physics

Isaiah Shavitt

Isaiah Shavitt is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Isaiah Shavitt rather than just read about it. In short: Isaiah Shavitt (Hebrew: ישעיהו שביט) was a Polish-born Israeli and American theoretical chemist. Biography Isaiah Kruk (later Shavitt) was born on July 29, 1925, in Kutno, Poland but his family moved to what would become Israel in 1929.

Key takeaways

Isaiah Shavitt belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Isaiah Shavitt to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Isaiah Shavitt from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Isaiah Shavitt (Hebrew: ישעיהו שביט) was a Polish-born Israeli and American theoretical chemist.

Biography Isaiah Kruk (later Shavitt) was born on July 29, 1925, in Kutno, Poland but his family moved to what would become Israel in 1929. After undergraduate degrees in chemistry (1950) and chemical engineering (1951) from the Technion in Haifa, he started a Ph.D. in experimental physical chemistry, but shortly after traveled to Cambridge University on a British Council Scholarship and completed his Ph.D. (1957) under the aegis of pioneering computational chemist S. Francis Boys.

Academic career Following postdoctoral work with Joseph O. Hirschfelder, a stint as a temporary assistant professor at Brandeis University, and further postdoctoral research with Martin Karplus, he became a professor at his alma mater in 1962. In 1967 he moved to a senior research position at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, United States. In 1968 he also became a part-time faculty member at the department of chemistry at Ohio State University and moved there full-time in 1981. In 1994 he retired from this position and continued part-time as an emeritus professor. Until his death he was also an adjunct professor in the department of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, US. Shavitt's landmark achievements include being responsible for two of the first applications of the then newly available computer to chemistry; developing the Gaussian transform method for calculating multicenter integrals of Slater-type orbitals; coining the concept of contracted Gaussian-type orbitals; the GUGA (Graphical Unitary Group Approach) to fast configuration interaction calculations; and major contributions to coupled cluster theory. He is one of the founding authors of the COLUMBUS suite of ab initio computational chemistry programs. An International Conference, entitled Molecular Quantum Mechanics: Methods and Applications" was held in memory of S. Francis Boys and in honor of Isaiah Shavitt in September, 1995 at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and the proceedings published as a special issue of the Journal of Physical Chemistry. He was a member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science. Shavitt died at the age of 87 on Dec. 8, 2012 at Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana.

References

See also Zimmerman, S. C.; Pitzer, R. M. (2014). "Isaiah Shavitt: Computational chemistry pioneer". Theoretical Chemistry Accounts. 133 (6): 1488. doi:10.1007/s00214-014-1488-3. S2CID 120618516. I.Shavitt in methods of computational Physics vol.2 Academic(1963)

Published works The Gaussian Function (1963) The Method of Configuration Interaction (1977) The Graphical Unitary Group Approach (1981) Supercomputers and Chemistry (1981) The Unitary Group (1983) The Treatment of Electron Correlations (1984) Unitary Group Approach (1988) I. Shavitt and R. J. Bartlett, "Many-Body Methods in Chemistry and Physics" (Cambridge University Press, 2009), ISBN 978-0521818322 https://www.amazon.com/Many-Body-Methods-Chemistry-Physics-Coupled-Cluster/dp/052181832X/

External links doi:10.1021/jp9634666 A biography by Uzi Kaldor and Russell M. Pitzer. His International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science web page

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Isaiah Shavitt

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Isaiah Shavitt claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Isaiah Shavitt before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Isaiah Shavitt ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Isaiah Shavitt

In research: Isaiah Shavitt appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Isaiah Shavitt in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Isaiah Shavitt is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1925 births, 2012 deaths, Academic staff of Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Isaiah Shavitt outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Isaiah Shavitt in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Isaiah Shavitt means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Isaiah Shavitt out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Isaiah Shavitt in simple terms?

Isaiah Shavitt (Hebrew: ישעיהו שביט) was a Polish-born Israeli and American theoretical chemist. Biography Isaiah Kruk (later Shavitt) was born on July 29, 1925, in Kutno, Poland but his family moved to what would become Israel in 1929.

Why does Isaiah Shavitt matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Isaiah Shavitt?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Isaiah Shavitt.