Henry Barschall, Pioneering Nuclear Physicist, Dies

Professor Henry H. Barschall, one of the world’s preeminent nuclear physicists, died February 4 after a brief illness. He was 81.

A professor of physics, medical physics and nuclear engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Barschall pioneered studies of the interactions of neutrons, one of the elementary constituents of the atom. His work permeates modern nuclear physics and yielded some of the first accurate measurements of neutron properties, giving physicists important new insights into the structure of the nucleus of the atom.

Born in 1915 in Berlin, Germany, Henry Herman Barschall, known to friends and colleagues as “Heinz,” was educated at the University of Berlin and Princeton. Barschall joined the UW–Madison faculty in 1946 and remained there until his retirement in 1970.

His work as a physicist was widely recognized. In 1965, he was awarded the first T.W. Bonner Prize by the American Physical Society, and in 1972 he was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences. In 1987, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Sciences.

“Barschall gained international fame for his studies of neutron scattering,” said UW–Madison physics professor Willy Haeberli, a longtime colleague of Barschall’s. “In recent years, Barschall turned his interest to applications in medical physics, where he was working to develop new radiation therapies. His advice was sought by national and international committees, which he served on until now.”

During World War II, he was a participant in the Manhattan Project, the secret U.S. effort to build the atomic bomb at Los Alamos in the New Mexican desert.

In addition to his distinguished career as a scientist, Barschall was a prolific educator, guiding some 41 students, including such physics luminaries as Robert K. Adair, to their doctoral theses.

Barschall’s research career was cut short in 1970 when his laboratory was destroyed by a car bomb that damaged much of UW- Madison’s Sterling Hall. The bomb, targeted at the U.S. Army Math Research Center located in the same building, was set off in protest of American military involvement in the Vietnam War.

Reflecting on the bombing some years later, Barschall said it would have been “just too much to rebuild a lab” at that late stage of his career. “After it was destroyed, I did not take on any new graduate students.”

Barschall is survived by his wife Eleanor, and two children, Peter and Anne. A memorial service is pending.

CONTACT: Terry Devitt, (608) 262-8282