Elizabeth Baranger

Elizabeth Urey Baranger (née Gertrude Elizabeth Urey; September 18, 1927 – May 30, 2019) was an American physicist and academic administrator at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research concerned shell model calculations in nuclear physics.[1]

Early life and education

Gertrude Elizabeth Urey was born on September 18, 1927, in Baltimore,[2] but grew up in Leonia, New Jersey. As the daughter of physicist Harold Urey she met many other physicists from the Manhattan Project as a child, including Maria Mayer, who won the Nobel Prize for proposing the shell model of nuclear physics.[3] She was the 1945 valedictorian of Leonia High School,[4] and studied mathematics at Swarthmore College,[3] graduating in 1949.[2][5][6]

She earned a Ph.D. in physics at Cornell University in 1954.[6] While completing her dissertation, she married fellow physics student Michel Baranger, on September 26, 1951,[2] and spent two years as a visiting researcher at the California Institute of Technology.[6]

Career and later life

In 1955, Baranger and her husband solved their two-body problem by taking faculty positions at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Institute of Technology (later Carnegie Mellon University), respectively. At Pittsburgh, she was the second female physics faculty member after Mary Wargo;[3] she moved through the academic ranks from her initial position as an instructor to full professor.[3][6]

When her husband moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969, she followed him there,[3] giving up her faculty position to become a senior research scientist.[7] They divorced in 1973, and she returned to the University of Pittsburgh,[3][6] becoming associate dean for graduate studies in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.[8] In 1989, she became vice provost for graduate studies. Her work as an academic administrator involved "upgrading the standards of the university's graduate programs and promoting the use of the Internet in graduate administration".[3][6]

She retired in 2004,[3] and died on May 30, 2019.[6]

Recognition

Baranger was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in 1972, after a nomination from the APS Division of Nuclear Physics.[9] She was also named as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1985.[10]

The University of Pittsburgh named their Elizabeth Baranger Excellence in Teaching Award after her.[11]

Family

Beyond her family connections to academic physics through her father Harold Urey and former husband Michel Baranger, two of Baranger's children also became academic scientists: Anne M. Baranger, professor of chemistry and Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the University of California, Berkeley,[1] and Harold U. Baranger, professor of physics at Duke University.

References
  1. Anne Baranger announced as inaugural Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Berkeley College of Chemistry, August 19, 2020, retrieved 2021-01-06
  2. Reinoehl, Charles Myron (1952), History of an Eckhar(d)t family whose three sons (John, Henry, George) came to America before 1850, including records of a Pullman family, p. 48 – via Internet Archive
  3. Carpenter, Mackenzie (May 30, 2004), "Newsmaker: Elizabeth Baranger / Pioneering woman professor at Pitt shuns spotlight", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
  4. "Leonia Graduation", East Bergen Record, June 22, 1945 – via Newspapers.com
  5. "High standards: Elizabeth Urey Baranger '49" (PDF), A Swarthmore tapestry, Swarthmore College Bulletin, p. 22, December 2004
  6. "Baranger worked with all deans as vice provost for graduate studies", Passings, University Times, University of Pittsburgh, retrieved 2021-01-06
  7. Weisskopf, Victor F. (1972–1973), "Department of Physics" (PDF), Report of the President and the Chancellor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Bulletin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, pp. 241–246CS1 maint: date format (link) See especially p. 246.
  8. "Dr. Elizabeth Baranger: Physicist gets Pitt post; Pitt Names Female Prof Arts Dean", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, p. 21, December 11, 1972 – via Newspapers.com
  9. "Fellows nominated in 1972 by the Division of Nuclear Physics", APS Fellows archive, American Physical Society
  10. "Group elects Pitt dean", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, p. 38, June 15, 1985 – via Newspapers.com
  11. Elizabeth Baranger Teaching Award, University of Pittsburgh, retrieved 2021-01-06
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