Walter Lewin

Infobox_Scientist
name = Walter H.G. Lewin


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caption = A 2003 photo of Lewin
birth_date = 1936
birth_place = The Netherlands
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field = Astrophysics
work_institution = MIT
alma_mater = Delft University of Technology
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societies = Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences,
American Physical Society
prizes = NASA Award for Exceptional Scientific Achievement (1978)

Alexander von Humboldt Award (1984 and 1991)

Guggenheim Fellowship (1984)

MIT Science Council Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (1984),

W. Buechner Teaching Prize (1988)

Evertt Moore Baker Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2003)
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Walter H. G. Lewin is currently a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Education and career

He earned his Ph.D. degree in nuclear physics in 1965 at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

Walter Lewin came to MIT in January 1966 with the intent of spending one year in a post-doctoral position, but he never left. He joined an x-ray astronomy group at MIT and conducted all-sky balloon surveys with George W. Clark. Through the late seventies, there were about twenty successful balloon flights. These balloon surveys led to the discovery of five new x-ray sources, which doubled the number known at the time. Furthermore, some of these x-ray sources were found to be varying, and some were x-ray flares. The rockets used by other researchers could not have discovered that the x-ray sources varied because they were only in the air for a few minutes, whereas the balloons could be in the air for many hours. The surveys also resulted in the discovery of GX 1+4, which was the first slowly rotating X-ray pulsar found.

Walter Lewin received the "2003 Everett Moore Baker Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching" award. Some of his lectures are available online in video format.

Lectures

Many of the Walter Lewin Lectures on Physics at MIT have been shown for over six years on UWTV in Seattle, reaching an audience of about four million people. Lewin personally responded to hundreds of e-mail requests that he received per year from UWTV viewers. For fifteen years he was on MIT Cable TV, with programs aired 24 hours per day helping freshmen with their weekly homework assignments. Lewin also teaches video courses on Newtonian Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, and Vibrations and Waves, which can be viewed from the MIT OpenCourseWare web site. His MIT lectures for science teachers and for middle school students can be viewed on MIT World. Various lecturers all around the world make use of these lectures to teach their students.

elected publications

* cite journal
first=Walter H.G.
last=Lewin
coauthors=Jan van Paradijs, Ronald E. Taam
title=X-ray Bursts
journal=Space Science Reviews
volume=62
issue=3-4
pages=223–389
date=204-10-27
doi=10.1007/BF00196124

* cite journal
title=Dynamical Formation of Close Binary Systems in Globular Clusters
author=D. Pooley, W.H.G. Lewin, S.F. Anderson, H. Baumgardt, A.V. Filippenko, B.M. Gaensler, L. Homer, P. Hut, V.M. Kaspi, B. Margon, S. McMillan, S. Portegies Zwart, M. van der Klis, & F. Verbunt
journal=Astrophysical Journal
volume=591
pages=L131–L134
year=2003
doi=10.1086/377074

* cite journal| title=Resolving the Composite Fe K-alpha Emission Line in the Galactic Black Hole Cygnus X-1 with Chandra | author=J. Miller, A. Fabian, R. Wijnands, R. Remillard, P. Wojdowski, N. Schulz, T. Di Matteo, H. Marshall, C. Canizares, & W. Lewin
journal=Astrophysical Journal
volume=578
pages=348–356
year=2002
doi=10.1086/342466

* cite journal
title=Optical Identifications of Multiple Faint X-ray Sources in the Globular Cluster NGC~6752: Evidence for Numerous Cataclysmic Variables
author=D. Pooley, W. Lewin, L. Homer, S. Anderson, B. Gaensler, B. Margon, F. Verbunt, J. Miller, D. Fox, V. Kaspi & M. v.d. Klis
journal=Astrophysical Journal
volume=569
pages=405
year=2002
id=
doi=10.1086/339210

* cite journal
title=Discovery of a New Type of Burster from the Galactic Center Region
author=C. Kouveliotou, J. van Paradijs, G. J. Fishman, M. S. Briggs, J. Kommers, B. A. Harmon, C. A. Meegan, W. H. G. Lewin
journal=Nature
volume=379
pages=799
year=1996
doi=10.1038/379799a0

* cite journal
title=Discovery of Sub millisecond Quasi-periodic Oscillations in the X-ray Flux of Scorpius X-1
author=M. v.d. Klis, J. Swank, W. Zhang, K. Jahoda, E. Morgan, W. Lewin, B. Vaughan, & J. van Paradijs
journal=Astrophysical Journal
volume=469
year=1996
doi=10.1086/310251
pages=L1

* cite journal
title=Observation of an X-Ray Flare from Sco X-1
author=W.H.G. Lewin, G.W. Clark and W.B. Smith
journal=Astrophysical Journal (Letters)
volume=152
year=1968
pages=L55
doi=10.1086/180177

ee also

* Walter Lewin Lectures on Physics
* MIT Physics Department

External links

* [http://web.mit.edu/physics/facultyandstaff/faculty/walter_lewin.html Walter Lewin's page at MIT]
* [http://web.mit.edu/physics MIT Physics Department website]
* [http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01Physics-IFall1999/CourseHome/index.htm Walter Lewin's Physics I Course Page with Video Lectures]
* [http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-02Electricity-and-MagnetismSpring2002/CourseHome/index.htm Walter Lewin's Physics II Course Page with Video Lectures]
* [http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-03Fall-2004/CourseHome/index.htm Walter Lewin's Physics III Course Page with Video Lectures]
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html The Elegant Universe PBS Video featuring Walter Lewin]
* cite web
title=At 71, Physics Professor Is a Web Star
url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/education/19physics.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
date=2007-12-19
first=Sara
last=Rimer
publisher=The New York Times
accessdate=2007-12-19

Persondata
NAME= Lewin, Walter H.G.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Dutch astrophysicist
DATE OF BIRTH=
PLACE OF BIRTH= The Netherlands
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=