Stanley Wojcicki

Stanley Wojcicki
Born
Stanisław Jerzy Wójcicki

(1937-03-30)March 30, 1937
Warsaw, Second Polish Republic
DiedMay 31, 2023(2023-05-31) (aged 86)
Los Altos, California, U.S.
EducationHarvard University (BA)
University of California, Berkeley (MA, PhD)
Spouse
​
(m. 1962)​
Children3, including Susan and Anne
Parents
AwardsBruno Pontecorvo Prize (2011)
Panofsky Prize (2015)
Scientific career
InstitutionsStanford
ThesisPion-Hyperon Resonances (1962)

Stanley George Wojcicki[1] (/ˌvuːɪˈtʃɪtski/ VOO-ih-CHITS-kee;[2] born Stanisław Jerzy Wójcicki, Polish: [vujˈt͡ɕit͡skʲi]; March 30, 1937 – May 31, 2023)[3] was a Polish-American physicist and former chair of the physics department at Stanford University in California.[4]

Early life and education

Wojcicki was born in Warsaw, Poland, the son of Janina Wanda Wójcicka (née Kozłowska), a bibliographer, and Franciszek Wójcicki, a lawyer.[1][5] He and his brother fled from Poland to Sweden with his mother at the age of 12, when communists came to power.[6] They eventually arrived in the United States. His father remained in Poland, and was soon imprisoned for five years for being a member of the government's main opposition party. He was never able to gain a visa to come to the United States.[6]

Wojcicki and his brother were sent to a boarding school run by the Franciscan Order near Buffalo, New York.[6] He excelled in mathematics and had thought of pursuing either engineering or medicine, but decided to study physics. He attended Harvard University on a scholarship and graduated with a BA. He later attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a PhD.[7]

Career

Wojcicki worked at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and was a National Science Foundation fellow at CERN and the Collège de France. In 1966, he joined the Stanford University physics faculty where he headed the Department of Physics from 1982–1985 and 2004–2007.[7]

Wojcicki served as an advisor to government funding agencies (US and foreign) as well as to several high energy physics laboratories. He also headed the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel, which advises the United States Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation on particle physics matters.[7]

Wojcicki led the HEPAP subpanel New Facilities for the US High-Energy Physics Program which recommended building the Super Conducting Super Collilder in 1983.[8][9]

Personal life

Stanley Wojcicki was the husband of fellow educator Esther Wojcicki, whom he met at UC Berkeley, and married in 1962.[10] They had three children and ten grandchildren.[11]

In 2010, his daughter Anne and her then-husband, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, endowed a $2.5 million chair in experimental physics at Stanford in her father's name.[7]

Wojcicki was a Catholic.[14]

Wojcicki died at his residence in Los Altos, California, on May 31, 2023, at the age of 86.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b Who's who in the West. Vol. 31. Marquis Who's Who, Incorporated. 2004. ISBN 9780837909356.
  2. ^ "2016 Breakthrough Prize Symposium: Introducing the 2016 Laureates in Fundamental Physics" on YouTube
  3. ^ World-renowned physicist Stanley Wojcicki dies at 86
  4. ^ "Stanley Wojcicki - Stanford University Physics Faculty page". Retrieved July 8, 2012.
  5. ^ The Polish Review. Vol. 42. Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America. 1997. p. 123.
  6. ^ a b c Guthrie, Julian (April 6, 2013). "Bay Area's Wojcicki family honored". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
  7. ^ a b c d e Stanford Department of Physics: "Endowed Chairs and Professorships: Stanley G. Wojcicki Chair in Physics: First Endowed Chair in Experimental Physics Honors Beloved Professor" retrieved September 22, 2012
  8. ^ Riordan, Michael; Lillian Hoddeson; Adrienne W. Kolb (2015). Tunnel visions : the rise and fall of the superconducting super collider. Chicago. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-226-29479-7. OCLC 907132862.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ^ Wojcicki, Stanley (January 2008). "The Supercollider: The Pre-Texas Days — A Personal Recollection of Its Birth and Berkeley Years". Reviews of Accelerator Science and Technology. 01 (1): 259–302. doi:10.1142/S1793626808000113. ISSN 1793-6268.
  10. ^ "Miss Hochman Becomes Mrs. Stanley Wojcicki". Valley Times. Vol. 25, no. 4. January 4, 1962. p. 8.
  11. ^ a b c d Esther Wojcicki retrieved September 21, 2012
  12. ^ "Google Names Susan Wojcicki CEO of YouTube". Variety. February 5, 2014. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  13. ^ USA Today: "The house that helped build Google" By Jefferson Graham July 5, 2007
  14. ^ "Q&A: Esther Wojcicki raised the CEO of YouTube, the CEO of 23andMe and a doctor. Here are her 5 rules for successful parenting". Deseret News. June 1, 2019. Retrieved February 18, 2024.
  15. ^ "Professor Stanley Wojcicki has died at age 86". Stanford University. June 5, 2023. Retrieved August 10, 2024.