Raymond Thayer Birge

Who was Raymond Thayer Birge?

Raymond Thayer Birge was a physicist. Born in Brooklyn, New York, into an academic scientific family, Birge obtained his Doctor's Degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1913. In the same year he married Irene A. Walsh. The Birges had two children, Carolyn Elizabeth and Robert Walsh, Associate Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1973-1981. After five years as an instructor at Syracuse University, he became a member of the physics department at University of California, Berkeley where he remained until he retired, as chairman, in 1955.

On his arrival at Berkeley, Birge sought collaboration with the Berkeley College of Chemistry, then under the leadership of Gilbert N. Lewis. However, Birge's championing of the Bohr atom led him into conflict with the chemists who defended Lewis' earlier theory of the cubical atom. Birge was unafraid of scientific controversy and persevered with his course on atomic structure, attracting future Nobel Laureates in chemistry William Francis Giauque and Harold Clayton Urey. His work ultimately led to the development of the discipline of physical chemistry. His work on molecular spectra included the development of the Birge-Sponer method.