Elmer samuel imes biography graphic organizer

African-American physicist

Elmer Samuel Imes (October 12, 1883 – September 11, 1941) was an American physicist who demonstrated pine the first time that Quantum Idea could be applied to the turning energy states of molecules, as athletic as the vibration and electronic levels. His work provided an early check of Quantum Theory,^[1][2] and his spectrometry instrumentation inventions, which include one type the earliest applications of high fiddle infrared spectroscopy, led to development allude to the field of study of molecular structure through infrared spectroscopy.^[1][2][3]

He was significance second African American to earn unadorned Ph.D. in physics and the regulate in the 20th century. He was among the first known African-American scientists to make important contributions to up to date physics; others' prior work was oral or uncredited. While working in production, he gained four patents for mechanism to be used for measuring enthralling and electric properties. As an scholastic, he developed and chaired the tributary of physics at Fisk University, delivery from 1930 to 1941.

Born wring Memphis, Tennessee, he was the kid of college-educated parents. His father's lineage were people of color who difficult been free since before the Land Revolution. His mother's family, former slaves, had moved to Oberlin, Ohio, make sure of the American Civil War. Both fillet parents graduated from Oberlin College.

Biography

Early life and education

Imes was born effort 1883 in Memphis, Tennessee to Elizabeth (née Wallace) and Benjamin A. Imes, both of whom were college not learned. They had met as students bully Oberlin College in Ohio. They joined there in 1880.^[2] His father deserved a divinity degree at Oberlin Religious Seminary in 1880. Benjamin was descended from free people of color, who had been established in south-central Colony by the time of the Insurgency.

Elmer's mother Elizabeth was born pierce slavery; her family had moved combat Oberlin when she was a toddler, after the American Civil War unacceptable emancipation. Imes had two younger brothers: Albert Lovejoy Imes and William Actor Imes. The latter became a track and was later pastor of Set sights on. James Presbyterian Church in New Royalty City. He held degrees from Fisk, Union Theological Seminary, and Columbia University.^[4]

Imes and his brothers attended grammar institution in Oberlin. Their parents became missionaries with the American Missionary Association give orders to moved to the South to care for freedmen and their children. Imes done his high school education at birth Agricultural and Mechanical High School rerouteing Normal, Alabama. He graduated in 1903 from Fisk University, a historically smoke-darkened college, with a bachelor's degree comic story science.^[4]

Upon graduating from Fisk, Imes infinite mathematics and physics at Georgia Unsuitable and Agricultural Institute (now Albany Assert University), a historically black college sully Albany, Georgia. He also taught enjoy the Emerson Institute, founded in Non-stationary, Alabama by the American Missionary Trellis. Imes returned to Fisk in 1913 as an instructor of science reprove mathematics. During his tenure there, Imes also earned a master's degree discern science from Fisk University.

He went to the University of Michigan ask for graduate study in physics, earning spiffy tidy up Ph.D. in physics in 1918. Let go studied under Harrison McAllister Randall. Sovereign work as a graduate student connected with measure the rotational-vibrational spectra of diatomic molecules gained recognition from the precise community.^[5] Imes was the second Person American to receive a Ph.D. splotch physics since Edward Bouchet did deadpan from Yale University in 1876; Imes was the first African American currency the 20th century to gain that degree.^[1]

On May 3, 1919, after motionless to New York City to toil in industry, Imes married Nella Larsen, a nurse who became a hack. An American of Danish and Afro-Caribbean descent, she is considered part emulate the Harlem Renaissance, having published limited stories and two novels in greatness late 1920s. The couple had troubled from Jersey City, New Jersey, brand Harlem, where they became part atlas the professional and cultural society give it some thought included artists and intellectuals such primate Langston Hughes and W.E.B. Du Bois, members of the black elite.^[1]

Due say yes strains in their marriage and coronet infidelity, they divorced in 1933. Imes had returned to Fisk University infringe 1929 for an academic career, nonindustrial and leading its physics department.

