One of the best-written, most skillful expositions of group theory and its physical applications, directed primarily to advanced undergraduate and graduate students in physics, especially quantum physics. With problems.

Born in 1915 in Brooklyn, N.Y., Hamermesh received a bachelor’s degree from City College of New York (CCNY) in 1936 and a doctorate from New York University in 1940. He taught at CCNY, Stanford University and New York University before serving as director of the Physics Division of Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago from 1959 to 1963. In 1965, following two years as associate laboratory director at Argonne, he joined the University of Minnesota as professor and head of SPA. He left in 1969 for a similar post at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, but returned to his University of Minnesota position after a year, serving as SPA head until 1975. He retired from the university in December 1985. “People respected him and thought the department was well run,” said Allen Goldman, current head of SPA. “We viewed him as a real leader who had a major impact on the development of the department. Under his watch, the department branched out into the areas of experimental particle physics and condensed matter physics. He really will be missed.” A theoretical nuclear physicist, Hamermesh made important contributions to his field, Goldman said. Hamermesh measured the magnetic properties of the neutron, an electrically neutral particle found in the nuclei of most elements. He contributed to the understanding of how Mossbauer spectroscopy works. The technique, which involves the study of atoms arranged in crystal lattices, is an important tool for determining the atomic structure of all kinds of materials. Hamermesh also contributed to the design of machines called accelerators, which produce particles at high energy. Such particles are used to probe the nature of atomic nuclei and elementary particles in general. During his career, Hamermesh worked with four Nobel Physics Prizewinners: John Van Vleck, Clifford Shull, Felix Bloch and Julian Schwinger. Hamermesh’s 1962 book “Group Theory and its Applications to Physical Problems” explained mathematical principles important in physics to a wide readership. Adept at Russian, Hamermesh translated a classic text on field theory from Russian and served as a translator for the American Institute of Physics. He also served as editor of the Journal of Mathematical Physics, the major scientific journal in its field, from 1970 to 1978. On a trip to Russia, Hamermesh attended the doctoral thesis defense of Arkady Vainshtein, who is now a physics professor at the University of Minnesota. Perhaps most importantly from a student point of view, Hamermesh and fellow U of M physics professor Benjamin Bayman wrote a book on how to prepare for the written exams their department gives to graduate students seeking a doctorate. An accomplished chess player, Hamermesh placed sixth in a U.S. open chess competition during the mid-1940s. His game with Samuel Reshevsky, a six-time U.S. champion, was among those Reshevsky listed as the top 100 games of his career. Hamermesh played league chess on a University of Minnesota team and continued to pursue his passion at the Skyway Senior Center in Minneapolis. In 1966 Hamermesh received the Townsend Harris Medal from CCNY, an honor he shared with such other CCNY alumni as Felix Frankfurter, Jonas Salk and Colin Powell.

See something that violates our rules? Blow the whistle and inform a moderator.