Nina Byers

Nina Byers (January 19, 1930 – June 5, 2014) was a theoretical physicist, research professor and professor of physics emeritus in the department of physics and astronomy, UCLA, and Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford. She is known for proving the Byers–Yang theorem, together with C.N. Yang.

Contributions Byers received a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1950 and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1956.

Byers made phenomenological analyses of experimental observations leading to theoretical advances in particle physics and the theory of superconductivity. In "Theoretical considerations concerning quantized magnetic flux in superconductors," she showed that observation of flux quantization in superconductors in units of hc/2e is experimental evidence for the Cooper pairing of electrons proposed by the BCS theory of superconductivity (Byers-Yang theorem). With Gary Williams, she edited a book based on data from the website that expands the biographies and describes more fully the scientific contributions of forty distinguished 20th century female physicists.

Byers was elected to many offices in The American Physical Society (APS) and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), including President of the APS Forum on History of Physics (2004–2005), APS Forum on Physics and Society (1982), and APS Councilor-at-large of the Society (1977–81).

Works

Selected scientific publications

Nina Byers, "Einstein and Women", APS News Jun 2005. Nina Byers, "Physicists and the 1945 Decision to Drop The Bomb", CERN Courier Oct 2002. (e-Print Archive: physics/0210058) Nina Byers, "Fermi and Szilard" in ed. James Cronin (ed) Fermi Remembered, U. of Chicago Press 2004 (e-Print Archive: physics/0207094) Nina Byers, "E. Noether's Discovery of the Deep Connection Between Symmetries and Conservation Laws" Invited talk in Symposium on the Heritage of Emmy Noether, Ramat-Gan, Israel, 2–4 Dec 1996. Israel Mathematical Conference Proceedings Vol. 12, 1999 (e-Print Archive: physics/9807044)

Book