physics

Martin Pope

Martin Pope 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 Martin Pope rather than just read about it. In short: Martin Pope (born Isidore Poppick; August 22, 1918 – March 27, 2022) was an American physical chemist and professor at New York University. His discoveries of ohmic contacts and research in the fields of organic insulators and semiconductors led to techniques enabling organic semiconductors to carry relatively large currents, and to convert electricity into light and vice versa.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Martin Pope (born Isidore Poppick; August 22, 1918 – March 27, 2022) was an American physical chemist and professor at New York University. His discoveries of ohmic contacts and research in the fields of organic insulators and semiconductors led to techniques enabling organic semiconductors to carry relatively large currents, and to convert electricity into light and vice versa. These discoveries have had application in electrophotography, organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), photovoltaic cells, biological sensors, transistors, molecular electronics, and batteries. For his work, Dr. Pope was awarded the Davy Medal from the Royal Society in 2006.

Biography Martin Pope was born in 1918 to Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. The second of four sons, Pope grew up on New York's Lower East Side. He attended the City College of New York, graduating with a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1939. While at CCNY, Pope assisted in nuclear experiments at Columbia University and met Fermi, Schwinger, Dunning and other key figures in the development of nuclear fission. After graduation, he served in the Army Air Force in the Pacific, where he reached the rank of first lieutenant. After the war, Pope returned home and found work at Balco Research Laboratories, where he received two patents for thin film inventions. He received his Ph.D. in 1950 from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. He joined the faculty of New York University in 1956 as a researcher in the Radiation and Solid State Physics Lab (RSSL). In 1988, he retired as professor of chemistry and director of the RSSL. He became professor emeritus, physical chemistry at NYU. He was still active in research until the final years of his life. He published his last two papers in 2003 and 2004.

Personal life and death Pope married Lillie Pope, an educational psychologist and author, in 1946. She died in 2015. He turned 100 in August 2018, and died on March 27, 2022, at the age of 103.

References

External links Martin Pope home page Radiation and Solid State Physics Lab photogallery

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Martin Pope

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Martin Pope 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 Martin Pope 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 Martin Pope 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 Martin Pope

In research: Martin Pope 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 Martin Pope 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: Martin Pope is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1918 births, 2022 deaths, 21st-century American Jews, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Martin Pope 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 Martin Pope in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Martin Pope in simple terms?

Why does Martin Pope 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 Martin Pope?

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 Martin Pope.