[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 43 (Monday, March 12, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1627-S1628]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   REMEMBERING CHARLES PENCE SLICHTER

 Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, today I wish to pay tribute to 
the remarkable life of Charles Pence Slichter, a University of Illinois 
professor emeritus of physics and of chemistry, who died on Monday, 
February 19, 2018, in Boulder, CO, at the age of 94.
  Slichter was a pioneer in the development and application of nuclear 
magnetic resonance, NMR, spectroscopy to elucidate the structure and 
behavior of matter at the atomic scale and a renowned expert on 
superconductivity. Slichter's seminal contributions to the fields of 
condensed matter physics and chemistry have been recognized with 
numerous awards, including the 2007 National Medal of Science.
  Slichter is revered at the University of Illinois, where he served on 
the faculty for 57 years, for his fostering of the ``Urbana style,'' a 
way of tackling longstanding scientific problems by a combination of 
theory and experiment that emphasizes close interdisciplinary 
collaboration and mutual respect. Known by everyone for his brilliant 
smiles, infectious enthusiasm, and trademark bowties, Slichter 
exemplified science at its finest: creative, rigorous, curious, and 
scrupulously honest. His inspired teaching trained generations of 
American physicists and chemists and, through them, enabled a host of 
modern technologies.
  NMR studies atomic nuclei by probing them with radio waves and 
measuring their response. The nuclei respond only when the radio waves 
are tuned to specific resonance frequencies, which depend on both the 
properties of the nuclei and their local magnetic field. The measured 
spectrum of resonance frequencies, as well as the time dynamics of the 
resonance response, gives information about the local environment of 
the nuclei. Magnetic resonance imaging, MRI, widely used in medicine, 
is an extension of NMR that enables 2D and 3D images to be 
reconstructed from NMR spectra.
  Slichter pioneered many fundamental techniques in NMR. He was a 
codiscoverer, with H.S. Gutowsky and D.W. McCall, of indirect spin-spin 
coupling, known as J-coupling, in molecules. This phenomenon enables 
structural information about molecules to be deduced from their NMR 
spectrum and is a key analytical tool in modern chemistry. With T.R. 
Carver, Slichter performed the first dynamic polarization of nuclei 
using electron spins. Dynamic nuclear polarization can be used to 
increase the sensitivity of NMR dramatically, enabling the study of 
more complex molecules and smaller samples. Extensions of the technique 
are used to determine aspects of molecular structure or to provide a 
method of operation for the three-level maser, a microwave-frequency 
precursor to the laser.
  Slichter and his student L.C. Hebel performed the first NMR studies 
on superconductors, materials in which electric current can flow 
without resistance. This was a major feat in itself because 
superconductors exclude the magnetic fields and radiowaves used to 
perform NMR spectroscopy. The results of their experiments are 
recognized as the first proof of the electron-pairing concept central 
to the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer, BCS, theory of superconductivity, 
which was developed concurrently, also at the University of Illinois, 
and was honored with the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physics. Slichter 
conceived of the experiment while listening to a presentation from 
Bardeen, and the analysis was carried out with substantial 
collaboration from the BCS authors, even while they raced to prepare 
their own theoretical work. This strong collaborative interaction 
between theory and experiment typified the ``Urbana style'' of 
research, and Slichter played an important role in setting this tone 
for colleagues. Another research ``first'' of Slichter's, the 
measurement of the Pauli spin susceptibility, came after a chance 
hallway meeting with colleague David Pines, who had just derived a more 
precise theoretical model for the effect, but lamented to Slichter that 
``no one can measure it.'' Slichter, who had worked on some related 
problems as a graduate student, replied, ``David, I know how to measure 
it,'' and the experimental results were published shortly thereafter.
  Other notable research achievements include discoveries on the 
behavior of high-temperature superconductors, fundamental studies of 
metal surfaces for catalysis, the introduction of phase sensitive 
detection to pulsed NMR, the theory of chemical exchange and its 
effects on NMR spectra, studies of charge density waves and the Kondo 
effect, and the theory of chemical shifts in fluorine.
  At the University of Illinois, Slichter directed the research of 63 
doctoral students and more than 15 postdoctoral researchers, including 
Nobel laureate Sir Peter Mansfield, coinventor with Paul Lauterbur of 
MRI. Slichter's textbook, Principles of Magnetic Resonance, now in its 
third edition, has trained students around the world for nearly 60 
years. Slichter said in 2004, ``I really love doing physics; the 
personal connection is the way I love to do it. If I were not in a 
university setting, I would have to find students to work with.''
  Slichter's contributions to science were not limited to the 
laboratory and the classroom. He served the Nation with distinction as 
a member of the President's Science Advisory Committee from 1965 to 
1969; the President's Committee on the National Medal of Science from 
1969 to 1974; the President's Committee on Science and Technology 
Policy in 1976; and the National Science Board from 1975 to 1984. In 
1975, Slichter chaired a delegation of U.S. solid-state physicists 
selected by the National Academy of Sciences in an initiative to open 
scientific exchanges with the People's Republic of China. On this trip, 
he met his future wife, Anne FitzGerald, who worked for the National 
Academy of Sciences and acted as translator for the U.S. delegation.
  In academia, Slichter served for 25 years from 1970 to 1995 as a 
fellow of the seven-member Harvard Corporation, Harvard University's 
highest governing body, including 10 years as senior fellow. He chaired 
the selection committee that chose Neil Rudenstine as the president of 
Harvard in 1991. Slichter was the president of the International 
Society of Magnetic Resonance from 1986 to 1989. His service to U.S. 
industry included membership on the board of directors of Polaroid from 
1975 to 1995, and on science advisory committees to IBM from 1978 to 
1993, and United Technologies from 1972 to 1982.
  Among his many honors and awards are the National Medal of Science in 
2007; the Comstock Prize, shared with E.L. Hahn, of the National 
Academy of Sciences in 1993; the Irving Langmuir Prize in Chemical 
Physics in 1969 and the Oliver E. Buckley Prize in Condensed Matter 
Physics in 1996 from the American Physical Society; the Citation for 
Chemical Breakthrough Award, shared with H.S. Gutowsky and D.W. McCall, 
from the American Chemical Society in 2016; and the Triennial Prize of 
the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in 1986. He received 
honorary doctor of science degrees from the University of Waterloo in 
1993 and the University of Leipzig in 2010 and an honorary doctor of 
laws degree from Harvard University in 1996. He was elected a member of 
the National Academy of Sciences in 1967, the American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences in 1969, and the American Philosophical Society in 1971.
  Sir Anthony J. Leggett, Nobel laureate and the John D. and Catherine 
T.

