Joseph Valasek

Joseph Valasek (27 April 1897 – 4 October 1993) was an American physicist and professor emeritus of physics at the University of Minnesota. He specialized in geometrical and physical optics, experimental optics and spectroscopy, and x-rays. He is credited with the discovery of ferroelectricity, which he identified using Rochelle salts.

Early life and education Valasek was born on 27 April 1897 in Cleveland, Ohio, to parents who had immigrated from Czechoslovakia. His father worked as a journalist, office clerk, and assistant to a manager in a brewery. His maternal grandfather, Josef Pylik, was a physics teacher in Czechoslovakia.

Valasek received his BS in 1917 in physics at the Case School of Applied Science (now Case Western Reserve University). After graduating, he worked for two years at the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) in Washington, D.C., where he conducted research on the annealing of optical glass. In 1920 he received his MA and in 1921 he received his PhD in physics from the University of Minnesota.

He joined the University of Minnesota staff while in graduate school, becoming a teaching assistant in 1919. After concluding graduate work at the University of Minnesota, Valasek subsequently worked at the university as a National Research Council fellow for one year. Valasek formally submitted this paper in December 1920 and it was published in April 1921 in the Physical Review.

In 1920 Valasek was promoted to instructor, and in 1922, he was appointed as an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota.

He was elected in 1921 a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Personal life Valasek's brother-in-law was Elmer Hutchisson, who was married to his sister Rose. Hutchisson served as the second director of the American Institute of Physics from 1957 to 1964.

Publications and other work "Piezo-Electric and Allied Phenomena in Rochelle Salt," thesis submitted in 1920 Elements of Optics (McGraw-Hill, 1928) Introduction to Theoretical and Experimental Optics (Wiley, 1949)