Nicholas Kemmer

Nicholas Kemmer FRS FRSE (7 December 1911 – 21

October 1998) was a Russian-born nuclear physicist Nicholas Kemmer
working in Britain, who played an integral and leading
edge role in United Kingdom's nuclear programme,
and was known as a mentor of Abdus Salam – a Nobel
laureate in physics.

Life

Early life
Nicholas was born to Nicholas P. Kemmer and Barbara
Stutzer in Saint Petersburg.[2] His family moved to
Germany in 1922, where he was educated at
Bismarckschule Hanover and then at the University of
Göttingen. He received his doctorate in nuclear physics Born 7 December 1911
at the University of Zurich and worked as an assistant Saint Petersburg, Russian
to Wolfgang Pauli, who had to give strong arguments Empire
in 1936, before being allowed to employ a non-Swiss Died 21 October 1998 (aged 86)
national.[3] Later on, Kemmer moved to the Beit Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Fellowship at Imperial College London. Nationality British
Citizenship British–German–Russian
British nuclear development Alma mater University of Göttingen
Kemmer moved to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1940 University of Zurich
to work on Tube Alloys, the wartime atomic energy Imperial College London
project. In 1940, when Egon Bretscher and Norman Known for British nuclear programme
Feather showed that a slow neutron reactor fuelled Neutron scattering
with uranium would in theory produce substantial Duffin–Kemmer–Petiau
amounts of plutonium-239 as a by-product, Kemmer algebra
(who was lodging at the Bretschers') proposed the Awards Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize
names Neptunium for the new element 93 and (1984)
Plutonium for 94 by analogy with the outer planets Max Planck Medal (1983)
Neptune and Pluto beyond Uranus (uranium being J. Robert Oppenheimer
element 92). The Americans Edwin M. McMillan and Memorial Prize (1975)
Hughes Medal (1966)
FRS (1956)[1]
Scientific career
Philip Abelson at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, Fields Nuclear physics
who had made the same discovery, fortuitously Institutions Tube Alloys
suggested the same names. Manhattan Project
Trinity College, Cambridge
Berkeley Radiation Laboratory
Professorship
University of Edinburgh
Kemmer spent 1944–1946 in Canada. In 1953 he
Doctoral Wolfgang Pauli
became the third Tait Professor of Mathematical
advisor Gregor Wentzel
Physics at the University of Edinburgh, succeeding the
retiring Max Born. He founded the Tait Institute of Doctoral Abdus Salam
Mathematical Physics in 1955 and taught at Edinburgh students Paul Taunton Matthews
until 1979. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Richard Dalitz
Society of Edinburgh in 1954. His proposers were John Stephen Roy Chisholm
Norman Feather, Max Born, Sir Edmund Whittaker Lalit Mohan Nath
and Alexander Aitken. He served as the Society's Vice-
President from 1971 to 1974.[4]

Kemmer was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1956[1] and won its Hughes Medal in 1966. He
was awarded the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize in 1975.[5][6] Nicholas Kemmer was also a
mentor and a teacher of the only Pakistani Nobel laureate, Dr. Abdus Salam. Kemmer is credited to
trained and work with Salam in Neutron scattering by using relativity equations.

Work and legacy

Duffin–Kemmer–Petiau equation
The Duffin–Kemmer–Petiau equation (DKP equation, also called
Duffin–Kemmer equation or Kemmer equation) plays a role in the
description of the standard model of particles, together with the
Yang-Mills field. The Duffin–Kemmer–Petiau equation is closely
linked to the Proca equation[7] and the Klein–Gordon equation.[8]
The DKP equation suffers the same drawback as the Klein– Nicholas Kemmer Road, King's
[8]
Gordon equation in that it calls for negative probabilities. The Buildings, Edinburgh

equation involves matrices which obey the Duffin–Kemmer–

Petiau algebra. The work leading to the DKP equation, culminating in Kemmer's article,[9] has been
quoted as "the first attempt at writing down a satisfactory relativistic theory of elementary particles
beyond the electron", and these equations have later been brought in unified form with the Dirac equation
by Homi J. Bhabha.[10]

Recognition
Nicholas Kemmer Road in Edinburgh University's King's Buildings complex is named in his honour.

References
1. Dyson, F. (2011). "Nicholas Kemmer. 7 December 1911 -- 21 October 1998" (https://doi.org/
10.1098%2Frsbm.2011.0008). Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 57:
189–204. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2011.0008 (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frsbm.2011.0008).
2. Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (https://
www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf) (PDF). The
Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
3. Charles P. Enz, Beat Glaus, Gerhard Oberkofler (eds.): Wolfgang Pauli und sein Wirken an
der ETH Zürich, vdh Hochschulverlag ETHZ Zürich, 1997, ISBN 3-7281-2317-X, p. 62 (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=_VRy1KU8ShEC&pg=PA62) (in German language)
4. Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (https://
www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf) (PDF). The
Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
5. Walter, Claire (1982). Winners, the blue ribbon encyclopedia of awards (https://archive.org/d
etails/winnersblueribbo0000walt/page/438). Facts on File Inc. p. 438 (https://archive.org/det
ails/winnersblueribbo0000walt/page/438). ISBN 9780871963864.
6. "J. Robert Oppenheimer Prize awarded to Nicholas Kemmer". Physics Today. 28 (4).
American Institute of Physics: 109. April 1975. Bibcode:1975PhT....28d.109. (https://ui.adsa
bs.harvard.edu/abs/1975PhT....28d.109.). doi:10.1063/1.3068944 (https://doi.org/10.1063%
2F1.3068944).
7. Sergey Kruglov: Symmetry and electromagnetic interaction of fields with multi-spin. A
Volume in Contemporary Fundamental Physics, ISBN 1-56072-880-9, 2000, p. 26 (https://b
ooks.google.com/books?id=E6Elkxs9PaIC&pg=PA26)
8. Anton Z. Capri: Relativistic quantum mechanics and introduction to quantum field theory,
World Scientific, 2002, ISBN 981-238-136-8, p. 25 (https://books.google.com/books?id=tTJ
HB5hepQUC&pg=PA25)
9. N. Kemmer: The particle aspect of meson theory, Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 10.
November 1939, vol. 173, no. 952, pp. 91–116, doi:10.1098/rspa.1939.0131 (https://doi.org/
10.1098%2Frspa.1939.0131)
10. Animesh Datta: High-spin field theories and relativistic quantum mechanics of bosons, In
Emerson D. Seifer (ed.): Bosons, ferromagnetism and crystal growth research, pp. 119–
150, Nova Science Publishers, 2006, ISBN 978-1-60021-367-0, p. 122 (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=QFokQozc4HEC&pg=PA122)

External links
The Papers of Professor Nicholas Kemmer (https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/
9/resources/1661) held at the Churchill Archives Centre

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