BIOGRAPHY OF Joseph CALLAWAY

BIOGRAPHY OF Joseph CALLAWAY
( 1931 - 1994 )

born July 1, 1931, Hackensack, NJ.
died June 17, 1994, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Joseph CALLAWAY ( 1931 - 1994 ) was a distinguished theoretical physicist best known for his works on theoretical quantum physics and theoretical solid state physics. Joseph Callaway was an internationally recognized physicist both in condensed matter and atomic scattering theory. His works contributed substantially to the theory of the electron energy bands in solids and metals in particular.

Joseph Callaway (1931-1994), Boyd Professor of physics & astronomy, had a distinguished career in academia and earned national prominence for his research in solid-state physics. Born in 1931 in Hackensack, NJ and raised in Alexandria, VA, he graduated from William and Mary College before his 20th birthday in 1951.
By the time he received his PhD in 1956, under the direction of Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner, he had published eleven papers in Physical Review with titles ranging from "Mach's Principle and Unified Field Theory" to "Orthogonalized Plane Wave Method." During his graduate student days he spent summers at RCA David Sarnoff Research Center and, with Frank Herman, completed the first realistic calculation of the electronic structure of a semiconductor, germanium. He also did the first electronic structure calculation of potassium and, for his thesis topic, the electronic structure of iron. His first academic appointment was at the University of Miami in 1954. He moved to the University of California-Riverside in 1960 where he was one of the prime architects of the graduate program there. In 1967 Joe moved to Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge from University of California Riverside, and shortly thereafter became, first the Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, then Boyd Professor, a chair based on research. Here he put together his continuing small army of students and post docs who have been so prolific in developing theories, developing relevant numerical algorithms and submitting highly CPU time intensive computational jobs. During the 70's and 80's, Joe and his research group made the best use of LSU computing resources for their numerical calculations.Throughout Joe's academic career he worked closely with students and post doctoral research associates, giving leadership and direction to many successful theorists.

His last more than twenty-five years he worked at the Department of Physics Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. Joseph Callaway was involved in research on the calculation of band structures in solid state physics, quantum theory of magnetism (especially on itinerant model of magnetism), transport processes in solids and, the detailed calculations of electron-hydrogen atom scattering in atomic physics, etc.
After obtaining his Ph.D. in the the field of fundamental theoretical physics, he started work in the field of solid state physics. One of his first works was devoted to lattice thermal conductivity.
In the last 1950s, Joseph Callaway made a series of important research on nonequilibrium thermodynamics and the theory the transport properties of condensed-matter systems, in particular the understanding of electron transport and lattice thermal conductivity. In his remarkable work "Model for Lattice Thermal Conductivity at Low Temperatures" Phys. Rev. 113, 1046–1051 (1959) he developed a phenomenological model to facilitate calculation of lattice thermal conductivities at low temperatures. It was assumed that the phonon scattering processes can be represented by frequency-dependent relaxation times. Isotropy and absence of dispersion in the crystal vibration spectrum were assumed. No distinction was made between longitudinal and transverse phonons. The assumed scattering mechanisms were (1) point impurities (isotopes), (2) normal three-phonon processes, (3) umklapp processes, and (4) boundary scattering. A special investigation was made of the role of the normal processes which conserve the total crystal momentum and a formula was derived from the Boltzmann equation which gives their contribution to the conductivity. The relaxation time for the normal three-phonon processes was taken to be that calculated by Herring for longitudinal modes in cubic materials. The model predicts for germanium a thermal conductivity roughly proportional to T-3/2 in normal material, but proportional to T-2 in single-isotope material in the temperature range 50°-100°K. Magnitudes of the relaxation times are estimated from the experimental data. The thermal conductivity of germanium was calculated by numerical integration for the temperature range 2-100°K. The results were at that in reasonably good agreement with the experimental results for normal and for single-isotope material. This paper became CITATION CLASSIC.
He was one of the early pioneers to follow the work of Wigner, Seitz and Slater, and convert that work into elaborate numerical calculations of band structures. In recent years, magnetic materials such as nickel, small clusters, and high-temperature superconducting materials were his particular interest. Starting in the 1960's, the density functional method became a key component of this work. Besides adapting it for computational applications, he also contributed to its formalism, particularly in extensions to relativistic effects. The Hubbard model was another of his major attentions. In the problem of electron-hydrogen scattering, he was known for some of the most detailed and accurate numerical computations of cross-sections in the intermediate energy range which is rich in resonances in this system. Kohn variational calculations and the use of pseudostates were particular characteristics of his work. In a long and fruitful collaboration with Jim Williams (Perth), who produced some of the best experimental data for low and intermediate energies, this work was extremely influential in the field. During the course of these research activities, Joe trained and worked with a long string of graduate students and postdoctoral associates. During his years here, 29 students obtained their Ph.D. degrees under his supervision. His group was always one of the largest in this regard in the department's graduate education. Besides these aspects of research and graduate education, Joe was also a major figure in many other ways in shaping this department. He served as Chairman from 1970 to 1973, years in which the department expanded significantly in the number of faculty. Many of the current senior faculty were hired in those years and the major role he played in that, as well as in setting the tone and emphasis on research, changed the complexion of this department.
A prolific writer, his book The Quantum Theory of the Solid State, 2nd ed. Academic Press, 1991 remains a standard reference and text for students. As an internationally known physicist, he served the science community in many ways. He was a Fellow of the American Physical Society, was elected to serve on the Executive Committee of the Division of Condensed Matter Physics, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (UK) and the European Physical Society, a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Joseph Callaway is the author of the books:
1. Energy Band Theory, Academic Press, 1964;
2. The Quantum Theory of the Solid State, 2nd ed. Academic Press, 1991,
which are between the most frequently cited reference books in physics research literature.

His list of publications lists about 300 research papers, including more than 200 papers in Phys.Rev. and Prys.Rev.Lett.
OBITUARY of Joseph Callaway was published in Physics Today, Joseph Callaway. [Physics Today 48, 70 (1995)]. Roy G. Goodrich, A. Ravi P. Rau..

A. L. Kuzemsky ©, 2010.

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BIOGRAPHY OF Joseph CALLAWAY ( 1931 - 1994 )

BIOGRAPHY OF Joseph CALLAWAY
( 1931 - 1994 )