Larry Rubin

Lawrence (Larry) G. Rubin was born in Brooklyn, New York, on 17 September 1925 and lived with gusto until 21 January 2022. He was educated at the Brooklyn Technical High School, Cooper Union, the University of Chicago (BS in physics, 1949), and Columbia University (MA in physics, 1950). He served in the Army in Europe from 1943 to 1946. His chief avocation for most of his adult life was playing the saxophone in dance and concert bands.

In 1950 Larry married Florence Kagan, moved to the Boston area, and started work in the research division at Raytheon. He was recruited to be head of the Instrumentation and Operations Division of the year-old Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory (FBNML) in 1964. Larry managed the high-field facility and directed the users’ program, reviewing requests for magnet time and scheduling user time with the needed magnets, instruments, and support staff.

The user program was unusual in that users were not required to collaborate with FBNML scientists. But Larry interacted personally with every visitor to the FBNML. Users would stop by his office and talk to him about the success, problems, and results of their magnet time. He would often pull out his calendar and ask, “When could we see you next?” Larry’s personal care about each user and experiment was a huge part of the success of the lab.

Larry was a passionate sports fan and had season tickets to Sunday home games of the Boston Red Sox for many years. He was jubilant when they won and took it very hard when they lost. Many a conversation with magnet users included a discussion with Larry about his beloved Red Sox.

Larry retired in 1993 but continued to work at the FBNML until it ceased operating water-cooled magnets in 1995. He published more than 60 papers in condensed-matter physics and instrumentation, especially covering temperature and magnetic-field measurements.

Larry’s service to the physics community was broad. He served on the editorial board of the Review of Scientific Instruments. He refereed more than 400 papers for RSI and other journals. He served on two National Academy of Sciences review panels for the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST)—one for the Center for Absolute Physical Quantities, the other for the Center for Electronics and Electrical Engineering. Larry served six years on the advisory committee for the Instrumentation and Controls Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In 1971 he was the American Institute of Physics representative on the program committee for the 5th International Temperature Symposium (ITS) on “Temperature: Its Measurement and Control in Science and Industry,” the longest running series of symposia on this subject. It has been organized by NIST and held approximately every 10 years since 1919. Larry went on to serve as the General Chairman of the 6th, 7th, and 8th ITS events.

Larry was the first chair of the Instrument and Measurement Science Topical Group of the American Physical Society (APS), which was formed in no small part due to earnest petitioning by Larry regarding the need to provide a home for those APS members who spend significant amounts of their time and creativity developing instruments. Larry was active in both the national and Boston area IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society and was a member of the board of directors for Lake Shore Cryotronics for many years.

Back in the days before the internet, one wall of Larry’s office was completely occupied by a bank of four-drawer filing cabinets. Some contained papers on thermometry and other measurements in high magnetic fields, but most contained catalogs and brochures from instrument companies and the manufacturers of chemicals, materials, and supplies needed for condensed-matter experiments. It was a treasure trove consulted directly or through Larry by physicists far and wide.

Larry was disappointed when NSF decided to move the national magnet lab from MIT to Florida State University. However, Larry’s commitment to the science led to new collaborations on resistance thermometry in high magnetic fields and service on the users’ committee at the new laboratory. His commitment to placing the US on the forefront of high magnetic field research can be summed up by his most common response when magnets wore out or failed: “If you aren’t breaking things, then you aren’t advancing the field.”