Boris Podolsky

• 1. From Taganrog To Pasadena

  ›

  Boris Yakovlevich Podolsky entered the world on the 29th of June 1896 in Taganrog. This port city sat within the Don Host Oblast of the Russian Empire. He grew up in a poor Jewish family and attended the local Taganrog Gymnasium. The year 1913 marked his departure from Russia for the United States. His early academic path began with electrical engineering at the University of Southern California. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree there in 1918. Military service followed his graduation before he worked at the Los Angeles Bureau of Power and Light. A Master of Science in mathematics arrived in 1926 from that same university. Caltech awarded him a PhD in theoretical physics under Paul Sophus Epstein in 1928.

• 2. Fellowships And Collaborations

  ›

  A National Research Council Fellowship sent Podolsky to the University of California, Berkeley for one year. He then spent another year at Leipzig University. Returning to Caltech in 1930, he worked alongside Richard C. Tolman for twelve months. His career took him to the Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology in Kharkiv. There he collaborated with Vladimir Fock and Lev Landau. Paul Dirac visited Kharkiv during this period. Podolsky published a seminal paper on Quantum Electrodynamics with Dirac and Fock in 1932. An Institute for Advanced Study fellowship brought him back to the US in 1933. Einstein wrote to Abraham Flexner on the 10th of November 1933 about Podolsky. The letter called him one of the most brilliant younger men working with Dirac.

• 3. The EPR Paradox Paper

  ›

  Podolsky joined Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen to conceive the EPR paradox. This famous paper stimulated debate regarding the interpretation of quantum mechanics. Their work eventually culminated with Bell's theorem and the advent of quantum information theory. Letters from Einstein and others at the Institute for Advanced Study supported his move to Cincinnati. These letters were addressed to Louis T. More, Dean of the Graduate School. Einstein stated in 1935 that he estimated Podolsky's abilities very highly. He described Podolsky as an independent investigator of unquestionable talent. Podolsky accepted a post as professor of mathematical physics at the University of Cincinnati later that year.

• 4. Textbook Development Efforts

  ›

  Lev Landau and Podolsky conceived an idea to write a textbook on electromagnetism in 1933. They planned to begin with special relativity while emphasizing theoretical postulates rather than experimental laws. The project did not come to fruition due to Podolsky's return to the United States. Lev Landau and E. Lifshitz later used their outline to create The Classical Theory of Fields. That book was published by Pergamon Press Ltd in 1951. Podolsky and K. Kunz produced Fundamentals of Electrodynamics through Marcel Dekker Press in 1969. Robert Podolsky contributed most of the questions at the end of each chapter in that text.

• 5. The Quantum Contact Files

  ›

  A 2009 book titled Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America identifies Podolsky as a contact named QUANTUM. This identification suggests he met twice with Soviet secret services during World War II. These meetings occurred in 1942 and 1943 according to the evidence. Early VENONA cables identify a contact named QUANTUM who sought out Soviet intelligence. He asked for a position in the USSR to work on processing Uranium 235. A 1943 cable shows QUANTUM provided Graham's law of gaseous diffusion equations. This information helps separate fissile U-235 from unwanted U-238. The Soviets paid him $300 for this data before losing interest in his reliability.

• 6. Mentors And Successors

  ›

  Podolsky served as MS adviser to Chihiro Kikuchi at the University of Cincinnati. He also acted as PhD adviser to Herman Branson and Alex Green. His tenure there lasted until 1961 when he moved to Xavier University. He worked at Xavier University in Cincinnati until his death in 1966. the 28th of November 1966 marked the end of his life and career. Gene Saks played Podolsky in the 1994 Hollywood film I.Q. Conference records from the University Archives show his involvement in the 1962 Conference on the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Niels Bohr Scientific Correspondence supplements cover correspondence from 1910 through 1962 involving Podolsky.