An accomplished physicist, visionary leader in physics education, and strong and effective member of the physics community, Edmund Leonard Jossem died on 29 August 2009 in Columbus, Ohio. With his death we lost an ardent supporter of physics—in the laboratory, in the classroom, and in the community.
Born in Camden, New Jersey, on 19 May 1919, Len received his BS in physics from City College of New York in 1938 and his MS in physics in 1939 from Cornell University. During World War II, while a graduate student and teaching assistant, Len was asked by his thesis adviser, Lyman Parratt, to join an “important research project in an unspecified location.” Len arrived in New Mexico in July 1945 and became a member of the scientific staff at Los Alamos. He first worked on electronic instrumentation; following the Trinity atomic bomb test, he switched to measuring thermonuclear reactions. After the war he returned to Cornell, where he received his PhD, with his thesis entitled “The X-Ray Spectra of Potassium and Chlorine in Potassium Chloride,” in 1950. He left Cornell in 1956 to join the Ohio State University as an assistant professor.
Len’s experience at Los Alamos led to his participation in the Association of Los Alamos Scientists, which was concerned with how to use and control nuclear power. Hoping to educate the public about the danger, the association sent samples from the Trinity explosion to the mayors of the 42 largest cities. As Len said later, “It didn’t have the effect we wanted it to have.”
At Ohio State, Len moved up through the ranks, becoming an associate professor in 1959 and a professor in 1964. In 1967 he became chairman of the physics department, a position he held until 1980. He retired in 1989 after 33 years of teaching.
Len’s expanded role in physics education began in 1963 with his service, including as both executive secretary and chairman, on the Commission on College Physics. He entered the presidential chain of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) in 1971 and served as its president in 1973-74. From that time there was never a year in which he did not participate on an AAPT committee. Along with his official responsibilities in AAPT, he held positions of leadership with the American Institute of Physics, the Educational Testing Service, and the National Research Council Board on Physics and Astronomy. Len also served on the US Liaison Committee for the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics from 1981 to 2000 and was influential in the International Commission on Physics Education, for which he was secretary in 1984-86 and chairman in 1986-93.
More significant than his record of official service was the personal support and encouragement Len extended to the physics education community. He strongly believed that physics education research groups should be located in physics departments. He cared deeply about the preparation of physics teachers at all levels.
During his 33 years at Ohio State, Len helped the physics department grow in quality and reputation. It gained a national and international name as a top research department that emphasized exemplary teaching. Part of Len’s legacy is that the introductory physics course is taught by full professors and that for years new graduate students took a teacher assistant training course, which carried graduate credit, before moving to the classroom. Even after his retirement and up until his death, he could be found in his campus office from 8am to 5pm if he was not traveling. Although he was known for his exceptional mentorship of both faculty and students, we believe Len was happiest when working with students. He seemed to have that special gleam in his eye when surrounded by them, demonstrating one of the many toys he kept in his office and often challenging misconceptions students held about fundamental science principles. Len played a major role in establishing Ohio State’s Physics Education Research Group and was an unofficial adviser to every graduate student from the group’s inception until his death.
Of his many awards, Len particularly cherished three. In 1985 he was the second recipient of the AAPT Melba Newell Phillips Medal. He especially valued it because of his lifelong friendship with Phillips. Len also received the 1994 Oersted Medal, AAPT’s highest award. The third, the 2001 Ohio State University Distinguished Service Award, expressed appreciation from the school he had served for more than 50 years.
Many are aware of Len’s contributions to physics and physics education. Relatively few know of his generous financial contributions to the Ohio State physics department. Fewer still know of the significant monetary contribution he made at a difficult time that enabled AAPT to meet its payroll. Those actions characterized a man who went beyond professing to care and actually put his words into action.
Len was an exceptional student of physics, a master teacher, and a gentleman. As his colleagues and friends, we miss his good advice, his presence at meetings, the many conversations in which he expressed his concern for us, and, especially, his witty remarks. Most of all, we remember his subtle wit.
