Larry Spruch Papers
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Abstract
The Larry Spruch Papers document the teaching and research activities of theoretical physicist and New York University professor Larry Spruch (1923-2006). Spruch taught physics at NYU from 1950 until his retirement in 1994. He is best known for his developments in scattering theory, investigations of Casimir forces, and contributions to the problem of determining necessary conditions for the existence of bound states.
Biography of Larry Spruch
Theoretical physicist Larry Spruch (1923-2006) was a longtime member of the faculty of the Department of Physics at New York University. He was born on January 1, 1923, in Brooklyn, New York, and earned a B.S. from Brooklyn College in 1943. He then enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania as a Ph.D. candidate in Physics. His thesis work, "On the beta decay of the triton" (1948), was supervised by Leonard I. Schiff.
While attending the University of Pennsylvania, Spruch was an instructor from 1943 to 1946 and a Tyndale Fellow from 1946 to 1948. After earning his Ph.D., he became an Atomic Energy Commission Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working on problems in nuclear physics with Herman Feshbach and Victor Weisskopf. After two years at MIT, Spruch accepted the position of Assistant Professor at New York University in 1950. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1955 and full Professor in 1961. Upon his official retirement in 1994, he was honored with Professor Emeritus status.
Spruch taught a variety of courses for graduate and undergraduate students at NYU. Some would be expected of a professor with a background in theoretical nuclear and atomic physics: Scattering Theory, Quantum Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, and Mathematical Physics, among others. Yet he also taught a series of courses intended to make physics accessible to non-majors, by illustrating its relevance to everyday life in layman's terms. These courses included Physics and Society, Physics for Poets, and Intelligent Life in the Universe. As of 1998, Spruch had also supervised 21 Ph.D. dissertations and 17 postdoctoral fellowships at NYU.
In addition to teaching, Spruch was a very active researcher. His work covered a wide range of issues in nuclear and particle physics, as well as selected topics in astrophysics. Throughout the course of his career, he published over 150 scientific papers in journals such as The Physical Review, Journal of Mathematical Physics, and Nuclear Physics. He also served as guest editor, with James F. Babb and Peter W. Milonni, of a special issue of Comments on Modern Physics on Casimir forces in 2000. Spruch is best known for his developments in scattering theory, investigations of Casimir forces, and contributions to the problem of determining necessary conditions for the existence of bound states. He frequently collaborated with other physicists in conducting research, most notably Edward Gerjuoy, Yukap Hahn, Edward Kelsey, Thomas F. O'Malley, A. R. P. Rau, Leonard Rosenberg, and Robin Shakeshaft.
Spruch further contributed to his field through service as a member of the editorial boards of The Physical Review A and Zeitschrift für Physik A, a correspondent for Comments on Atomic and Molecular Physics, and a consultant for Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. He also served as part of a delegation of scholars for the China-U.S. Physics Examination and Application (CUSPEA) program. CUSPEA was an examination and admission system used by the physics departments of selected American and Canadian universities for graduate student applicants from the People's Republic of China between 1979 and 1989. Along with other physics professors from participating North American universities, Spruch assisted with interviewing applicants and the preparation of exam questions. He traveled to China in 1985 as part of his work with CUSPEA.
Spruch's career was marked by numerous awards and honors. Highlights include the Atomic Energy Commission Fellowship (1948-50), National Science Foundation Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship for the University of London and Oxford University (1963-64), Brooklyn College's Alumni Award for Merit (1967), membership in the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University (1981), the Alexander von Humboldt Award (1985), the NYU Golden Dozen Teaching Award (1991), and the Davisson-Germer Prize (1992). For the Alexander von Humboldt Award, Spruch cooperated on a long-term research project with colleagues at the Max Planck Institut Für Kernphysik in Heidelberg, Germany. In addition to these awards, Spruch attended and spoke at more than 100 conferences around the world, and attended the summer Aspen Center for Physics in Aspen, Colorado, for 30 years.
Larry Spruch shared with his wife, the physicist Grace Marmor Spruch, an interest in making science and mathematics accessible and interesting to the general public. The pair co-authored a series of quizzes which appeared monthly in the magazine The Sciences, and were later collected and published as 21 Astounding Science Quizzes! The Spruchs also published The Ubiquitous Atom!, a book which describes the foundations of atomic physics and its applications to biology, genetics, medicine, and archaeology. Larry Spruch spent several years developing and refining a collection of mathematics and logic puzzles with a sports theme, but that manuscript remains unpublished.
