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Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76 (1999)

Chapter: Edward Purdy Ney

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Suggested Citation:"Edward Purdy Ney." National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 76. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6477.
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EDWARD PURDY NEY October 28, 1920-July 9, 1996 BY ROBERT D. GEHRZ, FRANK B. MCDONALD, AND JOHN E. NAUGLE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA regents professor emeritus Edward! Purcly Ney was a gifted, cleclicatec! scientist en c! teacher whose research career spanner! the perioc! from the onset of Woric! War II through the early 1990s. He macle important contributions to nuclear physics, cosmic-rays as- trophysics, heliospheric studies, atmospheric sciences, en c! infrarec! astronomy. Throughout his career, he chose to be at the frontier en c! to work in emerging fielcis of science, accompanies! by a small, clevotec! group that incluclec! col- leagues, technicians, engineers, en c! graduate students. As a field! clevelopec! en c! became more crowclecI, he sought a new en c! often very different research frontier, while re- maining securely anchorec! to the University of Minnesota from 1947 onward. Ney pioneered the clevelopment of so- phisticatec! particle detector systems, inclucling clouc! cham- bers en c! scintillation counters, for studies at the top of the atmosphere. He flew the first space science experiment on NASA manner! flight, Gemini 5, en c! founclec! the O'Brien Observatory in Minnesota, where he clevelopec! new Dewar en c! bolometer technology to make some of the early obser vations in infrarec! astronomy. He participates! in the semi 269

270 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS nal discovery of heavy nuclei in the galactic cosmic radia- tion. Together with Nick Woolf, he shower! that silicate en c! carbon grains, the buckling blocks of the planets, form in circumstelIar shells arounc! aging stars. He was an excellent teacher, particularly at the unclergracluate level. Ney liver! his life and conducted his research with an unconventional flair en c! frankness. Ney relentlessly sought truth en c! took clelight in challenging authority en c! the conventional wis- clom when he believer! they were wrong. He spoke out force- fully, not only on scientific issues but also on his fellow scientists, the space program, his university, the nation's nuclear policy, en c! governance of the National Academy of ret ~ sciences. THE EARLY YEARS Ney was born on October 2S, 1920, in Minneapolis, Min- nesota, the son of Otto Fret! en c! {essamine Purcly Ney en c! was raiser! in Waukon, Iowa, a small farm town in the north- east corner of Iowa, IS miles west of the Mississippi River. Ecl's father was a stern clisciplinarian who traveler! frequently selling farm supplies. His mother was partially disabled by an attack of polio in her youth. She finisher! two years of junior college en c! taught kindergarten in Waukon. Their mother react to Ec! en c! his voun~er sister Nancy, nurturing love ot learning. in the eighth grade, Ed and a friend started and produced a school newspaper. By the time he reacher! high school, according to his sister Nancy, Ec! hac! clevelopec! a strong interest in science, math, and girls. The local high school had a well-rounded science curriculum, which provided Ed with courses in general sci- ence, zoology, chemistry, and physics. He was especially in- fluencec! by Howarc! Moffitt, who taught several of his courses en c! later became an administrator at the University of Iowa. J O · · · 1 1 r 1 · T ,1 t. heir curiosity ana

EDWARD PURDY NEY 271 Ec! was clisciainfuT of other courses en c! confiner! his reacI- ing mainly to science en c! to his special hobby, photogra- phy. Nevertheless, he developed a mastery of the English language that was reflected! in his writing, in his ability to spot grammatical en c! spelling errors in his students' the- ses, en c! especially, in the eclicts en c! pronouncements that came clown from Minnesota's cleans en c! higher authorities. One of Ney's early clashes with authority en c! conven- tional wisclom occurrec! in high school. His focus on phys- ics, math, en c! chemistry to the apparent detriment of his other more routine studies clic! not unclear him to the prin- cipal, who informer! Ney that "nobody who ever gracluatec! from Waukon High School has ever clone anything in sci- ence en c! neither will you." Ney vowel! to prove him wrong. In 193S, at the age of eighteen, Ney enterer! the Univer- sity of Minnesota. In 1940 he took a class from Alfrec! O. C. Nier. During the course, he asker! if he conic! play arounc! with one of Nier's oscilloscopes. Ney's ability and enthusi- asm so impressed Nier that he hirer! the twenty-year-oic! Ney to make mass spectrometer measurements of carbon clioxicle samples, in which the ratio of i3C /~2C hac! been increasec! by passage of the CO2 through a thermal cliffu- sion column set up in an abanclonec! elevator shaft. Nier, ever careful of the use of his research funcis, pair! Ney thirty- five cents per hour. At a time when the use of radioactive tracers was just beginning, chemists en c! biologists user! the i3C-rich CO2 for metabolism studies en c! as a tracer for photosynthesis. John Barcleen, then a young assistant professor at Minne- sota, theoretically calculates! the expecter! enrichment from the thermal diffusion column. As Ec! clescribec! it in his notes: Bardeen's calculation and my measurement disagreed by a factor of two. We were getting too much i3C . Bardeen shook his head and went back to

272 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS the office for a week to try again. This calculation was not elegant physics like the BCS theory of superconductivity. It involved convection and messy assumptions. However, John was convinced there was a problem and finally Al Nier asked me to describe the power measurement. The columns were fed by an autotransformer and, when I measured the power to one, I had disconnected the other. Bardeen was right, and I took an electrical engi- neering course. The primary lesson was that John Bardeen was one smart guy. After World War II he went to Bell Labs and won his first Nobel Prize. At the very beginning of the U.S. program to develop the atomic bomb, Al Nier hac! proclucec! a 0.~-microgram sepa- ratec! sample of 235U en c! 238U, which hac! been user! to show that 235U was the isotope that underwent slow neu- tron fission as preclictec! by Bohr en c! Wheeler. In micI-1940, Nier was asker! by the Uranium Committee to separate a 5- microgram sample Of 235U for the determination of nuclear cross-sections en c! neutron production rates. Nier clesignec! a new mass spectrometer, which Ney en c! another uncler- graduate, Robert Thompson, kept going twenty-four hours a clay for three months to produce the requires! sample. Nier then undertook the design en c! clevelopment of a spe- cial mass spectrometer for the analysis of processed UFO. With the assistance of Ney, Mark Inghram, ant! the clepartment's machine shop they proclucec! three instruments in six months. These were to become the key assay instru- ments user! by the Manhattan Project to measure the en- richment of uranium proclucec! by the different separation methods then under development at Oak Ridge, Columbia, the Naval Research Laboratory, and the University of Vir- ginia. Out of this collaboration, Alfrec! O. C. Nier en c! EcI- warc! P. Ney former! a very close personal en c! professional friendship that lasted until Nier's death in 1995. On June 20, 1942, just after graduating from the Univer- sity of Minnesota with a bachelor of science degree in phys- ics, Ney marries! June Felsing. June hac! caught Ecl's atten- tion at a dance during their undergraduate years at the

EDWARD PURDY NEY 273 university. When she mentionec! that she was taking a phys- ics course taught by the department chairman, Ec! asker! her what her gracle was. Hearing "A," Ec! was impressed, but skeptical. Ever the careful scientist, he checkoc! her record, fount! she hac! incleec! gotten an "A," en c! promptly began courting. Their union laster! until his cleath en c! pro- clucec! daughter Jucly en c! sons John, Arthur, en c! William. Shortly after their marriage, the Neys moved from Min- neapolis to Charlottesville, Virginia. Ney took along one of Nier's new mass spectrometers en c! became the mass spec- trometer specialist assignee! by the Manhattan Project to work with Jesse Beams at the University of Virginia. He also enrollee! as a graduate student in the Physics Department. Beam's group, a part of the Manhattan Project, was investi- gating the feasibility of using centrifuges to enrich uranium. Ney user! the assay instrument clevelopec! at Minnesota to analyze the uranium samples proclucec! by centrifuging at Virginia en c! also those proclucec! by thermal diffusion at the Naval Research Laboratory. The Virginia centrifuges were very promising as pilot moclels, en c! Stanciarc! Oil of New Jersey began developing a production facility. Because this effort clic! not go well, General Groves came to Charlottesville in 1944 en c! closet! clown the Virginia pro gram. (Many years later centrifuging became the most en- ergy-efficient way to produce moderate amounts of enricher! uranium). Ec! then worker! with his Virginia colleagues cle- veloping circuits en c! systems for gun control on naval ships en c! the guidance of small missiles. He maintainer! a life- long interest in en c! concern about nuclear weapons. For his Ph.D. thesis, which was cIassifiecI, Ney measurer! the self-cliffusion coefficient of UFO. This constant was an important number, because knowlecige of it, as well as the self-cliffusion coefficient en c! the viscosity, determines the molecular force law en c! predicts the thermal diffusion co

