Jerome Isaac Friedman is an American scientist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1990 for demonstrating the existence of quarks experimentally. Between 1967 and 1975, he collaborated with Richard Taylor and Henry Kendall, who were his collaborators during his most prolific years of research. Friedman’s fascination with science began in high school. Friedman became interested in physical science after a chance reading of Einstein’s ‘Relativity.’ He abandoned his artistic ambitions in favor of science. During Friedman’s PhD years, Enrico Fermi acted as his guardian. They studied the structure and interactions of high-energy electrons, neutrinos, and hadrons as a team. These formative encounters were crucial in Friedman’s professional development. He and Taylor and Kendall made their life’s biggest discovery in 1967 when they gave the scientific world experimental evidence of quarks. They used a huge accelerator to fire charged electrons at protons and neutrons in their experiment. As a result, protons have been seen to transform into other particles, leading to the development of the quark model in particle physics.
Childhood and Adolescence
Jerome Isaac Friedman was born on March 28, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois, to Lillian and Selig Friedman. He was the second of the couple’s two children to be born. His parents were Russian Jews who had come to the United States.
Friedman’s parents, who were both dedicated students, encouraged him to study as a child. His parents, despite their lack of knowledge, wanted their children to obtain a stable formal education. Friedman received his primary and secondary schooling in Chicago as a result. He was gifted in the arts and aspired to pursue a career in the field.
Friedman’s interest in science, particularly physics, was sparked by Einstein’s book “Relativity.” He gave up his scholarship to the Art Institute of Chicago Museum School to satisfy his curiosity about the physical world, which he had been fascinated by since he was a child.
Friedman received a full scholarship to the University of Chicago. He was admitted to the Physics Department in 1950 after completing the criteria of a highly creative and intellectually demanding liberal arts curriculum.
Under the direction of Enrico Fermi, he got his Master’s degree in 1953 and his Ph.D. three years later.
Friedman began working as a post-doctoral scholar at the University of Chicago’s nuclear emulsion laboratory under Valentine Telegdi after obtaining his PhD. They collaborated on an emulsion experiment to look for parity violations in muon decay.
Friedman began working with Robert Hofstadter in 1957. As a Research Associate, he joined the latter’s group at Stanford University’s High Energy Physics Laboratory. He met Henry Kendall while working, and their friendship grew into a long-term collaboration.
Friedman studied counter physics and electron scattering techniques at SLAC. Several tests on elastic and inelastic electron deuteron scattering were carried out by him. He even devised a method for correcting inelastic spectra with radiative corrections.
Friedman was given a job as a faculty member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Physics Department in 1960. He accepted a position at Stanford University soon after, where he collaborated on a project to monitor muon pair production at the Cambridge Electron Accelerator (CEA) to evaluate the validity of Quantum Electro-Dynamics.
Kendall, along with other physicists such as WKH Panofsky, Richard Taylor, and others, joined Friedman’s group in 1961. At the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, the group began creating electron scattering equipment for a physics program.
Friedman and Kendall commuted back and forth between MIT and SLAC on a regular basis, managing their responsibilities. At SLAC, they formed an MIT group. The group received a new accelerator, as well as assistance in designing and building appropriate experimental facilities and the chance to engage in the investigation of a new energy range with electrons.
Friedman’s professional apex occurred in the latter part of the 1960s, especially beginning in 1967 and lasting until 1975. During this time, his group conducted a series of measurements of inelastic electron scattering from the proton and neutron, providing the first direct proof that protons have an interior structure known as the nucleon’s quark substructure.
The world understood that matter was made up of protons and neutrons with electrons around them. Friedman, Taylor, and Kendall used the experiment to investigate how electrons scattered after collisions and how protons were sometimes transformed into other particles. Their findings backed up the notion that protons and neutrons are made up of quarks, which are sub-particles.
Friedman and his associates conducted a series of experiments to study elastic scattering, Feynman scaling, and the production mechanism in inclusive hadron scattering following their groundbreaking discoveries. They developed a big neutrino detector at Fermilab after that. The program’s major goal was to investigate weak neutral currents in neutrino and anti-neutrino nucleon scattering studies.
Friedman was named Director of the MIT Laboratory for Nuclear Science in 1980. He became the Head of the Physics Department three years later, from 1983 to 1988. Friedman maintained his love for study and teaching despite his managerial responsibilities.
Friedman returned to full-time teaching and research in 1988, after a spell with administrative responsibilities. His MIT group was involved in the development of a massive detector at the Stanford Linear Collider to examine electron-positron annihilations, as well as design work on a detector for the Superconducting Super Collider.
Friedman is an honorary professor at the University of Belgrade’s Faculty of Physics, as well as the Faculty’s internationally renowned institutes, the Institute of Physics, the Institute of Physics, Zemun, and the Vinca Nuclear Institute. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he is an Institute Professor or Emeritus Professor.
He has served on a number of advisory committees for various projects over the years. He served on the University Research Association’s Board of Directors for six years, including three years as Vice President. He is a member of the Department of Energy’s High Energy Advisory Panel and the Chairman of the Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory’s Scientific Policy Committee.
Friedman is currently a member of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Board of Sponsors.
Major Projects of Jerome Isaac Friedman
Friedman’s most notable achievements occurred between 1967 and 1975 when he worked at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center on a series of studies. Friedman, Taylor, and Kendall used the experiment to investigate how electrons scattered after collisions and how protons were sometimes transformed into other particles. Their findings backed up the notion that protons and neutrons are made up of quarks, which are sub-particles.
Achievements & Awards
Friedman, along with Henry Kendall and Richard Taylor, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1990.
Friedman received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Belgrade in 2008.
Personal History and Legacy
Tania Letetsky-Baranovsky and Friedman married the marriage in 1956. Ellena, Joel, Martin, and Sandra, the couple’s four children, were born to them.
Jerome Isaac Friedman Net Worth
Jerome Isaac Friedman is a well-known physicist who is among the wealthiest. Jerome Isaac Friedman’s net worth is estimated to be at $1.5 million according to Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider.