Abraham Pais in 1963. Photo by GFHund. Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 Interesting Facts about Abraham Pais


 

Abraham Pais was a Dutch-American physicist and science historian born on 19th May, 1918 to Jewish parents and died on 28th July, 2000 at 82 years of age.

Pais earned his PhD from the University of Utrecht just before   the Nazis banned Jews from participating in Dutch universities during the Second World War from.

During the Second World War when Dutch Jews began being forcefully relocated to concentration camps, Pais went into hiding. However, he was later arrested and was only released after the war was over.

The top 10 interesting facts about Abraham Pais include the following.

1. Pais Had A Working Knowledge of English, French, and German Languages

Abraham Pais. Photo by Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, Amsterdam. Wikimedia Commons

Pais was a bright student and also a voracious reader especially during his early years in school. He attended a school in Amsterdam with a five-year curriculum of five subjects at the age of twelve.

This was after passing higher examinations to enter the higher burgher school.

He passed at the top of his class and in addition had a working knowledge of three languages namely English, French, and German languages.

2. Pais Obtained His PhD Five Days Before A Ban on Issuance of Doctoral Degrees To Jews Was Effected

Leon Rosenfeld. Photo by GFHund. Wikimedia Commons

On 22nd April, 1940 Pais passed the prerequisite examination for the award of a master’s degree just one month before the Nazi German war machine rolled into the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

Pais was appointed an assistant to Professor Léon Rosenfeld who took over from George Uhlenbeck, professor of theoretical physics at University of Utrecht.

Pais took over the position and began working on his doctoral dissertation under Rosenfeld.

Pais dissertation was to formulate Møller’s meson theory in terms of projective relativity theory and its uses.

Pais lost his assistant professorship job in November 1940 after the German authorities issued a decree banning Jews from all civil service jobs.

On 14th June 1941, the occupying German authorities issued another decree banning issuance of doctorate degrees to Dutch Jews.

Pais worked feverishly to complete his dissertation and meet all other requirements for the award of a doctorate degree in theoretical physics.

On June 9, 1941 Pais was awarded the doctorate degree just five days before the deadline for non-issuance of doctoral degrees to Jews.

Until after the war was over, Pais was the last Dutch Jew to be issued with a Ph.D.

3. Pais Survived The Second World War

Sobibor Extermination Camp. Photo by Anonymous. Wikimedia Commons

In early 1943 arrangements were made for the university’s Jews to report to Barneveld by the Dutch secretary general of internal affairs.

It was alleged that they would be housed in a chateau for their own safety.

Instead of reporting to Barneveld, Pais went into hiding since he did not trust the German authorities.

However, most of the Jews who obeyed the authorities were later sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp where most of them survived the war.

Pais and his parents were assisted by his non-Jewish girl friend Tina Strobos to find ideal places to hide. His sister Annie was killed at Sobibór extermination camp after failing to heed his call to hide.

Tina found a farm located outside of Amsterdam for his parent where they hid and survived the war but Pais continued hiding in Amsterdam.

During hiding, Pais was visited by Hendrik Anthony Kramers and LambertusBroer who were part of the scientific community at the time.

In 1945 he together with other three Jews he was hiding with were betrayed and all four were apprehended. Pais was released four days before the war ended after interrogation by the Gestapo.

4. Pais Was A Colleague Of Albert Einstein in 1947

Albert Einstein. Photo by Ferdinand Schmutzer. Wikimedia Commons

After the war, Pais’s doctoral dissertation earned him a job as an assistant to Niels Bohr in his country home in Tisvilde in Denmark in 1946.

Pais became a colleague of Albert Einstein in 1947 after he accepted a position at the Institute for Advanced Study in the United States of America. Albert Einstein was already working with the Institute.

5. Pais Made Notable Contributions To Science

  Pais made notable contributions to the field of science. One of his contributions was a precise definition of G-parity with Res Jost, and his treatment of SU(6) symmetry breaking among others.

Two concepts he is associated with which contributed to major breakthrough in his field of study  include “associated production” and Pais’s and Gell-Mann’s theory regarding the composition of neutral kaons.

6. Pais Headed The Theoretical Physics Group At Rockefeller University

Pais became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1956 and in 1963  he accepted to head the theoretical physics group at Rockefeller University.

Rockefeller was in transition at the time from being a medical institute to a university when Pais accepted the position.

Pais became Detlev W. Bronk professor emeritus at the university which marked his career at the University.

7. Pais Received Many Honors During His Long Career

Pais received many honors during his long career some of which were being elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1962 and 1972 respectively.

Pais was also awarded the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize in 1979 and elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1984 among others.

8. Pais Is Best Known For His Biography Of Albert Einstein

Pais wrote his biography of Albert Einstein, ‘Subtle is the Lord; The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein which won the 1983 U.S. National Book Award in Science and is perhaps what he is best known for.

Einstein’s remark on his personal creed ”Subtle is the Lord, but malicious he is not. ‘is what the title referred to.

Scientists held that the book captured the essence of their intellectual culture, it won critical acclaim and became an instant classic.

9. Pais Wrote Biographies Of Robert Oppenheimer and Bohr

Pais became interested in documenting the history of modern physics in the late 1970s.

Having known many of the key people in science and with his knowledge of the language, culture, and science, he felt he was best placed to do so.

Pais wrote the biography of Bohr and was working on the biography of Robert Oppenheimer when he died.

10. The Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics Is Awarded In His Honor

The   Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics is awarded annually since 2005 by the American Physical Society and the American Institute of Physics.

The prize is awarded to scholars who demonstrate outstanding scholarly achievements in the history of physics.

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