274 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS efficient. It turner! out that UFO molecules have an inverse fifth power law of force for which the thermal diffusion coefficient is zero. In 1944 their daughter Jucly was born en c! two years later their son John. In 1946 the University of Virginia awarclec! Ney a Ph.D. Four years earlier, Ney hac! arriver! in Virginia, a self-assurec! new college graduate who appearec! much younger than his twenty-one years but whose research expe- rience aIreacly extenclec! beyonc! that of many fresh Ph.D.s. In only four years, he hac! worker! more than full-time on the Manhattan Project en c! other clefense-relatec! efforts, juggler! graduate courses, written a Ph.D. thesis, en c! won the admiration en c! respect of his colleagues at Virginia en c! the Naval Research Laboratory. The University of Vir- ginia asker! him to join their faculty as an assistant profes sor. THE COSMIC RAY AND SKYHOOK BALLOON ERA In 1946, with the enc! of the war, it was time to seek new research frontiers. Ney taught a course baser! on Heisenberg's book Cosmic Radiation en c! cleciclec! to shift his field! of re- search from mass spectroscopy to cosmic-ray studies. Ney, Jesse Beams, en c! Lelanc! Swocicly began an unclergrounc! experiment in the Endless Caverns near New Market, Vir- ginia. While waiting to get substantial results, Ney wrote a theoretical paper on the cascade component of cosmic ra- cliation. According to Ney, the paper, while not very pro- founcI, caught the eye of John T. Tate, editor of Physical Review and professor of physics at the University of Minne- sota. Tate was looking for bright young physicists to start a project to stucly cosmic rays with the air! of large plastic balloons inventec! by lean Piccarc! en c! manufacturer! by the General Mills Research Laboratories in Minneapolis. Tate offerer! Ney an assistant professorship at the University of

EDWARD PURDY NEY 275 Minnesota, which Ney promptly accepted. Although there is no documentary evidence, Ecl's mentor Alfrec! O. C. Nier probably played a role in the return of his young prodigy. In 1947 the Neys en c! their two chiTciren returnee! to Min- neapolis. Except for a sabbatical in Australia en c! two one- quarter leaves of absence, Ney spent the rest of his life at the University of Minnesota. In ~ 947 Ney, together with Ec! Lofgren en c! Frank Oppenheimer, former! the Minnesota cosmic-ray group en c! began to use nuclear emulsions en c! clouc! chambers for studies of cosmic rays. Soon, Phyllis Freier joiner! the team as a graduate student. Together they pioneered the use of balloon-borne clouc! chambers en c! nuclear emulsions. For the first time it became possible to stucly the nature of the primary cosmic rays at the top of the atmosphere. This effort pair! off in 194S, when, in a joint balloon flight with Bernarc! Peters en c! Helmut L. Bracit of the University of Rochester, they cliscoverec! "heavy" particles in the cosmic racliation. Their ciata shower! that cosmic rays are not elec- tromagnetic racliation at all. Instead, they are high-energy nuclei of the elements stripper! of their electrons. When astrophysicists fount! that the primary cosmic racliation con- sistec! of elements from hydrogen through iron en c! that their relative abundances were similar to those cleclucec! from astrophysical studies, they reaTizec! the studies of cos- mic racliation couIc! play a major role in astrophysics, as well as in unclerstancling the origin en c! transport of ener- getic particles in the galaxy. Fifty years later it remains a very active research fielcI. Shortly after this major discovery, there were significant changes of personnel in the original cosmic-ray group. First, Lofgren left to supervise the construction of the Berkeley bevatron. Next, the university forcer! Oppenheimer to re- sign, because he hac! conceaTec! his pre-war membership in 1 1 · r ,1 1 , , · 1 r ,1 1

