Francis Sears


Francis Weston Sears was an American physicist. He was a professor of physics at MIT for 35 years before moving to Dartmouth College in 1956. At Dartmouth, Sears was the Appleton Professor of Physics. He is best known for co-authoring University Physics, an introductory physics textbook, with Mark Zemansky. The book—colloquially known as "Sears and Zemansky"—was first published in 1949. Hugh Young became a coauthor in 1973.
In 1932 he collaborated with Peter Debye in the discovery of what is now called the Debye–Sears effect, the diffraction of light by ultrasonic waves.
Sears was a fellow of the Optical Society of America, and was active in the American Association of Physics Teachers, serving as its treasurer from 1950 to 1958, followed by successive one-year terms as president-elect and president. He retired to Norwich, Vermont and died in Hanover, New Hampshire, of a stroke on November 12, 1975.

Awards

  • 1961 — Oersted Medal of the American Association of Physics Teachers

    Books

  • Sears, Francis W.. Electricity and Magnetism. Reading, Massachusetts. Addison-Wesley
  • 2nd edition, 1953
  • Sears, Francis W.. Mechanics, heat and sound. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Addison Wesley.
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