Harry Soodak
| Harry Soodak | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
December 24, 1920 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | September 30, 2008 (aged 87) |
| Alma mater |
City College of New York Columbia University Duke University |
| Known for | homeokinetics |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics and design of nuclear reactors |
| Institutions |
Manhattan Project, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, City College of New York |
Harry Soodak (December 24, 1920 – September 30, 2008) was an American physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, publishing the first design of a sodium-cooled breeder reactor, and was a professor at City College of New York. Along with Arthur Iberall, Soodak developed the concept of homeokinetics to explain the functioning of complex systems.
Soodak was born in New York City. Married to Martha for 55 years, they had three children Deborah, Robert, and Lenore.
Soodak received his bachelor's degree from the City College of New York (CCNY) in February 1940, a master's degree from Columbia University, and his Ph.D. from Duke University in 1944.
Soodak worked on the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he gave courses on nuclear physics and reactor theory. According to Oak Ridge Director Alvin M. Weinberg, these courses were "phenomenally successful" and Soodak had the reputation in the United States Atomic Energy Commission of being "one of the clearest lecturers in the business.” In 1945, Harry and Eugene Wigner published the first design of a sodium-cooled breeder reactor. Following work at the Manhattan Project, he served as a Research Associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology for nearly three years. In 1949, Soodak joined the Physics Department of his alma mater, City College of New York. He retired in 1992.
Soodak signed the July 13, 1045 addendum to the Szilard petition that asked that the Japanese be given the opportunity to surrender before bombing them. Commenting on Soodak's early work, as well as his continuing contributions to nuclear physics after coming to CCNY – which included lecturing on nuclear theory in the graduate schools of NYU and of Columbia – Mark W. Zemansky, who was then Chairman of the Physics Department at CCNY, wrote in 1958: "During the war, Dr. Soodak made a name for himself in the field of reactor design. Through his theoretical work, in books and articles, and his practical applications, he has become a leading international authority on the design of nuclear reactors. There is hardly a handbook or treatise to which he has not contributed or served in an editorial capacity." Without doubt Harry Soodak's greatest legacy is the decisive influence he had on the hundreds of undergraduate students he taught and advised at CCNY.
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