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| Igal Talmi | |
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| Born | January 31, 1925 Kiev, Ukraine |
| Fields | nuclear physics |
| Institutions | Weizmann Institute of Science |
Igal Talmi (Hebrew: יגאל תלמי) (born January 31, 1925) is an Israeli nuclear physicist.
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Biography
Igal Talmi was born in Kiev, Ukraine. His family immigrated to Palestine later that year and settled in Kfar Yehezkel. After graduating from Gymnasia Herzliya in Tel Aviv in 1942, he joined the Palmach.
In 1947 Talmi completed his master's degree in physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, writing his M.Sc. thesis under the guidance of Giulio Racah. In 1949, he wrote his doctorate at the ETH Zurich in Switzerland under Wolfgang Pauli. In 1952-1954, he was a research fellow at Princeton University, where he worked with Eugene Wigner.
Scientific career
In 1954 Talmi joined the Weizmann Institute of Science where he became Professor of Physics in 1958. He served as the Head of the Nuclear Physics Department (1967-1976), and the Dean of the Faculty of Physics (1970-1984). Talmi spent sabbatical years at Princeton, Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale and other universities as a visiting professor.
Talmi has been a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities since 1963, and was the Chairman of the Division of Sciences in 1974 -1980. He also served on the Israel Atomic Energy Commission.
Nuclear research
Talmi’s main field of research is the theory of nuclear structure. The atomic nucleus is composed of a large number of protons and neutrons which move due to strong interactions between them. In spite of their complexity, nuclei exhibit some simple and regular features. Most importantly, nuclei behave as if they move independently in a common static potential well. This gives rise to the existence of shells of protons and neutrons much like the electronic shells in atoms. Nuclei whose proton and neutron shells are complete have special stability and the numbers of protons and of neutrons in them are called magic numbers. This picture of the nucleus is called the nuclear shell model. To calculate energies of nuclear states it is necessary to know the exact form of the forces which act between the nuclear constituents. These are still not sufficiently known even after many years of research. Talmi developed a method to obtain the information from experimental data and use it to calculate and predict energies which have not been measured. This method has been successfully used by many nuclear physicists and has led to deeper understanding of nuclear structure.[1]
Awards
- In 1962, Talmi was awarded the Weizmann Prize of Tel Aviv Municipality.
- In 1965, he was awarded the Israel Prize in exact sciences.[2]
- In 1971, he received the Rothschild Prize.
- in 2000, he was awarded the Hans Bethe Prize of the American Physical Society.
- In 2003, Talmi received the E.M.T. Prize, presented by the prime minister of Israel.
Published work
- Nuclear Shell Theory, coauthor A.de-Shalit (1963) Academic Press, reprinted by Dover Publications).
- Simple Models of Complex Nuclei: The Shell Model and the Interacting Boson Model (1993) Harwood Academic Publishers
Personal life
Talmi is married and has two children, a son and a daughter.
References
See also
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