Eugene R. Marshalek Papers

Fonds

Identifier: ERM

Staff Only

Scope and Content

Chiefly professional academic papers from Marshalek's years as a Notre Dame Physics professor. This collection spans the years 1944-2004, although the majority of the material is dated only from the 1960s to the 1990s. It documents Marshalek's career as physicist at Notre Dame, focusing primarily on his research career in nuclear physics.

The bulk of the Marshalek Papers came from files in his home. This series dates from ca. 1960 to 2000, mostly from 1970 to 1985; original order has been maintained. The records are arranged by particular subject headings having to do with theories suitable for the microscopic description of large amplitude collective motion, collective models, and models based on group theory: Boson expansion, Low and high-spin states, Classical mechanics, Nuclear wobbling motion and rotation. It consists of research material, notes, xerox copies, offprints, magazine articles, experimental data, overhead projector transparencies, clippings, lecture notes, and drafts of papers.

This series includes Eugene R. Marshalek's extensive correspondence with the National Science Foundation and also with Notre Dame Administration. When the NSF rejected his grant proposal in 1990, Marshalek filed an appeal. These records relate to the National Science Foundation Privacy Act appeal and contain correspondence, reports, research proposals, grant applications, referee reports, legal documents, peer reviews, and studies concerning NSF's Privacy Act. An audio tape having to do with the informal NSF hearing of the Marshalek case in Washington has been separated from the original file and is stored in AERM.

This series also includes articles by others, dating from the 1970 to 1990s: offprints and preprints, proceedings, invited talks, and manuscripts submitted for publication by E. R. Marshalek's colleagues and peers. The articles are arranged by the author's name and by the type of manuscript. A separate file contains Marshalek's articles. Due to research budget constraints, the number of his academic publications decreased considerably at this time.

Marshalek's association with the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen is one of the most defining aspects of his research career. He corresponded and collaborated extensively with a number of physicists of the institute, where the Noble laureates Aage Bohr and Ben Mottelson conducted research.

The Notre Dame office series consists of four boxes and concerns research on nuclear physics from Marshalek's time at the University of Notre Dame and before as a fellow at the Niels Bohr Institute and at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. For nineteen years, while at Notre Dame, Marshalek's research in nuclear physics has been supported by research grants of the National Science Foundation. The papers concerning NSF involve articles appearing in academic journals, notes, mathematical calculations, pre prints of papers, Xerox copies, lecture outlines, overhead projector transparencies, articles of his own and of others including off-prints, clippings, peer reviews, referee reports, NSF documents, and correspondence with Notre Dame College of Science and the National Science Foundation. These records date from 1960s to the 1980s, and are arranged by particular subject areas within theoretical nuclear physics. It will be useful to researchers interested in nuclear physics and quantum mechanics theory.

The Marshalek Papers include many handwritten documents: notes, calculations and equations, drafts of papers and manuscripts, and collaborations with his peers. His handwriting is very easy to read and remained stable over time. There are no diaries or personal letters in the Marshalek Papers.

Dates

Creation: 1960-2000 (bulk 1970-1985).

Creator

Marshalek, Eugene Richard (Person)

Language of Materials

English.

Background

Eugene R. Marshalek, a native New Yorker (born in Brooklyn on 7 January 1936) earned his Bachelor of Science Degree from Queens College, Flushing, New York, in 1957. He received his doctoral degree in Chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1962. As a National Science Foundation fellow, he spent 1962-1963 at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. This was followed by a research associate position at Brookhaven Laboratory in 1963-1965. His thesis research involved calculations treating collective vibrations in deformed nuclei microscopically for the first time. In 1965 Marshalek joined the physics department at the University of Notre Dame as an assistant professor. He became a full professor of Physics in 1978 and retired in 2002 as Professor Emeritus. The majority of Marshalek's research in nuclear physics was supported by research grants from the National Science Foundation. He was supported by the Atomic Energy Commission from 1965-1971, the National Science Foundation from 1971-1990, and by the Department of Energy from 1991 until retirement. While on sabbatical leaves from the University of Notre Dame Marshalek served as visiting professor in Münich and Copenhagen and as visiting physicist at the University of Washington, Seattle. He became a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1997 and was also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1985 he received a senior Alexander von Humboldt award, for which he was indebted to his colleague, Walter Greiner. Marshalek's main research specialty was theoretical nuclear physics, in particular, microscopic theories of collective motion. He was a prolific scientist, had a large number of scientific publications, mainly in the 1970s and 1980s, and collaborated with several of his peers around the world on Boson expansion, nuclear wobbling motion, cranking model, theoretical research concerning heavy ion reaction and collision, and also on new nuclear structure questions. In the 1970s he was one of the outstanding nuclear structure theoreticians internationally. He was recognized for his pioneering contributions to the microscopic theory of nuclear collective motion, especially development of Boson mapping methods. He passed away in 2009.