Email: jgking@mit.edu Phone: (617) 365-1426 Address: Room 6C-431 Related Links: To be provided

Honors and Awards

• Alfred P. Sloan Award, 1956
  
• AAPT Apparatus Competition prize, 1961
  
• AAPT Robert Millikan Medal, 1965
  
• E. Harris Harbison Award, 1971
  
• University of Hartford, Honorary DSc, 1972
  
• AAPT Oersted Medal, 2000
  
• APS Excellence in Physics Education Award, 2007

Research Interests

• Used atomic beam magnetic resonance methods to study the hyperfine structure and nuclear moments of various atoms. Found the first nuclear magnetic octupole interaction
• Began developing methods for decelerating neutral molecules
• Studied superfluids with atomic beam methods: helium II and type 2 superconductors
• Began development of molecule microscope
• Studied biological tissue by observing water transport
• Carried out null experiments: looking for continuously created hydrogen, trying to see how close to zero the charge of the neutron and the sum of the charges on the proton and electron are, looking for monopoles, quarks, etc.
• Over 100 undergraduate and 25 doctoral students got degrees working on these topics.

Biographical Sketch

Born London, UK 1925—Ecole communale France ‘29-‘36—Secondary school, Switzerland ’37-‘38, USA ’39-’43—Undergrad MIT ’43—US Army ’43-’44—US Navy ’44-’46—Harvard Underwater Sound Lab, 44—Undergrad MIT ’46-’50, SB—Grad School MIT ’50-’53, PhD— Instructor ’53-’55, Asst Prof ’55-’58, Assoc Prof ’58-’65, Prof ’65-‘74, Francis L Friedman Prof ’74-’96—Retired ‘96

• Formerly in charge of undergraduate physics laboratories at MIT, former Associate Director of the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics, and director and principal investigator at the RLE Molecular Beam Lab.
  
• Taught large lectures to freshmen and sophomores, as well as specialized graduate courses.
  
• Directed all undergraduate physics labs, and introduced new experiments including vacuum tubes made with the solder-glass technique.
  
• Ran undergraduate seminars in which solder-glass tubes were built by students to amplify signals, measure e/m and e for electrons, etc.
  
• Started the Physics Project Lab in 1964, which, over 30 years, allowed over 2000 students to do experiments of their own choosing
  
• Made 8 educational physics movies, among these 3 for the PSSC high school physics program. 
  
• Began the Corridor Lab (COL) in 1970, in which experiments accessible at all times can be assigned or performed by any interested passerby.
  
• Developed a Concentrated Study course  (COS) in which 20 students work on a single subject (taking no other) for 20 days, each day starting with 1-1/2 hours of experiment and project, followed by 1-1/2 hours of group discussion. One-hour meetings of pairs of students (they work in partnership) occupy the instructor’s afternoons. Taught COS at MIT, Rust College, Mississippi, and Fudan University, Shanghai.
  
• Recently developed introductory mechanics and E&M courses with take home kits to perform experiments in the students’ living quarters.
  
• Continues to try to present physics to ever-wider audiences through experimental experiences of all kinds, including projects, toys, playground apparatus, instruments in the home and displays in showcases, indoors and out.
• Consulted on many topics, including the development of atomic clocks, the investigation of space capsule reentry problems, the development of playgrounds with technological features.

Selected Publications

Phys. Rev. 94, 1798 - 1799 (1954)
Hyperfine Structure of I127— Nuclear Magnetic Octupole Moment
With V. Jaccarino, R. A. Satten and H. H. Stroke

Phys. Rev. 142, 53 - 59 (1966)
Hyperfine Structure and Octupole Interaction in Stable Bromine Isotopes
With Howard Howland Brown

Phys. Rev. Lett. 26, 735 - 737 (1971)
Measurement of Helium-Helium Scattering Cross Section at Low Temperatures
With Daniel E. Oates

Phys. Rev. Lett. 26, 969 - 972 (1971)
Atomic-Beam Observations of the Magnetic Field Outside a Type-II Superconductor
With Truman R. Brown

Phys. Rev. Lett. 51, 1538 - 1541 (1983)
Experimental Investigation of Small Helium Clusters: Magic Numbers and the Onset of Condensation
With Peter W. Stephens

Nature 222, 261 - 263 (19 April 1969)
Molecular Scanner
With William R. Bigas

PNAS October 1, 1973   vol. 70 no. 10 2781-2784
The Molecule Microscope: A New Instrument for Biological and Biomedical Research
With James C. Weaver

AJP - Renal Physiology, Vol 236, Issue 4 413-F418, 1979
Use of mass spectrometer to measure CO2 and O2 fluxes in voltage-clamped epithelia
With S. J. Rosenthal and A. Essig

Journal of Membrane Biology Volume 63, Number 3 157-163 October, 1981
Time course of active Na transport and oxidative metabolism following transepithelial potential perturbation in toad urinary bladder
With Stanley J. Rosenthal and Alvin Essig

Nature 222, 1158 - 1159 (21 June 1969)
Search for Hydrogen appearing in Mercury Metal
With Samuel A. Cohen

Phys. Rev. A 7, 1224 - 1229 (1973)
Neutrality of Molecules by a New Method
With H. Frederick Dylla

American Journal of Physics, Volume 32, Issue 6, pp. 473-478 (1964).
Experiences with Solder Glass and Students

Am. J. Phys. 34, 1058 (1966).
The Undergraduate Physics Laboratory and Reality
1966 Millikan Medal Speech

Society for Research into Higher Education  (London) 1971
Concentrated study: A pedagogic innovation observed (ISBN 0900868139) 1971
With Malcolm R. Parlett

American Journal of Physics -- January 2001 -- Volume 69, Issue 1, pp. 11-25
Observation, Experiment, and the Future of Physics
2000 Oersted Medal Speech

The Physics Teacher, Volume 46, Issue 1, pp. 29-35 (2008)
Physics of Incandescent Lamp Burnout
With Paul Gluck