
worker! intensely on his last book Conceptual Foundations of
Modern Particle Physics (1993~. He finisher! the final correc-
tions on December 22, 1992. When he ciroppec! the manu-
script in the mailbox, he turner! to his wife en c! sail! jok-
ingly: "It's clone, now I can clie." The last communication I
kH.L] hac! from Bob Marshak was also ciatec! December 22,
1992. It is a note proucIly telling us that he hac! been se-
lectec! as the first recipient of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science's Awarc! for International Sci-
entific Cooperation, for which I hac! nominates! him on
behalf of the APS. The next clay, December 23, 1992, the
Marshak family gatherer! in Cancun to celebrate Bob en c!
Ruth's fiftieth wocicling anniversary. Minutes after their ar-
rival Bob took the grancichiTciren to the beach. While they
playocI, he stepper! into the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico.
The undertow was unexpectecIly strong, en c! he apparently
lost his balance the final manifestation of his stroke. He
OCR for page 236
236
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
fell into the water, conic! not stanc! up, en c! cirownec! a few
feet from shore.
ENVOI
Beginning early in his life and lasting throughout his
career, Robert Marshak receiver! wicle recognition en c! a
plenitucle of honors. He was electec! to the National AcacI-
emy of Sciences in 1958 en c! to the American Academy of
Arts ant! Sciences in ~ 962. He was an Alexancler von
Humboicit awarclee, three times a Guggenheim fellow, a
Sigma Xi national lecturer, a Phi Beta Kappa scholar, en c! a
Nobel lecturer. He hell! clistinguishec! visiting appointments
at some twenty foreign en c! domestic institutions. He re-
ceivec! three honorary degrees. On his retirement from CCNY
the science builcling was namer! in his honor, in defiance of
a policy he hac! establishec! cluring his presidency of selling
the names of builclings to clonors. An c! his students en c!
colleagues honoree! him with no fewer than three
Festschriften, one on his retirement from Rochester in 1970
("R. E. Marshak: The Rochester Years"~; the second, in ob
servation of his sixtieth birthday at City College ("Interna-
tional Symposium on Five Decacles of Weak Interactions,"
proceedings published in Ann. N. ~ A cad. Sci., vol. 294, ed.
N. P. Chang, 1977), and, upon his death, with the book A
Gift of Prophecy-Essays in Celebration of the Life of Robert Eugene
Marshak (ecI. E. C. G. Suciarshan, WorIc! Scientific, 1994~.
Bob Marshak was manifestly not a prophet without honor
in his own country or abroad. Scores of colleagues have
testifier! to his seminal contributions to science. The work
on the V- A interaction has been clescribec! by a clisinter-
estec! colleague as "a crucial turning point in twentieth cen-
tury physics." Others have spoken eloquently about the many
other results of Bob's "deep physical intuition" and of their
admiration for him as a "deep and creative theoretical physi
OCR for page 237
ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK
237
cist." His leaclership in the woric! scientific community has
evokoc! equally strong expressions of tribute. His successful
pursuit of the presidency of City College has been hailed as
"an act of great courage en c! human compassion."
In spite of these tributes en c! Bob Marshak's immense
achievements, his life was sometimes punctuates! by clisap-
pointment en c! controversy. Although Marshak was anything
but self-effacing or reluctant to claim credit for his accom-
plishments, he was not always satisfier! with himself or with
the recognition he received. He was extraorclinariTy persis-
tent but not always patient in pursuing his ambitious goals
in science en c! society. He clic! not suffer fools (or for that
matter wise men en c! women who clisagreec! with him) glacITy,
en c! he occasionally exasperated colleagues en c! persons in
high places as much as they must have exasperated him.
His interaction with people was anything but weak.
At the same time he was a most generous frienc! en c!
mentor, particularly to students en c! junior colleagues. Many
have testifies! about his graciousness, his approachability,
en c! the unexpected amount of time that he took to discuss
their problems. A severe workaholic, he hac! an enormous
sense of duty to deliver, fully and promptly, on everything
he promised. George Suciarshan reports that "any manu-
script or notes hanclec! to him were returnee! with cletailec!
comments within forty-eight hours, irrespective of how busy
he was." Although physics usually took precedence over other
cluties (anc! his commitments as a statesman of science over
personal concerns), he was involves! in everything en c! he
enricher! the lives of more people than he or the public
ever knew.
FORTUNATELY, THE LIFE and achievements of Robert E. Marshak have
been well documented by himself and by others. In addition to
items cited in the Selected Bibliography and other material, includ
OCR for page 238
238
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
ing personal reminiscences, we have found the following documents
particularly useful: 1) Robert E. Marshak: A Brief Biography. Special
Collections Department, University Libraries, Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va., 1996. This informa-
tive and poignant work, authored by Marshak's son, Prof. Stephen
Marshak, is so felicitously written that we have with permission in-
corporated some passages verbatim; 2) Harry Lustig. Two presiden-
cies: The City College of New York and the American Physical Soci-
ety. In A Gift of Prophecy. Essays in Celebration of the Life of Robert
Eugene Marshak, ed. E. C. G. Sudarshan, pp. 303-309. Singapore:
World Scientific, 1994. Permission to quote from this article has
been granted by the publisher; and 3) Harry Lustig, Susumo Okubo,
E. C. G. Sudarshan. Robert E. Marshak (obituary). Phys. Today, p.l05,
Nov. 1993.
We are very grateful to Prof. Hans Bethe for his critical read-
ing of our manuscript and his contributions, which improved it
considerably. Finally we are pleased to acknowledge the assistance
of Eric Ackermann, special collections librarian at Virginia Tech,
and of Prof. Robin Villa of CCNY.
OCR for page 239
ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
1939
239
With H. A. Bethel Physics of stellar interiors and stellar evolution.
Rep. Prog. Phys. VI:1.
1940
With H. A. Bethel Generalized Thomas-Fermi method applied to
stars. Astrophys. f. 91:239.
The internal temperature of white dwarf stars. Astrophys. f. 92:321.
1941
With V. F. Weisskopf. On the scattering of mesons of spin 1/2 by
atomic nuclei. Phys. Rev. 59:130.
1947
Theory of slowing down of neutrons by elastic collision with atomic
nuclei. Rev. Mod. Phys. 19:185.
With H. A. Bethel On the two meson hypothesis. Phys. Rev. 72:506.
With E. C. Nelson and L. I. Schiff. Our Atomic World. Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press.
1949
On mesons ,u and 7~. Phys. Rev. 75:700.
1952
With N. Francis. Elastic photoproduction of 7~° mesons in deute-
rium. Phys. Rev. 85:496.
With L. Van Hove and A. Pals. Charge independence and multiple
pion production. Phys. Rev. 88:1211.
Meson Physics. New York: McGraw-Hill.
1954
With M. M. Levy. Present status of the meson theory of nuclear
forces. In Proceedings of the Glasgow Conference. Oxford, U.~: Pergamon.
1957
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240
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
With P. Signell. Phenomenological two-nucleon potential up to 150
MeV. Phys. Rev. 106:832.
With E. C. G. Sudarshan. Nature of the four-fermion interaction. In
Proceedings of the Padua-Venice Conference on Mesons and Newly Dis-
covered Particles. V-14.
1958
With E. C. G. Sudarshan. Chirality invariance and the universal
Fermi interaction. Phys. Rev. 109:1860.
With S. Okubo, E. C. G. Sudarshan, W. B. Teutsch, and S. Weinberg.
The interaction current in strangeness-violating decays. Phys. Rev.
112:665.
Scientific research in the Soviet Union. Science 124:1125.
1959
With S. Okubo and E. C. G. Sudarshan. V - A theory and the decay
of the ~ hyperon. Phys. Rev. 113 :944.
With S. Okubo and E. C. G. Sudarshan. Isotopic spin selection rules
and K2 decay. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2:12.
1961
With E. C. G. Sudarshan. Elementary Particle Physics. New York: John
Wiley.
1969
With Riazuddin and C. Ryan. Theory of Weak Interactions in Particle
Physics. New York: John Wiley.
1970
My answer to the Sakharov manifesto. Lecture in "Public Under-
standing of Science" series. University of Texas.
1982
With the assistance of Gladys Wurtenburg. Academic Renewal in the
1970s: Memoirs of a City College President. Washington, D.C.: Uni-
versity Press of America.
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ROBERT EUGENE MARSHAK
241
1988
The pragmatic humanism of Bohr, Einstein, and Sakharov. Proc.
Am. Phil. Soc. 132:268.
1993
Conceptual Foundations of Modern Particle Physics. Singapore: World
Scenic.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
robert eugene