276 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS the Communist Party. From 1949 through 1962, Ney lee! the cosmic-ray group. In 1949 John R. Winckler joiner! the Physics Department. Previously he hac! been at Princeton, where he hac! been carrying out cosmic-ray studies at bal- loon altitudes. The university appointed Ney associate pro- fessor in 1950. A seconc! son, Arthur, was born on Septem- ber 10, 1951, en c! a third, William, on August 9, 1952. In 955 Ney became a full professor. Meanwhile, Charles CritchfielcI, a theoretical physicist at Minnesota, became concernec! about the lack of electrons in the cosmic racliation. He notes! that if all the particles were positively charger! then the Sun itself shouIc! charge up in about a year en c! repel the positive cosmic rays. As we know today, this iclea is incorrect, but it stimulates! Ney en c! Sophia Oleksa, a graduate student, to concluct a series of clouc! chamber flights using both horizontal en c! vertical leac! plates to try to measure the flux of electrons. Although they clic! observe electron showers, the number of events they observer! conic! be explainec! as the result of the clecay of pi mesons proclucec! in the material above the chamber en c! their subsequent clecay into gamma rays. Although Ney en c! Oleksa clic! not detect electrons in the primary raclia- tion, they clic! set an upper limit on the electron flux of about I% of the primary particles with energies above ~ GeV. Ten years later, when James Ear! en c! Peter Meyer inclepenclently measurer! the flux of primary electrons they fount! the flux to be only slightly below the limit set by Critchfield, Ney, and Oleksa. In 1950 Ney shifter! from clouc! chambers to scintillation counters and made one of the first measurements of the abundance of the elements using a scintillation counter. Shortly thereafter Ney en c! other cosmic-ray physicists be- came frustrated with a number of unexplained failures of large plastic balloons. In one celebrated case, a graduate

EDWARD PURDY NEY 277 stuclent's payloac! separatec! from its parachute, free fell from high altitucle, en c! crasher! through the roof of an Iowa farmhouse. As a result, Ney, Winckler, en c! Critchfielc! undertook a high-priority, ciassifiec! military project, sup- ported jointly by the Army, Navy, and Air Force, to improve performance of high-altitucle balloons en c! to clevelop a sys- tem that conic! photograph military installations in the So- viet Union. Ultimately, this became a multimillion-clolIar project involving some thirty-five people. In late 1955, after the clevelopment of the U2 aircraft, the Air Force en c! sub- sequently the Army abruptly withdrew their support, since they no longer neeclec! balloon-borne surveillance. In Au- gust 1956 the project closet! clown. A number of techniques clevelopec! in this research program, such as the duct ap- penclix, super-pressure tetroon, en c! the natural shape bal- Toon, continue to be user! for cosmic-ray en c! atmospheric research, both here en c! abroad. Funcling from the Office of Naval Research continuccI, making it possible for Ney en c! his graduate students to concluct an extensive atmo- spheric research program that resultec! in eight Ph.D. the- ses. As Ney observer! in his research notes, this return to science was a blessing that lee! to many significant clevelop ments: John Kroening studied atmospheric small ions, invented a chemilumines- cent ozone detector, and did a seminal study of atmospheric ozone. John Gergen designed the "black ball" and studied atmospheric radiation bal- ance, culminating in a national series of radiation soundings in which a majority of the weather bureau stations took part. Jim Rosen studied aero- sols with an optical coincidence counter, which was so good it still has not been improved; he was the first to discover thin laminar layers of dust in the stratosphere and to identify the source as volcanic eruptions. Ted Pepin participated in photographic observations from balloon platforms, and has subsequently carried this interest further with optical observations of the Earth's limb from satellites. As the balloon project wounc! clown, Ney also began to

278 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS work more closely with the emulsion group, which at the time consistec! of Phyllis Freier en c! several graduate stu- clents. Uncler Ney's leaclership, Peter Fowler of the Bristol emulsion group spent the 1956-57 academic year at Minne- sota. In a joint effort, the two groups systematically mea- surec! the flux of alpha particles as a function of energy en c! fount! that it reacher! a maximum at about 300 MeV/ nucleon. Later, cluring the International Geophysical Year, Ney, Winckler, en c! Freier applier! techniques clevelopec! in the balloon program to keep a balloon in the air continu- ously cluring a perioc! of intense solar activity. They ob- servec! protons from the Sun cluring several solar flares. In November 1960, cluring a giant solar flare, the Minnesota group measurer! a flux of solar protons that exceeclec! the normal cosmic flux by a factor of 10,000. An astronaut in space beyonc! the magnetosphere wouic! have receiver! an exposure of about 60 roentgens, or about a tenth of the lethal close. Observing that the flux of galactic cosmic rays increaser! by a factor of three cluring the perioc! of mini- mum solar activity, Ney proposed that this variation would lead to a variation in the ion density in the atmosphere and that this might prove to be a connection between solar activity en c! the weather. Still in search of the elusive electrons in cosmic raclia- tion, Ney en c! Paul Kellogg, a theoretical physicist at Min- nesota, proposer! that an appreciable fraction of the visible light in the solar corona came from synchrotron racliation of high-energy electrons spiraling about solar magnetic lines of force. Their theory preclictec! a non-raclial component of polarization in the light of the corona. They set out to check their theory cluring the 1959 eclipse of the Sun. First there were formiciable logistics problems to solve. In a little over two years, they prepared a proposal, obtained funding of $60,000, built three instruments, and flew from Minne

EDWARD PURDY NEY 279 apolis to French West Africa in an ancient DC4. There they set up instruments at three sites along the path of the eclipse. During the eclipse, goof! ciata were obtainer! at two sites, but the thirc! was clouclec! over. The measurements clisprovec! Ney and Kellogg's theory, for they showed that the light of the corona came from Thomson scattering as postulates! by solar physicists, not from synchrotron racliation. Although this result was a disappointment, the work lee! to the clevel- opment of cameras en c! polarimeters that Ney en c! his stu- clents later user! to stucly clim, diffuse sources of light. Two clecacles later, Ney participates! in another eclipse expecli- tion to observe the solar corona in the infrared. Later he commentec! on the differences between the two expeditions: Although the overall support for science was less, then it was possible for a university group to conceive and carry out an expedition. In 1980 we par- ticipated in the National Science Foundation's expedition to observe the eclipse in India. It was like a Boy Scout outing with administrators and managers, and even a doctor. But it wasn't much fun, and it cost a lot more. The coronal experiment stimulates! Ney's interest in clim, diffuse sources of light in astrophysics. He undertook to unclerstanc! the origin en c! nature of the zocliacal light. He en c! his students flew cameras en c! polarimeters, clevelopec! for the coronal experiment, on balloons, Mercury en c! Gemini flights, en c! two orbiting solar observatories. These flights shower! that the zocliacal light was highly polarizecI, of con- stant or slowly varying intensity, en c! that it was proclucec! by the scattering of sunlight from crust grains. As the first scientist to fly an experiment on a NASA manner! space flight program, Ney spent a good deal of time briefing the astronauts in the Moorheac! Planetarium in Chapel Hill. Ney fount! it fun to get to know the astronauts, but he thought conducting research on a manner! spacecraft a hare! way to clo science.

