Eugene Feenberg

Eugene Feenberg (October 6, 1906 in Fort Smith, Arkansas – November 7, 1977) was an American physicist who made contributions to quantum mechanics and nuclear physics.

In 1929, Feenberg graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in three years, first in his class; he majored in physics and mathematics. Upon the urging of one of his professors, C. P. Boner, Feenberg then went to Harvard University to study with Edwin C. Kemble for a doctorate in physics. While at Harvard, during 1930 and 1931, he also worked part-time at a Raytheon laboratory, as the Great Depression was in full swing. In 1931, Harvard awarded him a Parker Traveling Fellowship; he left for Europe in the fall of that year. During his stay in Europe, he studied with Arnold Sommerfeld at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, Wolfgang Pauli at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, and Enrico Fermi at the University of Rome.

Adolf Hitler had been appointed Chancellor in January 1933 and Feenberg was in Leipzig in the spring of that year. He wrote to Kemble of the persecution taking place and the violence in the streets. Harvard called Feenberg back to the Harvard campus, where he finished his doctorate under Kemble in 1933; his thesis was on quantum scattering of slow electrons by neutral atoms. For the next two years at Harvard, he took a position as an instructor and worked on the theory of nuclear forces and structure. During this time at Harvard, he also contributed to advancing quantum theory, as Kemble, in the original 1937 edition of his book on the subject, thanked his former colleague Feenberg, along with others for suggestions and assistance.

...
Wikipedia