Mark Zemansky

Mark Waldo Zemansky (May 5, 1900 – December 29, 1981) was an American physicist and teacher. He was a professor of physics at the City College of New York for decades and is best known for co-authoring the introductory textbook titled University Physics with Francis Sears, first published in 1949 and has had many editions since. helped to found a Reform temple, and his father, Dr. Abraham Philip Zemansky (d. 1932), an 1874 graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the City of New York, was one of the first attending physicians at Lebanon Hospital located in The Bronx, New York (later merged as Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center).

His twin brother, Abraham Philip Zemansky Jr. (Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, '23), died in 1928 at age 28 of sepsis after a mastoid operation.

Academic career Zemansky graduated from City College of New York in 1921 and received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1927, under the supervision of Harold Worthington Webb (1884–1974). was published in the journal Physical Review in 1927.

In 1925, he joined the faculty of City College of New York, where he stayed until his retirement in 1967. As chairman of the physics department from 1956 to 1959, he brought it into the modern era. From 1963 to 1966 he was the first executive officer of the City University's new doctoral program in physics.

During the early 1940s, he helped scientists flee from Germany to the United States. One of them was Fritz Reiche, for whom he and Rudolf Ladenburg secured aid and an academic position.

From 1946 to 1956, he was associated with the Cryogenic Laboratory of Columbia University where he collaborated with Henry A. Boorse, an expert on low-temperature physics, on the measurement of heat capacities of superconducting metals and other researches. In the same year, he received the Oersted Medal from the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT).

In 1947, Zemansky and Francis Sears published the first edition of College Physics. For some years, Zemansky also participated in the production of educational films for physics produced by McGraw-Hill. a physicist and inventor of medical devices who graduated from Oberlin College in 1965 (A.B. Physics), then Stanford University in 1972 (M.S., Ph.D. Physics).

Zemansky died at his home in Teaneck, New Jersey on December 29, 1981. He was 81 years old. Sears, Francis; Zemansky, Mark. (1947–1948). College Physics, 2 volumes, Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley Press

Reprinted 1981 by Dover Publications. .