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Walter Lewin

Dutch astrophysicist
Date of Birth : 29 January, 1936 (Age 89)
Place of Birth : The Hague, Netherlands
Profession : Dutch Astrophysicist
Nationality : Dutch
Walter Hendrik Gustav Lewin (ওয়াল্টার হেন্ড্রিক গুস্তাভ লুইন) is a Dutch astrophysicist and emeritus professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lewin earned his doctorate in nuclear physics from Delft University of Technology in 1965 and was a member of the physics faculty at MIT for 43 years, starting in 1966 until his retirement in 2009.

Lewin's contributions to astrophysics include the first discovery of a rotating neutron star by the All-Sky Balloon Survey and research into X-ray detection by satellites and observatories. Lewin has received awards for teaching and is known for his lectures and online publications on physics via YouTube, MIT OpenCourseware, and edX.

In December 2014, MIT revoked Lewin's title as professor emeritus after an MIT investigation determined that he had violated university policy by sexually harassing an online student in an MITx course in the fall of 2013.

Early life and education

Lewin was born in 1936 in The Hague, Netherlands, to Walter Simon Lewin and Pietarnella Johanna van der Tang. He was a child when Nazi Germany occupied the Netherlands during World War II. His grandparents, Gustav and Emma Lewin, who were Jewish, died in Auschwitz in 1942. To protect the family, Lewin's father—who, unlike his mother, was Jewish—decided to leave one day without telling anyone. His mother was left to raise the children and run a small school that she and her husband had started together. After the war ended, his father resurfaced; Lewin described a "more or less normal childhood". His parents continued to teach, which he says strongly influenced his love of learning.

Educational career

Walter Lewin taught high school physics while studying for his PhD, then went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in January 1966 as a postdoctoral fellow and was appointed an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor of physics in 1968 and full professor in 1974.

At MIT, Lewin joined the X-ray astronomy group and conducted the All-Sky Balloon Survey with George W. Clark. By the late 1970s, there had been about twenty successful balloon flights. These balloon surveys led to the discovery of five new X-ray sources, whose spectra were very different from the X-ray sources discovered during the rocket observations. The X-ray fluxes of these sources were variable. Among them was GX 1+4 whose X-ray flux appeared to be periodic with a period of about 2.4 minutes. This was the first discovery of a slowly rotating neutron star.

When Scorpius X-1 was observed in October 1967, an X-ray flare was detected. The flux increased by about a factor of 4 over a period of ten minutes and then decreased again. This was the first detection of X-ray variability seen during the observation. The rockets used by other researchers could not detect X-ray sources that varied on such short time scales of minutes, whereas balloons could remain in the air for many hours.

Awards

  • 1978 - NASA Award for Exceptional Scientific Achievement
  • 1984 - Alexander von Humboldt Award
  • 1984 - Guggenheim Fellowship
  • 1984 - MIT Science Council Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
  • 1988 - MIT Department of Physics W. Buchener Teaching Prize
  • 1991 – Alexander von Humboldt Prize (again)
  • 1997 – NASA Group Achievement Award for discovery of bursting pulsars
  • 2003 – MIT Everett Moore Baker Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
  • 2011 – First recipient of the Educator Award for OpenCourseware Excellence (ACE)
  • On April 3, 2012, Lewin was named one of the "Top 300" by the Princeton Review. He is the only MIT faculty member (albeit retired) to make that list.

Sexual Harassment

In early December 2014, MIT determined that Lewin had sexually harassed an online MITX student in violation of MIT's policy. Inside Higher Ed reported that the student was one of at least 10 female students to whom Lewin had sent inappropriate messages. The victim, a 32-year-old woman living in France, said she had come forward to ensure the case was forgotten, saying that Lewin pressured her into participating in sexual role-playing. As a result of its internal investigation, MIT revoked Lewin's title as professor emeritus, and removed his lectures from the institute's online learning platform.

Personal life

Lewin is an art enthusiast and collector. He has lectured on the subject at MIT. In the 1970s and 1980s, he collaborated with artist Otto Pine, one of the founders of the Zero movement and director of MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies, and Peter Struyken, a computer artist.

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