Born in Wilkes Barre, PA December 20, 1917, David Bohm was an undergraduate at Penn State in the 1930s, who after graduating with an undergraduate degree in physics went on to study at the California Institute for Technology and the University of California, Berkley, for his doctorate, where he studied under J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Among the first generation of American physicists to receive his advanced training in the United States, Bohm initially distinguished himself with his work in plasma physics. It is, however, his work in quantum physics and his attempt to develop an alternative to the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics for which he is most remembered in the early twenty-first century. His work on more esoteric philosophical matters, beginning in the 1960s, attracted a substantial group of admirers for whom the details of his work in physics were of lesser importance.
David Bohm was born the eldest child of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Samuel and Frieda Bohm, in the Pennsylvania mining town of Wilkes-Barre. Although Samuel enjoyed success as a small businessman and the family was secure financially, David’s childhood was not ideal. His mother suffered from mental instability, which rendered her largely incapable of taking care of her children. His father’s focus on the social and more practical aspects of life led to conflict with a son who was shy, socially awkward, and more interested in science fiction. In spite of David’s early interest Samuel discouraged a scientific career as impractical.
During his high school years David began to take an interest in the more political and societal aspects of the world around him. Growing up in a mining town during the Great Depression, he witnessed the socially disruptive effects of economic instability. Furthermore, as a Jew with many relatives still living in Central and Eastern Europe, he became increasingly concerned with the rise of European fascism. These events were influential in the shaping of Bohm’s left-wing politics, which later played an important role in his professional career.
During World War II, the Manhattan Project mobilized much of Berkeley's physics research in the effort to produce the first atomic bomb. Though Oppenheimer had asked Bohm to work with him at Los Alamos (the top-secret laboratory established in 1942 to design the atom bomb), the project's director, Brigadier General Leslie Groves, would not approve Bohm's security clearance after seeing evidence of his politics and his close friendship with Weinberg, who had been suspected of espionage.
During the war, Bohm remained at Berkeley, where he taught physics and conducted research in plasma, the synchrotron and the synchrocyclotron. He completed his PhD in 1943 by an unusual circumstance. According to biographer F. David Peat. “The scattering calculations (of collisions of protons and deuterons) that he had completed proved useful to the Manhattan Project and were immediately classified. Without security clearance, Bohm was denied access to his own work; not only would he be barred from defending his thesis, he was not even allowed to write his own thesis in the first place!" To satisfy the University, Oppenheimer certified that Bohm had successfully completed the research. Bohm later performed theoretical calculations for the Calutrons at the Y-12 facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. These calculations were used for the electromagnetic enrichment of uranium for the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
It was also in high school that he began to display an aptitude for solving math and science problems in a creative way. This emphasis on creativity and alternative ways to approach physics remained characteristic of Bohm’s work throughout his life. In spite of his father’s misgivings, his interest in science continued, and Samuel eventually agreed to pay his son’s way through college. In the spring of 1939 Bohm received his degree in physics from Pennsylvania State College and entered graduate school at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) that fall. He began the trip to California on the same day war was declared in Europe. Among his many contributions to physics is his causal and deterministic interpretation of quantum theory known as De Broglie–Bohm theory.
He died at age 74 in London, England of a heart attack and suffered mental illness late in life.
Among the first generation of American physicists to receive his advanced training in the United States, Bohm initially distinguished himself with his work in plasma physics. It is, however, his work in quantum physics and his attempt to develop an alternative to the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics for which he is most remembered in the early twenty-first century. His work on more esoteric philosophical matters, beginning in the 1960s, attracted a substantial group of admirers for whom the details of his work in physics were of lesser importance.
David Bohm was born the eldest child of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Samuel and Frieda Bohm, in the Pennsylvania mining town of Wilkes-Barre. Although Samuel enjoyed success as a small businessman and the family was secure financially, David’s childhood was not ideal. His mother suffered from mental instability, which rendered her largely incapable of taking care of her children. His father’s focus on the social and more practical aspects of life led to conflict with a son who was shy, socially awkward, and more interested in science fiction. In spite of David’s early interest Samuel discouraged a scientific career as impractical.
During his high school years David began to take an interest in the more political and societal aspects of the world around him. Growing up in a mining town during the Great Depression, he witnessed the socially disruptive effects of economic instability. Furthermore, as a Jew with many relatives still living in Central and Eastern Europe, he became increasingly concerned with the rise of European fascism. These events were influential in the shaping of Bohm’s left-wing politics, which later played an important role in his professional career.
During World War II, the Manhattan Project mobilized much of Berkeley's physics research in the effort to produce the first atomic bomb. Though Oppenheimer had asked Bohm to work with him at Los Alamos (the top-secret laboratory established in 1942 to design the atom bomb), the project's director, Brigadier General Leslie Groves, would not approve Bohm's security clearance after seeing evidence of his politics and his close friendship with Weinberg, who had been suspected of espionage.
During the war, Bohm remained at Berkeley, where he taught physics and conducted research in plasma, the synchrotron and the synchrocyclotron. He completed his PhD in 1943 by an unusual circumstance. According to biographer F. David Peat. “The scattering calculations (of collisions of protons and deuterons) that he had completed proved useful to the Manhattan Project and were immediately classified. Without security clearance, Bohm was denied access to his own work; not only would he be barred from defending his thesis, he was not even allowed to write his own thesis in the first place!" To satisfy the University, Oppenheimer certified that Bohm had successfully completed the research. Bohm later performed theoretical calculations for the Calutrons at the Y-12 facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. These calculations were used for the electromagnetic enrichment of uranium for the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
It was also in high school that he began to display an aptitude for solving math and science problems in a creative way. This emphasis on creativity and alternative ways to approach physics remained characteristic of Bohm’s work throughout his life. In spite of his father’s misgivings, his interest in science continued, and Samuel eventually agreed to pay his son’s way through college. In the spring of 1939 Bohm received his degree in physics from Pennsylvania State College and entered graduate school at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) that fall. He began the trip to California on the same day war was declared in Europe. Among his many contributions to physics is his causal and deterministic interpretation of quantum theory known as De Broglie–Bohm theory.
He died at age 74 in London, England of a heart attack and suffered mental illness late in life.
