U.S. Postal Service to Dedicate Famous Scientist Stamps at U.T. Dallas

RICHARDSON, Texas (April 27, 2005) — When it comes to innovative science and scholarly research in North Texas, The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) sets the standard. That is why the United States Postal Service (USPS) chose UTD as the site of a regional public ceremony for the new stamp issue featuring four famous American scientists.

The block of four stamps featuring cytogeneticist Barbara McClintock, mathematician John von Neumann, physicist Richard Feynman and thermodynamicist Josiah Willard Gibbs will be dedicated at 1 p.m., Friday, May 6 in the Kusch Auditorium (FN 2.102) on the UTD campus. Dignitaries expected to attend include USPS Dallas District Manager Carl January, UTD President Franklyn Jenifer, UTD Provost Hobson Wildenthal, Interim Dean of the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics John Ferraris and Dean of Libraries Larry D. Sall. A reception will follow immediately in the McDermott Suite (MC 4.404) of the McDermott Library.

This block of stamps — featuring cytogeneticist Barbara McClintock,
mathematician John von Neumann, physicist Richard Feynman
and
thermodynamicist Josiah Willard Gibbs — will debut May 6 at UTD.

The Special Collections Department in McDermott Library has been home to the Wineburgh Philatelic Research Library since the mid-1970’s. A similar dedication ceremony held at the Wineburgh in 1999 for the integrated circuit stamp included an appearance by Nobel laureate Jack Kilby, a former Texas Instruments researcher who is credited with inventing the device that revolutionized the world.

Not only is Kusch Auditorium located in the heart of UTD’s scientific community, it is named after the late faculty member Polykarp Kusch, 1955 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics. Two more recent Nobel laureates – Alan MacDiarmid (Chemistry, 2000) and Russell Hulse (Physics, 1993) are faculty members at UTD.

The USPS will have the new stamps available at the dedication, as well as commemorative envelopes noting the ceremony and special pictorial cancellations that can be applied to the stamps as mementos of the dedication.

About the scientists on the stamps

In 1944, McClintock (1902-1992) became the third woman elected to the National Academy of Science (NAS). In the 1940’s and 1950’s, her work on the cytogenetics of maize led her to theorize that genes are transposable — they can move around — on and between chromosomes. McClintock drew this inference by observing changing patterns of coloration in maize kernels over generations of controlled crosses. The idea that genes could move did not seem to fit with what was then known about genes, but improved molecular techniques of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s allowed other scientists to confirm her discovery, and consequently she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1983. This made McClintock the first American woman to win an unshared Nobel. She was born in Hartford, Conn., and obtained her undergraduate and doctoral degrees at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture. From 1931 to 1933, she was supported by a fellowship from the National Research Council; from 1941until her death, she worked at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. Among her many honors is the National Medal of Science, the U.S. government’s highest science award, which she received in 1970.

Von Neumann (1903-1957) was elected a member of the NAS in 1937. He was known for his contributions to the fields of mathematical logic and the foundations of quantum mechanics. But his interests were wide-ranging, and he went on to do distinguished work in other fields, including economics and strategic thinking. He is perhaps best known for his work in the early development of computers. As director of the Electronic Computer Project at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study (1945-1955), he developed MANIAC (mathematical analyzer, numerical integrator and computer), which at the time was the fastest computer of its kind. Built at a time long before the invention of the silicon chip, MANIAC was run on thousands of vacuum tubes. Von Neumann was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1903, and studied in Berlin, Zurich, and Hamburg. In 1930, he joined the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. He became a U.S. citizen in 1937, and during World War II distinguished himself with his work in weapons development. In 1955 he was named a Commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission, a position he held up to his death from cancer in 1957.

Feynman (1918-1988) was one of the most influential American physicists of the 20 th Century, expanding greatly the theory of quantum electrodynamics. As well as being an inspiring lecturer and amateur musician, he helped in the development of the atomic bomb and was later a member of the panel that investigated the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. For his work on quantum electrodynamics, Feynman was one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1965, along with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga. Feynman is famous for his many adventures, detailed in the books Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!, What Do You Care What Other People Think? and Tuva Or Bust!. Richard Feynman was, in many respects, an eccentric and a free spirit. He was born in Queens, N.Y. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he obtained a B.Sc.in 1939, and at Princeton University, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1942. He was research assistant at Princeton (1940-1941), professor of theoretical physics at Cornell University (1945-1950), visiting professor and later professor of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology (1950-1959).

Gibbs (1839-1903) was born in New Haven, Conn., to a father who was a Yale University professor best-known for finding translators for the mutineers of the Amistad slave ship. In 1873, his first published work titled “Graphical Methods in the Thermodynamics of Fluids” was released. He was 34 and was just starting to reveal his genius. His first paper included the formula for which he is probably most famous: dU = T dS — P dV. His second published work came out that same year with the title of “A Method of Geometrical Representation of the Thermodynamic Properties of Substances by Means of Surfaces.” He had a tendency to create long and somewhat unintelligible titles. In fact, the most often cited fault was that his work was hard to follow, even for those who were considered experts. Gibbs also contributed to crystallography, the determination of planetary and comet orbits, and electromagnetic theory. James Clerk Maxwell was one of the first European scientists to recognize Gibbs as a theoretical physicist of international stature. Gibbs was also interested in the practical side of science. His doctorate was the first granted by Yale for an engineering thesis, and he received a patent (1866) for an improved type of railroad brake. His Scientific Papers appeared in 1906 (reprinted 1961) and his Collected Works in 1928.

About UTD

The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor®, enrolls more than 14,000 students. The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university’s Web site at www.utdallas.edu.