physics

Martha Krebs

Martha Krebs 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 Martha Krebs rather than just read about it. In short: Martha Krebs is a theoretical physicist who directed the Office of Science for the United States Department of Energy from 1993 to 2000. She later went on to be the founding director for the University of California, Los Angeles's California NanoSystems Institute.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Martha Krebs is a theoretical physicist who directed the Office of Science for the United States Department of Energy from 1993 to 2000. She later went on to be the founding director for the University of California, Los Angeles's California NanoSystems Institute.

Early life and education Martha Krebs was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Krebs graduated summa cum laude at the Catholic University of America in 1966 with a bachelor's degree in physics. In 1975 she completed her PhD in theoretical physics, specializing in statistical mechanics at the same university. Krebs is part of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Association for Women in Science. She is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa Society.

Career Krebs served as a member on the House Committee on Science, from 1977 through 1983. She started as a professional staff member before later becoming the subcommittee staff director. She left the committee in 1983 to become an associate director of Planning and Development for the United States Department of Energy at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. While working at the lab Krebs's role was to plan research, oversee science education and handle outreach. Krebs switched jobs in 1993, and worked for seven years in the United States Department of Energy and the Office of Science. She was the assistant secretary and the director of the Office of Science at the Department of Energy, and was responsible for managing the $3.1 billion budget. One of her major accomplishments while working for the department was to oversee the completion of the main injector for the particle accelerator at Fermilab. Krebs stepped down in 2000 to work on research and development management, planning and budgeting for the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. In 2001 she became the founding director for California NanoSystems Institute at University of California, Los Angeles. From 2005 to 2009 Krebs was the deputy director for research and development at the California Energy Commission. In 2013 she was appointed senior scientist at Penn State College of Engineering and director of the energy efficient buildings hub at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.

See also Women in physics Women in government

References

External links Oral history interview with Martha Krebs on 2020 May 15. Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Martha Krebs

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Martha Krebs 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 Martha Krebs 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 Martha Krebs 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 Martha Krebs

In research: Martha Krebs 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 Martha Krebs 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: Martha Krebs is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century American physicists, 20th-century United States government officials, 21st-century American scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Martha Krebs 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 Martha Krebs in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Martha Krebs 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 Martha Krebs out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Martha Krebs in simple terms?

Why does Martha Krebs 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 Martha Krebs?

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 Martha Krebs.