Walter Lewin
| Walter H.G. Lewin | |
|---|---|
Lewin in action during his farewell lecture, "For the Love of Physics", at MIT on May 16, 2011
|
|
| Born |
January 29, 1936 The Hague, Netherlands |
| Residence | Netherlands, United States |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Fields | Astrophysics, Physics |
| Institutions | MIT |
| Alma mater | Delft University of Technology |
| Notable awards |
|
Walter Hendrik Gustav Lewin (born January 29, 1936) is a Dutch astrophysicist and former professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lewin earned his doctorate in nuclear physics in 1965 at the Delft University of Technology and was a member of MIT's physics faculty for 43 years beginning in 1966 until his retirement in 2009.
Lewin's contributions in astrophysics include the discovery of the first slowly rotating neutron star through all-sky balloon surveys and research in X-ray detection in investigations through satellites and observatories. Lewin has received awards for teaching and is known for his lectures on physics and online courses taught on edX and MIT OpenCourseWare. These lectures have been viewed online about 2 million times yearly.
In 2014, MIT determined that Lewin had sexually harassed an online learner; as a consequence, MIT removed the lectures from its learning platforms and ended its relationship with Lewin.
Lewin was born to Walter Simon Lewin and Pieternella Johanna van der Tang in 1936 in The Hague, Netherlands. He was a child when the Nazis seized control of The Netherlands during World War II. His paternal grandparents Gustav and Emma Lewin, who were Jewish, were gassed in Auschwitz in 1942. To protect the family, Lewin's father simply left one day without telling anyone, leaving his mother to raise the children.
Lewin went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology in January 1966 as a post-doctoral associate, and was appointed an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to Associate Professor of Physics in 1968 and to full Professor in 1974.
At MIT, Lewin joined the X-ray astronomy group and conducted all-sky balloon surveys with George W. Clark. Through the late seventies, there were about twenty successful balloon flights. These balloon surveys led to the discovery of five new X-ray sources, whose spectra were very different from the X-ray sources discovered during rocket observations. The X-ray flux of these sources were variable. Among them was GX 1+4 whose X-ray flux appeared to be periodic with a period of about 2.4 minutes. This was the discovery of the first slowly rotating neutron star.
...
Wikipedia