Martin Deutsch
| Martin Deutsch | |
|---|---|
| Born |
29 January 1917 Vienna, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 16 August 2002 (aged 85) Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Residence | Austria Switzerland United States |
| Nationality | Austrian American |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions |
Manhattan Project MIT |
| Alma mater | MIT |
| Doctoral advisor | Robley D. Evans |
| Doctoral students | Henry Kendall |
| Known for | Discovery of positronium |
Martin Deutsch (29 January 1917 – 16 August 2002) was an Austrian-American physicist, who was emeritus professor of physics at MIT. He is best known for being the discoverer of positronium.
Deutsch was born in Vienna during the First World War to a Jewish family. Both of his parents were physicians; his mother Helene Deutsch was a professor of psychiatry at the University of Vienna and a student and colleague of Sigmund Freud.
In 1934, after the Fascist seizure of power in Austria, Deutsch moved to Zürich, Switzerland. He completed secondary school there and attended the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology for one semester.
The following year, young Martin Deutsch accompanied his mother on a trip to the United States. During their outbound journey, the Italians invaded Ethiopia; the family decided that it would be best to resettle in America. They moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where both parents became influential psychiatrists.
Deutsch enrolled at MIT, where he excelled at mathematics and physics. He received his BS degree in 1937, after two years of study. In 1939, he married Suzanne Zeitlin, a native Bostonian who had just graduated from Simmons College with a master's degree in Social Work. They had two children, L. Peter Deutsch and Nicholas Deutsch. Martin earned his Ph.D. in Physics in 1941, under Robley D. Evans leading to a thesis entitled: A Study of Nuclear Radiations by Means of a Magnetic Lens Beta Ray Spectrometer.
Since Deutsch was still a German subject in 1941 (Germany annexed Austria in 1938; under the Nuremberg Laws, Jews were stripped of their citizenship and considered "subjects" of the Reich), he was classified by the U.S. Government as an enemy alien. Deutsch was a committed anti-fascist, and wanted to help in the war effort, and so he had to wait for two years to receive a security clearance. During that time, he taught and did research at MIT.
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