Walter Lewin

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Walter H.G. Lewin
A 2003 photo of Lewin
A 2003 photo of Lewin
Born 1936
The Netherlands
Residence The Netherlands,
United States
Nationality Dutch
Fields Astrophysics
Institutions MIT
Alma mater Delft University of Technology
Notable awards NASA Award for Exceptional Scientific Achievement (1978)

Alexander von Humboldt Award (1984 and 1991)

Guggenheim Fellowship (1984)

MIT Science Council Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (1984),

W. Buechner Teaching Prize (1988)

Evertt Moore Baker Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2003)

Walter H. G. Lewin is currently a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Contents

[edit] Education and career

He earned his Ph.D. degree in nuclear physics in 1965 at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

Walter Lewin came to MIT in January 1966 as a post-doctoral associate, and became an assistant professor later that year[1]. He joined an x-ray astronomy group at MIT and conducted all-sky balloon surveys with George W. Clark. Through the late seventies, there were about twenty successful balloon flights. These balloon surveys led to the discovery of five new x-ray sources, which doubled the number known at the time. Furthermore, some of these x-ray sources were found to be varying, and some were x-ray flares. The rockets used by other researchers could not have discovered that the x-ray sources varied because they were only in the air for a few minutes, whereas the balloons could be in the air for many hours. The surveys also resulted in the discovery of GX 1+4, which was the first slowly rotating X-ray pulsar found.

Walter Lewin received the "2003 Everett Moore Baker Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching" award. Some of his lectures are available online in video format.

[edit] Lectures

Many of the Walter Lewin Lectures on Physics at MIT have been shown for over six years on UWTV in Seattle, reaching an audience of about four million people. Lewin personally responded to hundreds of e-mail requests that he received per year from UWTV viewers. For fifteen years he was on MIT Cable TV, with programs aired 24 hours per day helping freshmen with their weekly homework assignments. Lewin also teaches video courses on Newtonian Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, and Vibrations and Waves, which can be viewed from the MIT OpenCourseWare web site. His MIT lectures for science teachers and for middle school students can be viewed on MIT World.

Various lecturers all around the world make use of these lectures to teach their students.[citation needed]

[edit] Selected publications

  • Lewin, Walter H.G.; Jan van Paradijs, Ronald E. Taam (204-10-27). "X-ray Bursts". Space Science Reviews 62 (3-4): 223–389. doi:10.1007/BF00196124. 
  • D. Pooley, W.H.G. Lewin, S.F. Anderson, H. Baumgardt, A.V. Filippenko, B.M. Gaensler, L. Homer, P. Hut, V.M. Kaspi, B. Margon, S. McMillan, S. Portegies Zwart, M. van der Klis, & F. Verbunt (2003). "Dynamical Formation of Close Binary Systems in Globular Clusters". Astrophysical Journal 591: L131–L134. doi:10.1086/377074. 
  • J. Miller, A. Fabian, R. Wijnands, R. Remillard, P. Wojdowski, N. Schulz, T. Di Matteo, H. Marshall, C. Canizares, & W. Lewin (2002). "Resolving the Composite Fe K-alpha Emission Line in the Galactic Black Hole Cygnus X-1 with Chandra". Astrophysical Journal 578: 348–356. doi:10.1086/342466. 
  • D. Pooley, W. Lewin, L. Homer, S. Anderson, B. Gaensler, B. Margon, F. Verbunt, J. Miller, D. Fox, V. Kaspi & M. v.d. Klis (2002). "Optical Identifications of Multiple Faint X-ray Sources in the Globular Cluster NGC~6752: Evidence for Numerous Cataclysmic Variables". Astrophysical Journal 569: 405. doi:10.1086/339210. 
  • C. Kouveliotou, J. van Paradijs, G. J. Fishman, M. S. Briggs, J. Kommers, B. A. Harmon, C. A. Meegan, W. H. G. Lewin (1996). "Discovery of a New Type of Burster from the Galactic Center Region". Nature 379: 799. doi:10.1038/379799a0. 
  • M. v.d. Klis, J. Swank, W. Zhang, K. Jahoda, E. Morgan, W. Lewin, B. Vaughan, & J. van Paradijs (1996). "Discovery of Sub millisecond Quasi-periodic Oscillations in the X-ray Flux of Scorpius X-1". Astrophysical Journal 469: L1. doi:10.1086/310251. 
  • W.H.G. Lewin, G.W. Clark and W.B. Smith (1968). "Observation of an X-Ray Flare from Sco X-1". Astrophysical Journal (Letters) 152: L55. doi:10.1086/180177. 

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Instructor Profile: Walter Lewin at MIT OpenCourseWare

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME Lewin, Walter H.G.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Dutch astrophysicist
DATE OF BIRTH
PLACE OF BIRTH The Netherlands
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Lewin"
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