Bloch, Felix

Bloch, Felix
born Oct. 23, 1905, Zürich, Switz.
died Sept. 10, 1983, Zürich

Swiss-born U.S. physicist.

He emigrated to the U.S. in 1933 and taught at Stanford University (1934–71). He worked on atomic energy at Los Alamos and on radar countermeasures at Harvard University during World War II. In 1954 he became the first director general of CERN. For developing the nuclear magnetic resonance method of measuring the magnetic fields of atomic nuclei, he shared with Edward Purcell (1912–97) the 1952 Nobel Prize for Physics.

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▪ American physicist
born Oct. 23, 1905, Zürich, Switz.
died Sept. 10, 1983, Zürich

      Swiss-born American physicist who shared (with E.M. Purcell (Purcell, E.M.)) the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1952 for developing the nuclear magnetic resonance method of measuring the magnetic field of atomic nuclei.

      Bloch's doctoral dissertation (University of Leipzig, 1928) promulgated a quantum theory of solids that provided the basis for understanding electrical conduction. Bloch taught at the University of Leipzig until 1933; when Adolf Hitler came to power he emigrated to the United States and was naturalized in 1939. After joining the faculty of Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif., in 1934, he proposed a method for splitting a beam of neutrons into two components that corresponded to the two possible orientations of a neutron in a magnetic field. In 1939, using this method, he and Luis Alvarez (winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1968) measured the magnetic moment of the neutron (a property of its magnetic field). Bloch worked on atomic energy at Los Alamos, N.M., and radar countermeasures at Harvard University during World War II.

      Bloch returned to Stanford in 1945 to develop, with physicists W.W. Hansen and M.E. Packard, the principle of nuclear magnetic resonance, which helped establish the relationship between nuclear magnetic fields and the crystalline and magnetic properties of various materials. It later became useful in determining the composition and structure of molecules. Nuclear magnetic resonance techniques have become increasingly important in diagnostic medicine.

      Bloch was the first director general of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (1954–55; CERN).

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Bloch , Felix — (1905–1983) Swiss–American physicist Bloch was born in Zürich, Switzerland, and educated at the Federal Institute of Technology there and at the University of Leipzig, where he obtained his PhD in 1928. He taught briefly in Germany and in 1933… …   Scientists

  • Bloch, Felix — (1905–1983)    US physicist and Nobel laureate, 1952. Born in Switzerland, Bloch graduated from the University of Leipzig in 1928 and worked with such renowned scientists as Carl Heisenberg, Niels BOHR and Enrico Fermi. During these years he made …   Who’s Who in Jewish History after the period of the Old Testament

  • Bloch, Felix — (1905 83)    Swiss American physicist. Born in Zurich, he studied engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. With the rise of Hitler, he settled in the US and took up a position at Stanford University. During World War II he was… …   Dictionary of Jewish Biography

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