Have you ever spent lengthy, sleepless nights questioning which physicist you emulate probably the most? Possibly you’ve flipped by way of textbooks and magazines searching for a job mannequin with the identical style in ice cream or residence decor type to no avail. Nicely, the group on the Niels Bohr Library & Archives is right here to assist. We curated a few of our favourite physicists and recognized your burning questions so you’ll be able to lastly relaxation straightforward. Make sure to click on on the pink-outlined portraits to be taught extra about your internal physicist… and your self.

Biographies

Luis Alvarez (1911-1988)

You’re Luis Alvarez! You like experimental physics, however that’s not all! You try to strive new issues and develop your thoughts and skillsets each time doable. Your big selection of pursuits brings you in touch with numerous new colleagues and mates, although you could describe your self as an introvert. You cherish your loved ones and revel in collaborating with them to develop scientific theories.

Luis W. Alvarez was an American experimental physicist and inventor. In 1968, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the event of the hydrogen bubble chamber. Alvarez can also be identified for his work on radar methods, the Manhattan Venture, and theories on dinosaur extinction which he developed together with his son, Walter.

Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806)

You’re Benjamin Banneker! You like inviting all your pals over for extravagant candlelit dinners. No matter of dialog is off-limits, however you are inclined to steer it in the direction of one thing visionary, like interstellar journey.

Benjamin Banneker was a mathematician, astronomer, surveyor, and almanac creator. Born in 1731 a free African-American, Banneker is probably most well-known for his building of a wood clock. The clock was constructed fully from scratch and stored exact time for practically 40 years.

Laura Bassi (1711-1778)

You’re Laura Bassi! Like this spectacular physicist, you allure others simply by way of your intelligence and charisma and are open-minded to new concepts and views. Your property is stuffed with artwork and the most recent know-how. On a sizzling summer time day, you will be discovered having fun with chocolate gelato with mates, animatedly discussing mental matters.

Laura Bassi was an eighteenth-century physics professor and experimental physicist in Bologna, Italy. She was Europe’s first feminine physics professor and was the second lady to obtain a college diploma. Along with lecturing and fascinating in public debates, Bassi carried out her personal analysis and opened a college for experimental physics that students throughout Europe attended.

Annie Soar Cannon (1863-1941) 

You’re Annie Soar Cannon! Relating to endurance and particulars, you’re a machine. Actually! Your nickname is Laptop Cannon! Nothing pleases you greater than a heat summer time evening spent gazing on the stars (ideally with a vanilla milkshake in hand). You gather just a little little bit of all the things, from small canine (the smaller the higher) to the 350,000 stars you categorised throughout your profession at Harvard Observatory. Individuals might imagine you’re sedate and old style, however you like to embrace the brand new and thrilling, like John Phillips Sousa marches and new stellar classification methods.

Annie Soar Cannon was an astronomer who spent her profession doing stellar classification at Harvard with Edward C. Pickering. One of many well-known Harvard Computer systems, she categorised 350,000 stars throughout her profession, greater than anybody else. The stellar classification system she developed remains to be used as we speak.

Eunice Foote (1819-1888)

You’re Eunice Foote! There may be by no means a boring second in your life as you’re continuously busy pursuing your targets and passions. Generally you don’t obtain the popularity you deserve however your contributions won’t go unnoticed perpetually. You like spending time together with your shut family and friends and love life’s easy pleasures, like a pleasant stroll on a summer time day.

Eunice Foote was an American scientist who found the heat-absorbing properties of water vapor and carbon dioxide in 1856. She predicted local weather change when she concluded: “an environment of that gasoline [carbon dioxide] would give to our earth a excessive temperature.” Till 2011, nevertheless, she was unrecognized for her scientific contributions. Foote was additionally an inventor and suffragette, combating for girls’s proper to vote.

Joan Hinton (1921-2010)

You’re Joan Hinton! You don’t want fancy homes, objects, or titles to be completely happy and are strongly led by your morals. You utilize your scientific mindset to assist make the world a greater place to reside, whether or not it’s making dairy farms extra environment friendly or collaborating in political actions.

Joan Hinton’s profession in physics started in 1944 when she was in graduate college; she was recruited to work on the Manhattan Venture with Enrico Fermi. Assuming the bomb would simply be utilized in an illustration explosion, she was shocked when the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki and have become an enthusiastic peace activist. She moved to China in 1948 in the course of the Communist revolution, the place she lived and labored till her demise in 2010.

Elmer Imes (1883-1941)

You’re Elmer Imes! You’re a profitable tutorial however you additionally recognize the significance of celebrating tradition and the humanities. You take pleasure in an evening of music with shut mates as a lot as you’re keen on experimentally proving groundbreaking quantum theories.

