Burton J. Moyer


Burton Jones Moyer was an American nuclear physicist known as "The Father of Accelerator Health Physics" for his seminal work in shielding design and safety procedures used in the operation of many large particle accelerators. He is notable for the discovery of the neutral pi meson.
Moyer was a professor of physics at the University of California at Berkeley, California; a researcher in high energy, particle, and nuclear physics at the UC Lawrence Radiation Laboratory ; and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon at Eugene, Oregon. He also consulted and advised at other research and educational institutions and government agencies including the National Science Foundation and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).
During World War II, Moyer worked in connection with the Manhattan Project, for a time at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and later at the Lawrence Radiation Lab at Berkeley. He was a pioneer in the area of Health Physics with a focus on shielding and protection from the dangers of exposure to radiation for those working in nuclear research.
In 1947, Ernest Lawrence asked Moyer to oversee radiation protection activities at the Radiation Lab at Berkeley. Moyer’s contributions were instrumental in ensuring the safety of researchers. Notably, in 1962, he implemented shielding modifications at the bevatron—one of the large particle accelerators at the laboratory—reducing radiation intensities by a factor of 100. His innovative approach incorporating specialized shielding and frequent measurement of radiation levels in the work environment became known as the “Moyer Model” and is frequently applied in the construction and operation of nuclear particle accelerators around the world. Moyer directed the Health Physics activities at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory until 1970.
In 1985 the Northern California Chapter of the Health Physics Society established the Burton J. Moyer Memorial Fellowship to memorialize Moyer and to encourage his ideals in the study of the safe use of radiation for the benefit of all people.

Early life

Burton Jones Moyer was born in Greenville, Illinois, on February 24, 1912. His parents were Jacob and Ella Mabel Moyer, who were faculty members at Greenville College in Greenville, Illinois. Sometime before 1920 his family moved to Fargo, North Dakota, where his father taught chemistry at the North Dakota Agricultural College.  Around 1925 the family moved to Seattle, Washington, where Jacob taught chemistry at Seattle Pacific College and served as the Dean of Men. Burton finished his High School education at the normal school associated with SPC and earned his BA degree from the college in 1933. The following year he began graduate studies at the University of Washington culminating with his Ph.D. in Physics in 1939.

Career

After obtaining his graduate degree Moyer joined the faculty at Greenville College and taught in the departments of mathematics and physics. In 1942 he and his family moved to Berkeley, California, where he worked under Ernest Lawrence at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory on the separation of uranium isotopes, among other things.  He became a group leader at the Berkeley Rad Lab.
In addition to his work at Berkeley, Moyer spent time in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in the operation of the electromagnetic separation plant as part of the Manhattan Project.  At the close of the war he returned to the Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, doing research in nuclear and high energy physics.  Simultaneously he began teaching in the physics department as lecturer, was appointed associate professor in 1950 and professor in 1954. By this time, a series of papers had established Moyer as one of the world's leading high energy physicists. Perhaps the best-known paper appeared in 1950 under the modest title, “High Energy Photons from Proton Nucleon Collisions,” announcing the discovery of the neutral pi meson for which he is credited. This was a milestone in the science of particle physics.
In 1962, at the urging of his colleagues, Moyer accepted the chairmanship of the physics department at Berkeley. He served in that position until 1968 except for the time of his sabbatical in 1965-66. In addition to his departmental duties, he was able to meet the troubling problems of student unrest at Berkeley which began in 1964.
In 1965 Moyer opted for a one-year sabbatical. Working through the United States Aid to International Development,  he took a position at the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, India. He spent the year teaching physics, aiding the research program, and helping to create a viable technical school.

Personal life

Moyer was a devout Christian. He found no conflict between the tenets of his faith and a rigorous, scientific exploration of the universe. His maternal grandfather, Burton Rensselaer Jones, was a Free Methodist missionary and bishop. Both Greenville College and Seattle Pacific were Free Methodist institutions. Sometime after his work at Greenville, Moyer joined the Presbyterian church where he served as an elder for over 20 years.

Later life and death

In 1968 Moyer retired from the Physics Department chairmanship at Berkeley and returned to his research group and to teaching as well as to work with the National Science Foundation and Atomic Energy Commission. He, along with A. Carl Helmholz, undertook the revision of the text Mechanics: Vol 1 of the Berkeley Physics Course. In 1970, he left the university at Berkeley and accepted the position of Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon.
Moyer died from a heart attack on April 21, 1973. His wife, Lela, died three years later. They are interred together in Eugene, Oregon. They had four children.

Texts

  • Berkeley Physics Course, Vol. 1 Charles Kittel, Walter D. Knight, Malvin A. Ruderman, A. Carl Helmholz, Burton J. Moyer Berkeley