John C. Slater

John Clarke Slater (December 22, 1900 – July 25, 1976) was an American physicist who advanced the theory of the electronic structure of atoms, molecules and solids. He also made major contributions to microwave electronics. He received a B.S. in physics from the University of Rochester in 1920 and a Ph.D. in physics from Harvard in 1923, then did post-doctoral work at the universities of Cambridge (briefly) and Copenhagen. On his return to the U.S. he joined the physics department at Harvard.

John C. Slater
Slater in 1952
Born(1900-12-22)December 22, 1900
DiedJuly 25, 1976(1976-07-25) (aged 75)
Alma materUniversity of Rochester (BS)
Harvard University (PhD)
Known forSlater-type orbitals
Slater determinants
Slater's rules
Slater–Condon rules
Slater–Pauling rule
Slater integrals
Slater-Koster model
Bethe–Slater curve
Bohr–Kramers–Slater theory
Slater-Kirkwood approximation
Muffin-tin approximation
AwardsJosiah Willard Gibbs Lectureship (1945)
Richtmyer Memorial Award (1951)
Irving Langmuir Award (1967)
National Medal of Science (1970)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
InstitutionsUniversity of Cambridge
University of Copenhagen
Harvard University
MIT
Bell Laboratories
Brookhaven National Laboratory
University of Florida
ThesisThe Compressibility of the Alkali-Halides (1923)
Doctoral advisorPercy Williams Bridgman
Doctoral studentsMarvin Chodorow
David S. Saxon
William Shockley
Nathan Rosen
Fernando J. Corbató
Donald Merrifield

In 1930, Karl Compton, the president of MIT, appointed Slater as chairman of MIT's department of physics. He recast the undergraduate physics curriculum, wrote 14 books between 1933 and 1968, and built a department of international prestige. During World War II, his work on microwave transmission, done partly at the Bell Laboratories and in association with the MIT Radiation Laboratory, was significant in the development of radar.

In 1950, Slater founded the Solid State and Molecular Theory Group (SSMTG) within the physics department. The following year, he resigned the chairmanship of the department and spent a year at the Brookhaven National Laboratory of the Atomic Energy Commission. He was appointed Institute Professor of Physics and continued to direct work in the SSMTG until he retired from MIT in 1965, at the mandatory retirement age of 65.

He then joined the Quantum Theory Project of the University of Florida as research professor, where the retirement age allowed him to work for another five years. The SSMTG has been regarded as the precursor of the MIT Center for Materials Science and Engineering (CMSE). His scientific autobiography and three interviews present his views on research, education and the role of science in society.

Slater was nominated for the Nobel Prize, in both physics and chemistry, multiple times, and he received the National Medal of Science in 1970. In 1964, Slater and his then-92-year-old father, who had headed the Department of English at the University of Rochester many years earlier, were awarded honorary degrees by that university. Slater's name is part of the terms Bohr-Kramers-Slater theory, Slater determinant and Slater orbital.

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