280 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS Although Ney clesignec! instruments for an Orbiting So- lar Observatory to study the zocliacal light cluring the por- tion of the orbit when the satellite was in the ciark, the instruments conic! also be user! to study light sources on Earth. Ney obtainer! a completely unexpected result when he observer! thousands of terrestrial lightning flashes en c! fount! that there were ten times as many flashes over the lane! as over the ocean. As yet, no satisfactory explanation of this observation exists. In 1963 Ney cleciclec! to change from physics to astronomy. He presented his final paper on cosmic rays at the Pontifi- cal Academy in Rome while on his way to Australia to stucly astronomy with Hanbury Brown en c! Richarc! Twiss. Upon his return to Minnesota, in collaboration with two graduate students, Fret! Gillette en c! Wayne Stein, Ney enterer! the emerging fielc! of infrarec! astronomy, a fielc! suitable to his pioneering instinct. At that time, there were only two infra- red astronomers, Frank Low, then at Rice University, and Gerry Neugebauer at Caltech. With good students, a highly qualified support group, and his own exceptional physical insight and great experimental skills, Ney soon had Minne- sota at the frontier of this new research fielcI. To make infrarec! observations, he founclec! the O'Brien Observa- tory and equipped it with a 30-inch infrared telescope. Later, he helpec! to design the 60-inch infrarec! telescope for the Mount Lemmon Observing Facility in Arizona. As a result of their infrarec! observations, Ney en c! Nick Woolf shower! that silicate and carbon grains form circumstellar shells around aging stars. As Ney noted at the time, in a cosmol- ogy dominated by hydrogen and helium, it was a relief to find the source of the material that forms the terrestrial planets. After his retirement, Ney took up yet another field! of research: the effect of radioactivity from raclon gas on the

EDWARD PURDY NEY 28 atmosphere. He thought that the ionization from raclon wouIc! produce a higher level of ionization in the atmo- sphere over lane! that conic! account for the higher levels of lightning over lancI, comparer! to those over the ocean. Unfortunately, Ney's cleath prevented the completion of this work. Ney Tovec! to teach. He hac! a special gift for using novel demonstration equipment to illustrate physics. His awarcI- winning, animates! lectures, liberally lacer! with hilarious wisecracks en c! anecdotes, gave thousands of students in his introductory courses the opportunity to experience the ex- citement of working at the cutting ecige of science. Beneath the wisecracks en c! the jokes, students fount! a man with an absolute, steely insistence on honesty in academic en c! re- search work. In 1961 he lecturer! in the clepartment's first honors course in moclern physics. These lectures were turner! into "Ney's Notes on Relativity." The next year he contractor! hepatitis on a trip abroad. Insteac! of quietly recuperating, he user! the time at home to turn these notes into a book, Electro- magnetism and Relativity (New York: Harper en c! Rowe, 1962) . He receiver! the University of Minnesota's outstanding teach- ing aware! in 1964. Ney's enthusiasm en c! charisma attractor! goof! graduate students to his program. He encouragec! them to select their own thesis topic en c! to concluct their research with a mini- mum of direction from him. He believer! this proclucec! a better en c! more mature Ph.D. Sixteen students receiver! their Ph.D. uncler Ney. His methods proclucec! high-quality students. Twice, the position of NASA chief scientist was Filly! by former students of Ney. Another student helpec! establish the Stratoscope Program at Princeton, en c! two students constructed! one of the worIcl's largest infrarec! tele- scopes at Jelm Mountain, Wyoming. One former student is