Experimental spectroscoper Elmer Imes was the second African American to earn a doctorate in physics. He labored in spectroscopy and quantum mechanics, was concerned in New York Metropolis’s Harlem Renaissance, and later went on to determine Fisk College’s Physics Division.

Katherine Johnson (1918-2020)

You’re Katherine Johnson! You’re enthusiastic about your work, and also you don’t let anybody or something get in your manner in relation to attaining your targets. You don’t do it for the popularity, however when individuals see the way you excel when doing what you’re keen on, they’ll’t assist however admire you. You’re a tech whiz however can simply as simply hold your self busy fixing equations manually by the sunshine of a stunning summer-scented candle. You wish to give attention to the little particulars that each one work collectively and hold all the things operating easily, and because of this, everybody is aware of they’ll depend on you. And naturally, like all NASA workers, you like to journey by spaceship each time you’ll be able to (an proven fact).

Katherine Johnson was a mathematician and pc for NASA. Her handbook calculations have been an important a part of the science that made the Apollo missions doable. Johnson, an African American lady, was not widely known for her contributions for a lot of many years. A 2016 novel and movie, each titled Hidden Figures, advised the story of Katherine and different NASA computer systems, which educated the general public on the numerous function they’d within the success of the well-known missions.

Frank Kameny (1925-2011)

You’re Frank Kameny! You embrace the KonMari strategy to materials items and also you hate litter. You keep up late working by way of these chilly winter nights in your political activism, perched below your favourite electrical process gentle and petting your rescue tabby cat. You’re a trend-setter, not a trend-follower, so when somebody asks you whether or not you’d like chocolate or vanilla ice cream, you say each. Astronomy is all within the particulars, however you’re targeted on the large image targets of equality and respect for all.

Frank Kameny was an astronomer and homosexual rights activist. Early in his profession, he was fired from a place as an astronomer within the US Military’s Map Service (and barred from any future authorities positions) on account of his homosexuality. He petitioned the Supreme Court docket to overturn this resolution, although they refused to take up the case. Denied a profession in astronomy, he spent the remainder of his life advocating for homosexual rights.

Vera Rubin (1928-2016)

You’re Vera Rubin! Your curiosity about our existence in house and time and your love of the celebs are each insatiable. As you ponder the questions of the universe, you’ll use no matter know-how works greatest to search for solutions. Or, you would possibly talk about your ideas with your loved ones and mates.

American astronomer Vera Rubin was probably the most influential scientists of her period for her monumental contributions to darkish matter analysis and her advocacy efforts for girls within the sciences.

Abdus Salam (1926-1996)

You’re Abdus Salam! Your coronary heart thrills as you ponder the small mysteries of the universe, which you favor to do on a chilly, brisk morning stroll together with your previous English bulldog pup. Higher but, you’re excited to share your data and enthusiasm with the world on any morning.

Abdus Salam was a famend theoretical physicist who made main efforts towards rising the physics neighborhood in his native Pakistan and in different underrepresented nations. He turned a Nobel Laureate in 1979 for his contributions to the electroweak unification principle.

Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997)

You’re Chien-Shiung Wu! You like waking up on chilly December mornings to take pleasure in a heat cup of espresso, however you’re very explicit in regards to the roast. You normally go for a heavy-bottomed mug so your Norwegian Forest cat can’t knock it off the desk.

Chien-Shiung Wu was a Chinese language- American physicist identified for her work on the Manhattan Venture and contributions to experimental and particle physics. Wu’s experiments confirming the invalidity of the conservation of parity regulation led to the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics. Nevertheless, Wu was notably snubbed, as solely her colleagues, Tsung Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang, obtained the Prize. In her retirement, Wu repeatedly lectured to advertise STEM training for younger ladies.

Disclaimer:

The aim of this publish is to introduce you to some superb scientists. These solutions are speculative and based mostly on what we all know of those physicists. For instance, we now have no documentation displaying Laura Bassi didn’t like jazz, nevertheless as an 18th-century Italian physicist, she wouldn’t have ever heard jazz. Some solutions are only for enjoyable, and for the aim of the diagram. It’s doable Frank Kameny’s favourite ice cream was rocky highway and we would by no means know. For those who occur to know the actual reply to any of those questions on any of those physicists, we’d love to listen to from you!

*Particular because of Tom Connell, Abigail Malate, Sam Holland, Sarah Weirich, Allison Rein, Audrey Lengel, Joanna Behrman, and Corinne Mona for his or her contributions to this publish.