Physicists David Nicodemus and Richard Dempster by
the College's cyclotron, ca. 1954. [OSU Archives P25:2888]Physicists David Nicodemus and Richard Dempster by
the College's cyclotron, ca. 1954. [OSU Archives P25:2888]
Scope and Content Note
The David B. Nicodemus Papers consist of Nicodemus' Ph.D.
dissertation, "The Average X-ray Energy Expended in Forming
an Ion pair in Argon"; reprints of publications that he authored
or co-authored, 1948-1958; a 1958 manuscript, "Scattering
of 14.5 Mev Neutrons by Complex Nuclei" with photographs;
the 1949 M.S. thesis of Melvin G. Nielsen, "Neutron Polarization
in a Single Iron Crystal", whom Nicodemus advised at Stanford
University; correspondence between Nicodemus and other physicists,
including Felix Bloch, regarding his research; and a reprint of
a 1960 publication by Curtis G. Chezem, one of Nicodemus' Ph.D.
students at Oregon State College.
The Nicodemus Papers also include a booklet commemorating the 40th anniversary reunion (in 1985) of scientists who worked at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and The Kingdom of the Lark, A Small Boy's World: 1913-1924 by Richard A. Faust, a boyhood friend of Nicodemus, about growing up in Sendai, Japan.
Provenance
These materials were transferred to the Archives in July 1999
after Nicodemus' death.
Biographical Note
Professor David B. Nicodemus was a physicist at the Los Alamos
Scientific Laboratory from 1943 to 1946. He went to Los Alamos
from Stanford University with physicists Hans Staub and Felix
Bloch. After earning his Ph.D. in 1946 from Stanford University,
Nicodemus taught at that institution for four years and continued
working with Bloch and Staub on their low energy nuclear program.
In 1950, Nicodemus joined Oregon State College's Physics Department.
He later served as Acting Dean of Science in 1965-1966 and was
Dean of Faculty from 1966 until his retirement in 1986. Dean Nicodemus
died in Corvallis, Oregon, on June 19, 1999. The son of missionary
parents, Nicodemus was born in Kobe, Japan, and lived in Sendai as a child
and youth until he came to the United States in the early 1930s for
college.
Related Materials
The Physics Department Records (RG 37)
include records of research
performed by Nicodemus and his students at Oregon State University.
Additional biographical information is available in the Memorabilia
Collection.
Shelf Locations
SR 5/6/5/51; 2/2/9/53 (photographs)
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