Maurice Goldhaber

Maurice Goldhaber (born April 18, 1911, Lemberg, Austria-Hungary—died May 11, 2011, East Setauket, N.Y., U.S.) was an American physicist whose contributions to nuclear physics included the discovery that the nucleus of the deuterium atom consists of a proton and a neutron.

While studying at the University of Cambridge, Goldhaber, in collaboration with James Chadwick, discovered (1934) the nuclear photoelectric effect (the disintegration of a nucleus by high-energy X-rays or gamma rays). This discovery later provided evidence that the neutron is heavier than the proton. While studying slow neutrons, they discovered the neutron-induced disintegrations of the nuclei of lithium, boron, and nitrogen. Goldhaber also showed the usefulness of photographic emulsions in recording the tracks of particles formed in nuclear reactions. The slow-neutron scattering studies he made in 1937 were essential to the development of the first nuclear reactors.

In 1938 Goldhaber joined the staff of the University of Illinois, where, with his wife, Gertrude Scharff Goldhaber (also a physicist), he demonstrated that electrons and beta rays are the same. In 1940 he discovered that beryllium is a good moderator (a material that slows down fast neutrons so they more readily split uranium atoms), and it has since been widely used in nuclear reactors.

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In 1950 Goldhaber went to Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, N.Y., where, seven years later, with the American physicist L. Grodzins, he discovered that the neutrino has a left-handed spin. He served as director of Brookhaven from 1961 to 1973. Although Goldhaber retired in 1985, he continued his research at the laboratory into the early 21st century. The recipient of numerous honours, Goldhaber was awarded the National Medal of Science (1983) and the Enrico Fermi Award (1999).