Edith Halbert

Edith Conrad Halbert (23 April 1931 – 31 December 2023)^[1] was an American physicist, elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1972.^[2] She worked on computations in the nuclear shell model at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Edith Conrad Halbert
Born	(1931-04-23)April 23, 1931 New York City, NY
Died	December 31, 2023(2023-12-31) (aged 92) Oak Ridge, TN
Alma mater	Cornell University University of Rochester
Spouse	Melvyn Halbert ​ (m. 1951)​
Children	3
Scientific career
Institutions	Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Thesis	A shell model for the even-parity states of N¹⁵ and general results for states of parity ( - )A̳¹ in the nuclei 5 ≤A ≤ 16 (1957)
Doctoral advisor	James Bruce French

Education

Halbert attended Cornell University,^[3] where she was elected to Sigma Xi^[4] and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1951.^[5] She then went to the University of Rochester to pursue graduate studies in physics. At Rochester, she was the student of James Bruce French.^[6] She earned a doctorate in 1957^[7] with a PhD thesis entitled A Shell Model for the Even-Parity States of Nitrogen-15.^[8]

Career

She worked at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory,^[9] where she directed the development of the Oak Ridge–Rochester Multi-Shell Program, a computer program used to compute the properties of atomic nuclei based on the nuclear shell model.^[10] While at Oak Ridge, she also worked as a visiting scientist in the low energy nuclear theory group at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and the nuclear theory group at Stony Brook University.^[11]

Personal life

Halbert came from a Forest Hills, New York family. She married Melvyn Halbert of Jamaica, New York, also a Cornell and University of Rochester physics student^[12][13] and later an Oak Ridge researcher.

Selected publications

• Zucker, A.; Howard, F. T.; Halbert, E. C., eds. (1961). Proceedings of the 2nd Conference on Reactions Between Complex Nuclei, May 2–4, 1960, Gatlinburg, Tennessee. New York & London: John Wiley & Sons.^[14][15]
• Halbert, E. C. (January 1964). "Optical-model analysis of elastic deuteron scattering". Nuclear Physics. 50: 353–402. Bibcode:1964NucPh..50..353H. doi:10.1016/0029-5582(64)90216-0.
• Austern, N.; Drisko, R. M.; Halbert, E. C.; Satchler, G. R. (1964-01-13). "Theory of finite-range distorted-waves calculations". Physical Review. 133 (1B): B3 – B16. Bibcode:1964PhRv..133....3A. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.133.B3. ISSN 0031-899X.
• McGrory, J. B.; Wildenthal, B. H.; Halbert, E. C. (1970-07-01). "Shell-model structure of ⁴²⁻⁵⁰Ca". Physical Review C. 2 (1): 186–212. Bibcode:1970PhRvC...2..186M. doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.2.186. ISSN 0556-2813.
• Ichimura, Munetake; Arima, Akito; Halbert, E. C.; Terasawa, Tokuo (April 1973). "Alpha-particle spectroscopic amplitudes and the SU(3) model". Nuclear Physics A. 204 (2): 225–278. Bibcode:1973NuPhA.204..225I. doi:10.1016/0375-9474(73)90272-8. OSTI 4564483.