After his official retirement, Larry Spruch continued his physics research at New York University. He died on August 10, 2006, in New York City.
Arrangement
The current order of the Larry Spruch Papers is not original. However, certain aspects of the arrangement imposed by the archivist are meant to reflect the order in which Larry Spruch seems to have originally kept them, insofar as that order can be perceived.
The folders within most series are arranged in chronological order, with two exceptions. Series II: Correspondence is arranged in alphabetical order by the correspondent's last name. Likewise, Series IV, Subseries B: Works by Other Physicists, is arranged in alphabetical order by author's last name or—where authors' names are not given—by publication or subject matter. (See the Scope and Content note for more information about the contents of Series IV, Subseries B: Works by Other Physicists).
The collection is arranged into eight series, three of which have been further divided into subseries:
The current order of the Larry Spruch Papers is not original. The materials are arranged into series and subseries in the collection according to the functions by which they were created and used.
The folders within most series are arranged in chronological order, with one exception. Series IV, Subseries B: Works by Other Physicists, is arranged in alphabetical order by author's last name or—where multiple authors' works were included in the same folder—by publication or subject matter.
The collection is arranged into eight series, three of which have been further divided into subseries:
Missing Title
- New York University
- Correspondence
- China-U.S. Physics Examination and Application (CUSPEA) Program
- Professional Materials
- Research
- University of Pennsylvania Coursework
- Personal Materials
- Sports Quizzes
- 2019 Accretion
Scope and Content
The Larry Spruch Papers contain diverse materials generated throughout Spruch's career. The materials date from between 1943, when Spruch enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania as a Ph.D. candidate in physics, and 2004, two years before Spruch's death. They document Spruch's activities as a Professor of Physics at New York University; as a prominent researcher into aspects of theoretical nuclear and particle physics and astrophysics; as a frequent presenter and attendee of physics conferences; and as a writer of published academic papers, nonfiction works for a general audience, and of mathematical and logic puzzles with science and sports as their subject matter. Some personal materials, largely documenting Spruch's travels and interests in progressive politics and theatre, are also included in the collection. Formats of materials in the collection include lecture notes, examination forms, unpublished dissertations and theses, correspondence and memoranda, conference programs, reprints and preprints of academic papers, research proposals, handwritten notes and manuscripts, and news clippings. A small number of photographs are also present in Series VII.
The materials in the collection are arranged into series and subseries according to the functions by which they were created and used. The contents of each series and subseries are described in more detail in the series-level scope and content notes.
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Access Restrictions
Materials related to personnel, grievances, job and fellowship searches and applications, and all files that fall under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) are permanently restricted. Additional restrictions may apply to other materials in this collection. For questions regarding specific restrictions, please contact the University Archives.
Use Restrictions
Some materials may be restricted. Permission to publish materials must be obtained in writing from the:
New York University Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012
Phone: (212) 998-2641
Fax: (212) 995-4225
E-mail: university-archives@nyu.edu
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date (if known); Larry Spruch Papers; MC 209; box number, folder number; New York University Archives.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Larry Spruch Papers were transferred from Larry Spruch's office to the University Archives by his widow, Grace Marmor Spruch, in 2006. In April 2019, an accretion was donated by Susan Smolin, executor of the Grace Marmor Spruch estate; the accession number associated with this gift is 2019.050.
About this Guide
Processing Information note
The Larry Spruch Papers were partially processed by several different staff members over a period of several years. As such, the original order has been lost. However, certain aspects of the final arrangement imposed by the archivist are meant to reflect the order in which Larry Spruch seems to have originally kept them, insofar as that order could be perceived. (See the series-level Scope and Content notes for further information about the original order of materials in those series.)
Folder titles are likewise not original. Spruch did not supply titles for many of the folders in which he kept materials, and other folder titles which Spruch did supply were incomprehensible to non-specialist readers. Those supplied folder titles have been edited for clarity, though hopefully without losing the spirit of Spruch's original title.
In 2019, an accretion to the collection was intellectually incorporated as Series IX.