Background
Weissman, Samuel Isaac was born on June 25, 1912 in South Bend, Indiana, United States.
Weissman, Samuel Isaac was born on June 25, 1912 in South Bend, Indiana, United States.
Bachelor of Science, University Chicago, 1933. Doctor of Philosophy in Physical Chemistry, University Chicago, 1938. Doctor of Philosophy in Physical Chemistry, University Siena, 1986.
Doctor of Philosophy in Physical Chemistry, Washington University, 1988.
Weissman was working on a project on fluorescent energy transfer, which later led to some rare-earth lasers, at the University of California at Berkeley when he was asked to join the Manhattan Project developing atomic weapons in 1943. He was among a group who asked unsuccessfully that the bomb not be dropped on civilian targets. After his Los Alamos stint, Weissman went to the Washington University in Saint Louis in 1946 becoming a full professor in 1955.
At Washington University, Weissman worked with others developing the use of electron spin resonance.
He was one of the first, probably in parallel with Clyde Hutchison, to measure the hyperfine splitting of the Electron spin resonance line caused by the interaction with nuclear spins. This hyperfine splitting is the main source of the sensitivity of Electron spin resonance to the chemical environment of the electron, and hence it underlies the broad applications of Electron spin resonance in chemistry.
Much of his work concerned the way this interaction term behaves as molecules tumble around in solution or undergo chemical reactions. He also investigated the special non-equilibrium Electron spin resonance effects which are found as reactions take place.
Weissman retired from Washington University in 1980 and died in June 2007.
National Academy of Sciences]
Weissman was a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences.
Married 1943; two children.