Jesse W. Beams 1898 - 1977
Jesse Wakefield Beams was born in Belle Plains, Kansas in 1898. He
earned his bachelor's degree from Fairmont College (now Wichita State
University) in 1921, and a Masters Degree in Mathematics from the
University of wisconsin in 1923. After teaching math and physics for
a year at Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University), he
decided on a career in physics. He received a Ph.D. in physics from
the University of Virginia in 1926. Dr. Beams spent the next three
years working with E. O. Lawrence, who was later to win the Nobel
Prize in Physics. They performed experiments relevant to the
quantized nature of light, and then spent a year in Europe conducting
further studies. Beams then returned to the University of Virginia,
where he remained on the faculty until his death in 1977.
Dr. Beams' contributions include construction of the first linear electron accelerator, development of the magnetic ultracentrifuge and application of the ultracentrifuge to the separation of Uranium isotopes. He was chairman of the Physics Department from 1948 to 1962 and president of the American Physical Society from 1958 to 1959. From then, early 1960 until his death in 1977 he collaborated with Dr. Donald Kupke on the biological applications of his work. Dr. Beams also devised a more accurate apparatus for measuring G, the universal gravitational constant.
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