This collection of essays by scientists from around the world honors Victor Frederick Weisskopf, one of the true luminaries of twentieth- century physics. Among the many breakthroughs his research has yielded have been the theory of the widths of energy levels of the electron, the "Clouded Crystal Ball" model of nuclear structure, and the "MIT Bag" model of hadronic matter. For his contributions to physics, Dr. Weisskopf has been awarded the Max Planck Medal, the J. Robert Oppenheimer Medal, and most recently, the Karl Taylor Compton Award. The essays in this book, by some of the world's leading physicists, including seven nobel prize winners, address topics ranging from Weisskopf's contributions to theoretical physics to more intimate views of his role as teacher, friend, and humanist. Contributors include: Hans A. Bethe; Hendrick B.G. Casimir; Georges Charpak; Sidney D. Drell; Evgenii L. Feinberg; Herman Feshbach; Jerome I. Friedman and Henry W. Kendall; Murray Gell-Mann; Kurt Gottfried; J. David Jackson; Maurice Jacob; Francis E. Low; Ove Nathan; Norman F. Ramsey; Walter Thirring; and Charles H. Townes. For all his accomplishments, Victor Weisskopf remains a contemplative and unpretentious man. Throughout the world's scientific community he is known simply as Viki. The man and his work are revealed here by the collaborators, colleagues, and friends who know him best.

InhaltsangabePart I: Weisskopf's Time Line.- Chronology; Select Publications.- Honors and Awards.- Presidential Positions and Memberships.- Part II: A Man of Insight and His Journey into Depths: Reflections on a Polymathic Mind.- The Power of Insight.- Achievements in Physics.- Weisskopf on Einstein and Bohr.- The "Copenhagen Faust".- The MIT and the CERN.- Viki: Friend, Colleague, and Teacher, Weisskopf: A Musician; Weisskopf, Science, World.- Part III: Words of Wisdom: Memorable Sayings, Opinions and Thoughts of V.F. Weisskopf.- Part IV: Weisskopf and the International Community of Physicists; Life and Science with Viki.- Van der Waals Forces and Zeropoint Energy.- Victor Weisskopf: Director, Teacher, Wise Brother.- Viki: Scientist, Humanist, Accompanist, and Friend.- International Community in Science.- Viki; The Garden of Live Flowers.- Weisskopf Unmasked.- The Nature of Intrinsic Magnetic Dipole Moments.- Physical Societies and Physical Communities.- A Resonance Parametrization in One and Two-Channel S-Wave Scattering.- Advanced Technologies: A Threat to Human Rights?- Quantum Mechanics and Precise Measurements.- Why is the Entropy of Black Holes So Big?- Why Are We Here?- Where Are We Going?- Complete List of Weisskopf's Publications and Talks.