Clarence Melvin Zener

Westinghouse Research Laboratory

December 1, 1905 – July 2, 1993

Theoretical Physicist

Awarded Bingham Medal 1957

Dr. Clarence Melvin Zener was born and grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. When he was younger, he had a hard time learning in addition to a stuttering problem which kept him out of school for a long time. That did not deter him though, as he gained admission to Stanford University at the age of 16. Zener graduated with a BS in mathematics in 1926 rather than physics – apparently he hated the experimental side of the physics degree and a math degree allowed him to focus more on the concepts underpinning physics, which is the part he actually enjoyed. He then received his PhD in physics from Harvard University in 1929.

Zener cites two people as the most influential in his career – J.R. Oppenheimer and P. W. Bridgman. (Bridgman was a Bingham medalist himself and the advisor to Oppenheimer.) From Oppenheimer, Zener said he learned to recognize his own limitations, while Bridgman instilled a passion for thermodynamics. These different factors influenced him to pursue many interests in his career including metallurgy, materials science, solid-state physics, engineering, superconductivity, and math. One of his most well-known discoveries is the Zener effect, describing electrical breakdown due to the tunneling of electrons. There are a number of other effects to which his name is attached, including the Zener diode, Zener pinning, the Zener double-exchange mechanism, and the Zener model for viscoelastic solids.

Zener is one of the founding members of the Institute for the Study of Metals at the University of Chicago. As a member of this Institute, he studied mechanical relaxation phenomena. Here he also wrote and published the book Elasticity and Anelasticity of Metals. Dr. Zener spent 14 years studying viscoelasticity and he was awarded the Bingham Medal for his research (both theoretical and experimental) on internal friction.

Sources

Goodenough, John B. Clarence M. Zener 1905-1993. Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences; National Academy of Sciences, 2014; pp 1-11. Go to link.

Nowick, Arthur S. Presentation of the Bingham Medal to Clarence M. Zener. Transactions of the Society of Rheology 1958, 2(1), 3-7. Go to link.

Photo Credit

AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives.