On February 19, 2018,
eminent American physicist Charles
Pence Slichter had passed away on the 95-th year
of his life.
Having begun his
physics career during the World War II, he got his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1949 under supervision of Edward
M. Purcell, one of the discoverers of
nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in solids, Nobel laureate in future. For 25 years
his life was closely connected with the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: assistant professor in 1951, associate professor in 1954, and full professor
in 1955.
Ch.Slichter is best known for his work
on nuclear magnetic resonance and
superconductivity. His book “Principles of Magnetic Resonance” is a desk book for all students and physicists working in
the field of magnetic resonance, including
for Russian researchers. The upturn of the NMR relaxation rate just below
the transition temperature known as the
"Hebel-Slichter peak" has served as one of the confirmation of correctness of
the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory of
superconductivity.
Slichter was recognized in his
country and over the world. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
and the American Philosophical Society. Slichter
was recognized with numerous honors including the American Physical
Society’s Langmuir Prize in Chemical Physics and
Oliver E. Buckley Prize in Condensed
Matter Physics, the International Society of Magnetic Resonance’s Triennial Prize, and the National Academy of
Sciences’ Comstock Prize. He also was awarded
honorary Doctor degrees from the Harvard University,
the University of Waterloo and the University of Leipzig. In 2007 Slichter was awarded the
National Medal of Science for
establishing NMR as a tool to reveal the fundamental molecular properties of liquids and solids.
Charles P. Slichter has
lived a long and fruitful life and will remain in our memory as a brilliant scientist and a wise and
kind man.
(The Editorial material was prepared by Prof. Tagirov M.S. and Dr. Dooglav A.V.
)