Homer D. Hagstrum

Homer Dupre Hagstrum (March 11, 1915 – September 7, 1994) was an American physicist who specialized in surface physics.[1][2]

Born in St Paul, Minnesota he gained a BA degree in 1936, an MS in 1939 and a PhD in Physics in 1940 at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. He then worked for Bell Labs, Murray Hill, New Jersey, where he was a research physicist from 1940 to 1954, head of Surface Physics Research from 1954 to 1978 and Research Physicist in Surface Physics from 1978 to 1985. [2] After 1946 Homer specialized in surface physics which was an unknown sub-field of physics at that time. He developed a metal multipurpose vacuum chamber in 1961 that is a model for many surface physics scientists today.

In 1942 he and John R Pearce traveled to England to meet with British scientists working on RADAR. During this meeting Pearce (who wrote Science fiction stories) arranged a meeting with H. G. Wells, an internationally known science fiction writer. Pearce and Hagstrum also met with Rudy Kompfner during this trip.

Hagstrum was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1949 [3] and a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1976.[1][2] He was chairman of Division of Electron and Atomic Physics of the American Physical Society in 1957,[2]

He was a recipient of the Medard W. Welch Award in 1974 and the Davisson Germer Prize in 1975.[2]