Richard Dalitz

Richard Henry Dalitz
Born	February 28, 1925(1925-02-28) Dimboola, Australia
Died	January 13, 2006(2006-01-13) London, England
Nationality	Australian, British
Fields	Physics
Institutions	University of Bristol Birmingham University Cornell University Enrico Fermi Institute University of Oxford
Alma mater	Melbourne University Cambridge University
Doctoral advisor	Nicholas Kemmer
Doctoral students	Frank Close Christopher Llewellyn Smith
Known for	Dalitz plot Dalitz pair
Notable awards	Maxwell Medal and Prize (1966) Hughes Medal (1975) Royal Medal (1982)

Richard Henry Dalitz (28 February 1925 – 13 January 2006) was an Australian physicist known for his work in particle physics.^[1][2]

Born Dimboola, Victoria near Melbourne, Dalitz studied physics and mathematics at Melbourne University before moving to the United Kingdom in 1946, starting his PhD research at the University of Cambridge. After two years he took up a one year post at the University of Bristol, and then joined Rudolf Peierls' group at Birmingham University, completing his thesis demonstrating that the electrically neutral pion could decay into a photon and an electron-positron pair, now known as a Dalitz pair.

Dalitz moved to Cornell University in 1953, and in 1954 he introduced the Dalitz plot, a key development in particle physics.^[1] He then became a professor at the Enrico Fermi Institute in Chicago from 1956 to 1963, when he moved to the University of Oxford as a Royal Society research professor, although keeping a connection with Chicago until 1966. He retired in 1990.

Dalitz was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1960 and he received the Hughes Medal in 1975 "for his distinguished contributions to the theory of the basic particles of matter." He was also a close friend of John Clive Ward the creator of the Ward Identities.^[3]

When in Oxford he found out that his name was of Sorbian origin and with the help of the Oxford scholar Dr. Gerald Stone learned Sorbian and often visited Budushin. He became fluent in the language and was honored by articles in Sorbian journals.

Publications

During his lifetime, Dalitz produced numerous publications. One article lists 221 papers, and a total of 26 authored book reviews, public lectures and obituaries, and edited books.^[2] Amongst his book reviews was a critical review of Andrew Pickering's book Constructing Quarks, in which he takes to task Pickering's implication that experimenters are essentially subservient to theoreticians, saying "In reality, experimenters are cussed individuals, eager to prove the theoreticians wrong whenever possible".^[4]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Close, Frank (24 January 2006). "Richard Dalitz: Physicist who mapped the behaviour of exotic particles and argued for the reality of quarks". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,1693226,00.html. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Ian J.R. Aitchison; Frank E. Close; Avraham Gal; & D. John Millener (2 February 2008). "The scientific heritage of Richard Henry Dalitz". arXiv:physics/0603219. 
3. ^ F. J. Duarte, The man behind an identity in quantum electrodynamics, Australian Physics 46 (6), 171-175 (2009)
4. ^ "Fundamental Developments:", Nature 314 (6009): 387–388, 28 March 1985, Bibcode 1985Natur.314..387D, doi:10.1038/314387a0 

Persondata
Name	Dalitz, Richard
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	28 February 1925
Place of birth	Dimboola, Australia
Date of death	13 January 2006
Place of death	London, England