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A naturalized United States citizen since 1943, Dr. Weisskopf was born in Vienna 

 mi n' V^^l Receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Gottingen £e?man;Tn 

 1931 Dr. Weisskopf then went on to work as an associate to Schroding^r at the UnT 

 Ee^in 19l?and"iqll' "^^ '"^'^"'"'^^ r'''^'' ^° ^^^^ ^* ^^e Univefsltf ofCopen- 



Dr. Weisskopf canie to the United States in 1937 to join the faculty at the Univer- 

 ar^Yl i^Tq 1f^^'"'^^^?u^t.'^^ instructor (1937-39) and assistant professor (^939- 

 45). In 1943 he joined the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, NM, where he worked 

 as group leader and associate head of the theory division on the exploitation of nu 



ii'the"fSinf 'fT"p^/" 1^'^' ^fr' «"« °f '"any physicists who partl^ipaJed 

 in the founding of the Federation of Atomic Scientists. The Federation's ouroose 

 was mainly twofold; to warn the public of the consequences of atomic wa?-thus 

 hoping for the creation of an international agreement against the use of atomic 

 weapons, and to support the peaceful use of atomic energy. diomic 



In 1945, he was appointed professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of 

 lechnology, and later given charge of the theory group in M.I.T.'s Laboratory of Nu- 

 clear Science. At that time, he and his group made important contributions to theo- 

 ries ot nuclear reactions and quantum electrodynamics. In 1949 Dr Weisskopf 

 AlhtTi^^ "f'^^Z.y^ ^^^ emergency committee of scientists whose president was 

 Albert Einstein^ This committee fought for control of atomic weapons and for an 

 understanding between the countries of the East and West concerning atomic arma- 

 ments. He participated m a manifest against the hydrogen bomb (1950) and in a 

 wn?ffrf?r:o°^of ^^^^t^"f ^^ scientists by the United States and the rest of the 

 world (1950-53). Weisskopf was actively engaged in the rehabilitation of natural sci- 



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In 1961, Dr. Weisskopf became Director-General of the European Center of Nucle- 

 n«h^f f fi" P^^i in Geneva therefore heading an international research estab- 

 lishment that operated the world s second most powerful large particle accelerator 

 He assumed this position when the construction of the accelerators was completed 

 and research was about to begin. Under his leadership CERN developed into one of 

 the most successful research institutions. He served as Director-General during a 5 

 SIL^T of absence from M I.T., and when he returned to Cambridge in 1965 his 

 colleagues in Switzerland published a volume of 39 original essays in his honor, the 

 preface of which said, in part: "It is Weisskopfs unique achievement that he has 

 carried over the devoted idealism and the enthusiasm of his early days into a new 

 TI^, rV'p^f ir"^ T^t'"'^^ ^""^ large-scale experimentation. Through the work he 

 did at CERN, through the impact of his mature personality, he has had a profound 

 influence on modern physics in Europe " 



Upon his return to M.I.T. in 1966, he was given the rank of institute professor, an 

 honor bestowed sparingly by M.I.T. in recognition of faculty members of great dis- 

 tinction. In 1967 Weisskopf was appointed head of the Department of Physics, a po- 

 sition he held until his retirement in 1973. In October 1973, 3 months after his offi- 

 cial retirement at M.I.T many of the world's leading scientists, including six Nobel 

 Laureates, gathered at M.I.T. for a 2-day symposium in Dr. Wiesskopf s honor 



Professor Weisskopf is the author of more than 200 papers on nuclear physics 

 quantuni theory, radiation theory, science policy and nuclear disarmament. A collec- 

 tion ot his essays appears under the title "Physics in the XX Century" He is a 

 Rl"^Jn/^TA i the board of editors of Nuclear Physics and Annals of Physics. 

 He wrote Theoretical Nuclear Physics together with John M. Blatt (1952) and his 

 ^ i^^o'^'^^'f^^/"'^ ^«"^^'-- ^he Natural World as Man Knows //(Doubleday & 

 SJi A .K ^^u""'"' ^Ai^- ^J!^^' ^^^^^' ^""^" f"'- th« intelligent layman, was 

 selected by the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation as the best science book for the 

 year for youth. The first volume of Concepts of Particle Physics with K. Gottfried 

 appeared in 1984 (Oxford University Press); the second volume will appear in 1986. 



STATEMENT OF DR. VICTOR F. WEISSKOPF, INSTITUTE PROFES- 

 SOR, DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE 

 OF TECHNOLOGY, CAMBRIDGE, MA 



Dr. Weisskopf. Thank you very much for asking me to testify 

 before your committee. 



