physics

Theodore H. Geballe

Theodore H. Geballe 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 Theodore H. Geballe rather than just read about it. In short: Theodore Henry Geballe (January 20, 1920 – October 23, 2021) was an American physicist who was a professor of applied physics at Stanford University. He was known for his work on the synthesis of novel materials of interest to several areas of physics and many interdisciplinary sciences.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Theodore Henry Geballe (January 20, 1920 – October 23, 2021) was an American physicist who was a professor of applied physics at Stanford University. He was known for his work on the synthesis of novel materials of interest to several areas of physics and many interdisciplinary sciences.

Biography Theodore Geballe was born and brought up in a Jewish family in San Francisco, California, the son of Alice (Glaser) and Oscar Geballe. His grandfather left the Province of Posen in Prussia to move to the United States in about 1870. He attended the Galileo High School in San Francisco, graduating in 1937. Geballe then travelled across San Francisco Bay to attend college at the University of California, Berkeley. While still an undergraduate student at Berkeley, Geballe worked in William Giauque's lab to accurately measure the specific heat of gold. In 1941, Geballe was called to active duty as an Army Ordnance Officer during the World War II. Geballe served in Australia, New Guinea and the Philippines and was responsible for maintaining guns. After the war, Geballe returned to Berkeley as a graduate student of Giauque, receiving his PhD in chemistry in 1949 - the same year that Giauque won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 1952, he moved to Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey. While at Bell labs, he worked on studying transport properties in semiconductors at very low temperatures, and also on studying properties of unconventional superconductors. In 1967, Geballe joined Stanford University as a professor in the newly founded department of applied physics as well as the department of materials science and engineering. Geballe was involved in research in the then-upcoming field of multilayered heterostructure materials. Geballe served as the head of the department of applied physics at Stanford from 1975 to 1977, and was the director of the Center for Materials Research from 1978 to 1988. In January 2020, Geballe's 100th birthday was marked by a celebratory conference.

Awards and honors Geballe, along with Bernd Matthias won the 1970 Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize awarded by the American Physical Society "for experiments that challenged theoretical understanding and opened up the technology of high-field superconductors." Geballe also won the 1991 Von Hippel Award by the Materials Research Society, and was made a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1973. In 1989, he received the Bernd T. Matthias Prize. In 2000, the new Laboratory for Advanced Materials at Stanford was named "The Theodore H. Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials" in his honor.

Personal life Geballe was married to Frances Koshland (1921–2019), daughter of Daniel E. Koshland Sr. and granddaughter of Abraham Haas. They have six children: Gordon Theodore Geballe, Alison Frances Geballe, Adam Phillip Geballe, Monica Ruth Geballe, Jennifer Corinne Geballe and Ernest Henry Geballe. He has 16 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. He died at his home in Woodside, California, on October 23, 2021, at the age of 101.

References

External links Theodore H. Geballe Papers

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Theodore H. Geballe

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Theodore H. Geballe 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 Theodore H. Geballe 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 Theodore H. Geballe 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 Theodore H. Geballe

In research: Theodore H. Geballe 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 Theodore H. Geballe 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: Theodore H. Geballe is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1920 births, 2021 deaths, 21st-century American physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Theodore H. Geballe 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.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Theodore H. Geballe” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Theodore H. Geballe in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Theodore H. Geballe in simple terms?

Why does Theodore H. Geballe 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 Theodore H. Geballe?

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 Theodore H. Geballe.