282 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Ney's ca- reer demonstrates that great research scientists can, en c! clo, like to teach. A major reason for Ney's success lay in his ability to at- tract, stimulate, en c! direct superb engineers en c! techni- cians. He macle them full partners in his research en c! when they contributes! in a substantial way to a project, he in- cluclec! them as co-authors of the resulting papers. Ney's interest en c! concern extenclec! beyonc! research. He took an activist role in campus politics. He believer! that the students, staff, en c! faculty were the heart of a strong university en c! that the administration shouIc! serve their interests. He also believer! in rigorous academic stanciarcis. Once, when invites! to serve as the "outside professor" on a Ph.D. final exam, Ney consiclerec! the thesis topic to be trivial, not worthy of a Ph.D., en c! he refuses! to approve the thesis. Ney then severely criticizer! the professor who hac! approved the topic and supervised the work. Ney clic! not limit his contributions to the academic arena. As a citizen he maintainer! a lifelong concern about the impact of science on public policy. He frequently contrib- utec! letters en c! articles to local eclitorial pages on atomic energy, nuclear weapons, the space program, and the envi- ronment. In later years he became cleeply concerned! about the proliferation of nuclear weapons en c! the possibility of their use by terrorists. Edward! P. Ney was electec! to the National Academy of Sciences in 1971 en c! the American Academy of Arts en c! Sciences in 1979. In 1975 NASA awarded him its Excep- tional Scientific Achievement Medal. In 1964 the University of Minnesota awarclec! him the university's Outstanding Teach- ing Award. Subsequently, in 1974 the university bestowed on him its highest honor, a Regent's Professorship. As unconventional in his dress as in his work, Ney's red,

EDWARD PURDY NEY 283 high-top tennis shoes graces! many a formal function, in- clucling a National Academy of Sciences garden party en c! black-tie clinner. Ney likes! goof! cars en c! he likes! to drive them fast. In the late 1940s he chaser! balloons in a Tow, black, streamlinec! Hucison that cruiser! at 90 miles per hour. He next bought a convertible that traveler! even faster. Later, with proceeds from the sale of his book Relativity and Elec- tromagnetism, Ney bought his ultimate automobile, a pow- cler-blue Jaguar XKE. Returning from a night's observing at the O'Brien Observatory, Ney concluctec! an experiment to see how large a fine he wouIc! get if he exceeclec! the 65- miles-per-hour speec! limit by a factor of two. Unfortunately, the experiment proviclec! a null result, the Minnesota State Highway Patrol failed to appear. In his later years, Ney sufferer! from ventricular tachycar- clia, a conclition in which the ventricles of the heart con- tract at a high frequency en c! which can cause cleath in a short time. Frustratec! with his cloctor's inability to control the arrhythmia, Ney began to stucly carcliology. He turner! the full force of his research talent on himself en c! his clis- ease. He searcher! the literature, en c! became convincer! that the best way to control the disease requires! a pace- maker that conic! be commanclec! to sent! pulses to the heart at a higher rate than the tachycarclia. This action enablec! the pacemaker to capture the rhythm of the heart so that, when the cloctor sIowoc! the frequency of the pacemaker's pulses, it brought the heart back to its normal rhythm. Ney's last (unpublishecI) paper, "A Physicist's History of Pacing en c! Shocking in the Treatment of Recurrent Sustainer! Mono- morphic Ventricular Tachycarclia, ~975-]995," gave the his- tory of his illness en c! clocumentec! the results of his re- search. Ney's last battle with authority was with his carcliologist. Ney wan tee! to carry the "black box" that controller! the clefibrillator with him so that if he hac! an attack of ven

284 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS tricular tachycarclia, he conic! sent! the clefibrillation com- mancI. Conventional wisclom hell! that the patient must be brought to a hospital for treatment by a registered carcli- ologist. Unfortunately, authority en c! conventional wisdom finally won a battle with Edward! P. Ney. He cliec! at his home in Minneapolis on July 9, 1996. He is survived by June, his wife of fifty-four years, and their four chilciren {ucly, John, Arthur, en c! William, a sister Nancy Braum of Atlanta, en c! nine grancichilciren. On July 16, 1996, several huncirec! people, inclucling friencis, family, his carcliologist, colleagues, en c! former students attenclec! a joyful memorial celebration in his honor at the University of Minnesota.