[[Page S1628]]

MacArthur Professor and Center for Advanced Study Professor of Physics 
at the University of Illinois, described Slichter as ``a towering 
figure in condensed matter physics, on both the national and 
international stage. He was a warm and supportive figure in the Urbana 
physics department right up to his last years.''
  University of Illinois emeritus professor Gordon Baym said, ``Charlie 
was a remarkable colleague, one of the last of the great physicists of 
the postwar generation. He was always intellectually curious and 
remarkably wise. At the same time he was a great human being, amazingly 
encouraging and supportive of his colleagues, students, and friends, 
whether young or old. Just seeing his warm smile would brighten 
everyone's day.''
  Head of the University of Illinois Department of Physics and 
professor Dale Van Harlingen said, ``Charlie Slichter was a legend, a 
role model, and a friend to everyone who ever had the opportunity to 
meet him. His passion for good science, his contagious kindness, and 
his remarkable energy has inspired me throughout my career, and I think 
everyone else at the University of Illinois and beyond. In many ways, 
Charlie has best defined the Urbana style that characterizes the 
culture and spirit of the Department of Physics at Illinois through his 
stellar contributions in NMR that have significantly impacted our 
understanding of condensed matter physics, especially 
superconductivity, and the chemistry of materials, his excellence in 
teaching and mentoring of students, and his unparalleled warmth and 
friendliness. He is truly one the great scholars and gentlemen of our 
generation. Charlie has made a lasting impression on all of us--he will 
be missed but never forgotten.''
  Slichter was born on January 21, 1924, in Ithaca, NY, to Sumner Huber 
Slichter, a labor economist who became the first Lamont University 
Professor at Harvard University, and Ada--nee Pence--Slichter. Slichter 
was named after his paternal grandfather, Charles Sumner Slichter, a 
noted professor of applied mathematics and dean of the graduate school 
at the University of Wisconsin. His maternal grandfather, William David 
Pence, was a professor of railway engineering at the University of 
Wisconsin. From a young age, Slichter was interested in science and 
mathematics. It was his senior-year physics course at the Browne & 
Nichols School in Cambridge, MA, that made it clear, without a doubt, 
that he wanted to be a physicist.
  Slichter studied physics at Harvard University, receiving his A.B. in 
1946; M.A. in 1947; and Ph.D. in 1949 degrees there. During World War 
II, while an undergraduate at Harvard, he worked as a research 
assistant at the Underwater Explosives Research Laboratory at Woods 
Hole, MA, where he constructed oscilloscopes, an experience that 
prepared him for his doctoral research with Edward Purcell, who led the 
group at Harvard that codiscovered nuclear magnetic resonance. Slichter 
was his third graduate student, beginning research with Purcell shortly 
after that discovery.
  Slichter came to the University of Illinois in 1949 as an instructor, 
recruited by then-department head F. Wheeler Loomis as an integral part 
of an effort to build a world-class faculty in the emerging field of 
solid-state physics. Slichter was appointed assistant professor 2 years 
later and quickly rose through the ranks to full professor in 1955. At 
Illinois, he held additional professorial appointments at the Center 
for Advanced Study from 1968 to 1997 and the Department of Chemistry 
from 1986 to 1997. After his retirement in 1996, Slichter maintained an 
active research program at Illinois, holding an appointment as research 
professor of physics and continuing to advise graduate students from 
1997 to 2006.
  Slichter is survived by his wife, Anne FitzGerald Slichter, of 
Champaign, IL; by his children William Almy Slichter of Minneapolis, 
MN; Jacob Huber Slichter of Brooklyn, NY; Ann Thayer Slichter of Los 
Angeles, CA; Daniel Huber Slichter of Boulder, CO; and David Pence 
Slichter of Binghamton, NY; and by his grandchildren, Sarah Thayer 
Slichter of Kingston, NY; Thayer Ellery Slichter and Lila Mackinnon 
Slichter of Minneapolis, MN; and Trevor Hagar Slichter and Isabela 
Hagar Slichter of Boulder, CO. He was preceded in death by his son 
Sumner Pence Slichter, policy director for U.S. Senator Russ Feingold. 
He is also survived by his first wife, Gertrude Thayer Almy of 
Mitchellville, MD, who is the mother of Sumner, William, Jacob, and 
Ann.

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