Alfred O. C. Nier

Infobox_Scientist
name = Alfred O. C. Nier


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birth_date = May 28, 1911
birth_place = St. Paul, Minnesota
death_date = May 16, 1994
death_place = Hennepin County Medical Center
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nationality = American
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field = Physicist
work_institution = University of Minnesota
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Alfred Otto Carl Nier (May 28, 1911 - May 16, 1994) was an American physicist who pioneered the development of mass spectrometry and used it in innovative ways to establish some major scientific results.

Life

Early career

Born St. Paul, Minnesota, Nier showed an early ability in mathematics and science, coupled with an aptitude for craft and mechanical work. Nier's German immigrant parents had little education or financial resources but their determination for his development meant that he was able to attend the nearby University of Minnesota. Though he graduated in electrical engineering in 1931, the lack of engineering jobs during the Great Depression encouraged him to take up graduate study in physics. Nier's graduate research started his involvement in mass spectrometry.Reynolds (1998)]

Harvard

In 1936, his spectroscopic skills won him a fellowship and substantial grant at Harvard University. His work there led to the 1938 publication of measurements of the relative abundance of the isotopes of uranium, measurements that were used by Fritz Houtermans and Arthur Holmes in the 1940s to estimate the age of the Earth.

The Manhattan Project

Nier returned to Minnesota in 1938 to be near his ageing parents. In 1940, on the request of Enrico Fermi, he and a few students, including Edward Ney, prepared a pure sample of uranium-235 using an early mass spectrograph designed by Nier himself,cite web|url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object.cfm?key=35&objkey=34|title=Nier Mass Spectrograph|publisher=National Museum of American History|accessdate=2008-05-22] for John R. Dunning's team at Columbia University. On the day of its receipt (it was sent by US Postal Mail), Dunning's team was able to demonstrate that U-235 was the isotope responsible for nuclear fission, rather than the more abundant uranium-238. Confirmation of this suspected fact was a critical step in the development of the atomic bomb.

From 1943 to 1945, Nier worked with Kellex Corporation in New York on the design and development of efficient and effective mass spectrometers for use in the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb in World War II.

Later work

After the war, he returned to Minnesota where he worked on geochronology, the upper atmosphere, space science and noble gases.

Death

Active to the end of his life, he died on May 16, 1994, two weeks after being paralysed in a motor accident. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Alfred Nier, 82; Physicist Helped Foster A-Bomb |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E03EEDA1438F93BA25756C0A962958260 |quote= Alfred O. C. Nier, a physicist at the University of Minnesota whose early work on lead and uranium isotopes helped determine the age of the earth and usher in the atomic age, died on Monday in Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. He was 82. He died from injuries suffered in an automobile accident on May 2 near his home in Roseville, Minn., a suburb of St. Paul, said Dr. Edward Ney, an emeritus professor of physics and astronomy at the university. |work=New York Times |date=May 19, 1994 |accessdate=2008-08-06 ]

Honors

*The Nier Prize is awarded annually by the Meteoritical Society and recognizes outstanding research in meteoritics and closely allied fields by young scientists.Fact|date=August 2007
*The Martian crater Nier is named for him; [ cite web | url=http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/jsp/FeatureTypesData2.jsp?systemID=4&bodyID=8&typeID=9&system=Mars&body=Mars&type=Crater,%20craters&sort=AName&show=Fname&show=Lat&show=Long&show=Diam&show=Stat&show=Orig | work=Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature | title=Mars Nomenclature: Crater, craters | publisher=USGS: Astrogeology Research Program | accessdate=2007-08-16 ]
*Member, National Academy of Sciences;Mauersberger (1999)]
*Foreign scientific member, Max Planck Society.

References

Bibliography

*Obituaries:
**"Minneapolis Star Tribune", May 17 1994;
**"St. Paul Pioneer Press", May 17 1994;
** cite journal | author=Pepin, R. and P. Signer | year=1994 | title=Memorial: Alfred O. C. Nier (1911-1994) | journal=Meteoritics | volume=29 | pages=747–48 ;
** cite journal | title=Obituary: Alfred O.C. Nier, 1912-1994 | author=Pepin, R. | journal=Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society | volume=27(4) | pages=1481–1482 | year=1995 .
* [Anon.] (1980) "Alfred Otto Carl Nier, American physicist", in cite book | title=McGraw-Hill Modern Scientists and Engineers | edition=3 vols | id=ISBN 0070452660 | publisher=McGraw Hill | pages=361-363
* cite journal | title=Alfred Nier and the sector field mass spectrometer | author=De Laeter, J. & Kurz, M. D. | year=2006 | journal=Journal of Mass Spectrometry | volume=41(7) | pages=847–854
* cite journal | title=PDF| [http://www.aps-pub.com/proceedings/1434/Nier.pdf Alfred O. C. Nier] |227 KiB | author=Mauersberger, K. | journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society | volume=143(4) | year=1999 | pages=685–691
* cite journal| author=Moore, M. P. | year=1991 | title=Alfred O. C. Nier: Physicist-gadgeteer extraordinaire | journal=University of Minnessota Research Review | pages=April
*
*cite journal|title=Some reflections on the early days of mass spectrometry at the University of Minnesota|journal=International Journal of Mass Spectrometry and Ion Processes |date=1990|first=A. O.|last=Nier|coauthors=|volume=100|issue=|pages=1–13|id= |url=|format=|accessdate=2007-09-10|doi=10.1016/0168-1176(90)85063-8
* cite web | url=http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/biomems/anier.html | work=Biographical Memoirs | title=Alfred Otto Carl Nier | author=Reynolds, J. H. | publisher=National Academy of Sciences | accessdate=2007-08-16 | year=1998

External links

* cite web | title=Nier Mass Spectrograph | url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object.cfm?key=35&objkey=34 | work=National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center | publisher=Smithsonian Institution | accessdate=2007-08-16
* cite web | title=Alfred Nier at his mass spectrograph which he used to separate a sample of U-235 | url=http://www.hcc.mnscu.edu/programs/dept/chem/abomb/page_id_28519.html | work=History of the Atomic Bomb | publisher=Hibbing Community College | accessdate=2007-08-16
* cite web | title=Alfred and Ardis Nier at Nier's retirement party | work=Emilio Segrè Visual Archives | publisher=American Institute of Physics | accessdate=2007-08-16 | url=http://photos.aip.org/images/catalog/nier_alfred_g1.jsp
* cite web | title=Nier, Verbrugge and Newbury | work=Emilio Segrè Visual Archives | publisher=American Institute of Physics | accessdate=2007-08-16 | url=http://photos.aip.org/images/catalog/nier_alfred_c2.jsp

Persondata
NAME= Nier, Alfred O. C.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= American Physicist
DATE OF BIRTH= May 28, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH= St. Paul, Minnesota
DATE OF DEATH= May 16, 1994
PLACE OF DEATH=