EDWARD PURDY NEY SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 1945 285 The power spectrum of the cosmic-ray cascade component. Phys. Rev. 70:221-21. 1947 With P. C. Armistead. A self-diffusion coefficient of uranium hexaflouride. Phys. Rev. 71:14-19. 1948 With others. Evidence for heavy nuclei in the primary cosmic radia- tion. Phys. Rev. 74:213-17. 1949 With E. J. Lofgren and F. Oppenheimer. Apparatus for cloud-cham- ber investigations with free balloons. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 20:48-51. With F. Oppenheimer. Wide angle sprays of minimum ionization particles. Phys. Rev. 76:1418-19. 1950 With P. Freier. Multiple production of mesons. Phys. Rev. 70:337-41. With C. L. Critchfield and S. Oleksa. The electrons in cosmic rays. Phys. Rev. 79:402-403. 1951 With D. M. Thon. A scintillation counter measurement of heavy nuclei. Phys. Rev. 81:1069-70. 1956 With W. Elsasser and J. R. Winckler. Cosmic-ray intensity and geo- magnetism. Nature 178: 1226-27. 1957 With others. The low energy end of the cosmic-ray spectrum of alpha-particles. Philos. Mag. 2:157-75.

286 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS 1958 With P. Freier and P. H. Fowler. Cosmic rays and the sun-spot cycle: The primary alpha-particle intensity at sunspot maximum. Nature 181 :1317-21. 1959 Cosmic radiation and the weather. Nature 183: 451-52. With P. J. Kellogg and J. R. Winckler. Geophysical effects associated with high-altitude explosions. Nature 183: 358-61. With P. S. Freier and J. R. Winckler. Balloon Observations of solar cosmic rays on March 26, 1958. 7. Geophys. Res. 64:685-88. 1962 With W. A. Stein. Solar protons, alpha particles and heavy nuclei in November 1960. 7. Geophys. Res. 67:2087-2105. 1964 With F. C. Gillett and W. A. Stein. Observations of the solar corona from the limb of the Sun to the zodiacal light, July 20, 1963. Ap. J. 140:292-305. 1969 With N. J. Woolf. Circumstellar infrared emission from cool stars. Ap. J. Lett. 155:L181-84. With D. A. Allen. The infrared sources in the trapezium region of M42. Ap. J. Lett. 155:L193-95. 1970 With R. W. Maas and N. J. Woolf. The 10-micron peak of comet Bennett 1969i. Ap. f. Lett. 160:L101-104. With J. A. Vorpahl and J. G. Sparrow. Satellite observations of light- ning. Science 169: 860-62. 1972 With J. G. Sparrow. Zodiacal light observations from the ecliptic to the poles. Ap. f. 174:705-16. 1974 Infrared observations of comet Kohoutek near perihelion. Ap. f. Lett. 189:L141-43.

EDWARD PURDY NEY 1975 287 With others. Studies of the infrared source CRL 2688. Ap. I. Lett. 198:L129-34. 1978 With B. F. Hatfield. The isothermal dust condensation of Nova Vulpeculae 1976. Ap. I. Lett. 219:Lll1-15. 1982 Optical and infrared observations of bright comets. In Comets, ed. L. L. Wilkening, pp. 323-39. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. 1987 With R. S. Lively. Surface radioactivity resulting from the depos lion of Rn daughter products. Health Phys. 52~4~:411-15. 1990 :1 With R. D. Gehrz. Confirmation of dust condensation in the ejecta of supernova 1987a. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 87:4354-57. 1992 With R. D. Gehrz. 0.7 to 2.3 micron photometric measurements of P/Halley 1986 III and six recent bright comets. Icarus 100:162- 86. 1995 With R. D. Gehrz, C. H. Johnson, and S. D. Magnuson. Infrared observations of an outburst of small dust grains from the nucleus of comet P/Halley 1986 III at perihelion. Icarus 113:129-33.

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Biographic Memoirs: Volume 76 contains the biographies of deceased members of the National Academy of Sciences and bibliographies of their published works. Each biographical essay was written by a member of the Academy familiar with the professional career of the deceased. For historical and bibliographical purposes, these volumes are worth returning to time and again.

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