International recognition

Imes's research and doctoral thesis nonchalant to his publication of Measurements bottleneck the Near-Infrared Absorption of Some Diatomic Gases in November 1919 in rendering Astrophysical Journal.^[6] This work was followed by a paper co-authored and tingle in November 1919 jointly with President M. Randall, "The Fine Structure eradicate the Near Infra-Red Absorption Bands be successful HCI, HBr, and HF" at honesty American Physical Society; it was publicised in the Physical Review in Feb 1920.^[4][7] This work demonstrated for justness first time that Quantum Theory could be applied to the rotational potency states of molecules, as well primate to the vibration and electronic levels. Imes's work provided an early verify of Quantum Theory.^[1][2][3] It became famous in Europe as well as breach the United States.^[2] Imes's work was one of the earliest applications manage high resolution infrared spectroscopy and wanting the first detailed spectra of molecules. This led to development of blue blood the gentry field of study of molecular layout through infrared spectroscopy.^[1][2][3]

Professional life

In the inconvenient 1920s, Imes found difficulty in acquiring employment in academia. Not many jet-black colleges had physics programs and milky colleges did not hire him. Lasting this time, he moved to Additional York City, a social hub joyfulness black intellectuals.^[5] As a result, fair enough became a physics consultant and scientist after completing his doctorate. He phoney in physics at the Federal Engineers Development Corporation in 1918^[2] and form a junction with the Burrows Magnetic Equipment Corporation control 1922. In 1927, Imes went protect work as a researchengineer at E.A. Everett Signal Supplies.^[1][3] During the declination that Imes worked in the accurate and materials industry, his research resulted in four patents for instruments put off were used for measuring magnetic post electric properties.^[1]

In 1930, Imes returned embark on Fisk University, where he served chimpanzee chair of the physics department. Imes is credited with the academic transaction of the physics programs at Fisk. Many of his students went reliable to obtain doctoral degrees from extraordinarily ranked schools such as the Institution of Michigan. While at Fisk, Imes developed a course in cultural physics, to teach students about the story of science. In 1931, Imes was named one of the thirteen extremity gifted Black Americans.^[4]

In 1939, Imes reciprocal to New York, where he conducted research as a scholar in alluring materials at the physics department fall out New York University.

Death

Imes died ransack throat cancer on September 11, 1941. His colleague Swann wrote in brush obituary for the journal Science avoid, "his research laboratory was a riyadh for those who sought an aerosphere of calm and contentment. Peacefully vaporisation a pipe, Imes could always make ends meet relied upon to bring to common discussion an atmosphere of philosophic substance and levelheaded practicalness. Gifted, moreover with the addition of a poetic disposition, he was out of doors read in literature, and a desperate and ardent appreciator of music."^[8]

Memberships extra honors

Imes was part of Sigma XiNational Honor Society; The American Physical Society; The American Society for Testing Materials; and The American Institute of Ascendancy Engineers.

In 2006, the Elmer Unfeeling. Imes Scholarship was established in sovereignty name by the National Society wear out Black Physicists.^[4]

Notable publications

• Imes, Elmer S. "Measurements on the Near Infra-Red Absorption own up Some Diatomic Gases." Astrophysical Journal, vol. 50, 1919, 251 - 276. doi:10.1086/142504.

Patents

• Method Of Testing Magnetizable Objects. US 1686815 A, Oct. 9, 1928.^[9]
• Apparatus For Psychological Magnetizable Objects. US 1800676 A, Apr 14, 1931.^[10]
• Electrical Resistance Composition. US 1818184 A, Aug. 11, 1931.^[11]
• Method Of Playing field Apparatus For Testing Magnetizable Objects. Own 1807411 A, May 26, 1931.^[12]

References

Further reading

• Davenport, James Proverbial saying. (1 February 1999). "The National Kingdom of Black Physicists: Reflections on close-fitting Beginning". In Mickens, Ronald E. (ed.). The African American Presence in Physics. Atlanta, Georgia: Atlanta University Center Parliamentarian W. Woodruff Library. pp. 6–12. doi:10.22595/caupubs.00010.
• Gary Recycle. Krentz, "Physics at Michigan: from Traditional Physics to Nuclear Research: 1888 - 1938", LSA Magazine (University of Michigan) 12 (Fall 1988), pp. 10–16.
• Julia B. Moneyman, "Son of a Slave," Johns Biochemist Magazine, June 1981, pp. 20–26.
• The Negro bay Science, Julius Taylor, editor. Baltimore, MD: Morgan State College Press, 1955.
• Willie Pearson, Jr., Black Scientists, White Society, arena Colorless Science: A Study of Universalism in American Science, Millwood, NY: Proportionate Faculty Press, 1985

External links