Henry Way Kendall

Henry Way Kendall (December 9, 1926 – February

15, 1999)[1] was an American particle physicist who Henry Way Kendall
won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1990 jointly with
Jerome Isaac Friedman and Richard E. Taylor "for
their pioneering investigations concerning deep
inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound
neutrons, which have been of essential importance for
the development of the quark model in particle
physics."[2]

Biography
Kendall was born in Boston to Evelyn Way and Henry
P. Kendall, an industrialist. Kendall grew up in Sharon,
Massachusetts and attended Deerfield Academy.[3] He Henry Kendall climbing in Yosemite Valley.
enrolled in the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Photo by Tom Frost.
1945, and served on a troop transport on the North
Born December 9, 1926
Atlantic in the winter of 1945 – 1946.
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

In 1946, he enrolled at Amherst College where he Died February 15, 1999 (aged 72)
majored in mathematics, graduating in 1950. While at Wakulla Springs State Park,
Amherst, he operated a diving and marine salvage Florida, U.S.
company during two summers. He co-authored two Alma mater Amherst College (BA)
books, one on shallow water diving and the other on Massachusetts Institute of
underwater photography. Technology (PhD)
Awards Nobel Prize in Physics (1990)
He did graduate research at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, involving an experimental study of Scientific career
positronium, and he obtained his PhD in 1955. He then Fields Particle physics
spent the next two years as a postdoctoral fellow at Institutions MIT
Brookhaven National Laboratory. He then spent five Stanford University
years in Robert Hofstadter's research group at Stanford Doctoral
Martin Deutsch
University in the late 1950s and early 1960s, where he advisor
worked with Jerome Friedman and Richard Taylor,
studying the structure of protons and neutrons, using
the university's 300 feet long linear electron accelerator. He developed a close working relationship with
Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky at Stanford.

Kendall joined the faculty of the MIT Physics Department in 1961, where he remained until his death in
1999. He was named Julius A. Stratton Professor of Physics in 1991.[4]
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Kendall worked in collaboration with researchers at the Stanford
Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) including Friedman and Taylor. These experiments involved scattering
high-energy beams of electrons from protons and deuterons and heavier nuclei. At lower energies, it had
already been found that the electrons would only be scattered through low angles, consistent with the idea
that the nucleons had no internal structure. However, the SLAC-MIT experiments showed that higher
energy electrons could be scattered through much higher angles, with the loss of some energy. These deep
inelastic scattering results provided the first experimental evidence that the protons and neutrons were
made up of point-like particles, later identified to be the up and down quarks that had previously been
proposed on theoretical grounds.[5] The experiments also provided the first evidence for the existence of
gluons.

Kendall was not only a very accomplished physicist, but also a very skilled mountaineer and
photographer. He did extensive rock climbing in Yosemite Valley, followed by expeditions to the Andes,
Himalaya and Antarctica, photographing his experiences with large format cameras. He was elected a
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1982.[6] On April 7, 2012, the American Alpine
Club inducted Kendall into its Hall of Mountaineering Excellence at an award ceremony in Golden,
Colorado.[7]

Service activities
Kendall was one of the founding members of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) in 1969.[3] He
served as chairman of the board of the UCS from 1974 until his death in 1999.[8] His public policy
interests included avoiding nuclear war, the Strategic Defense Initiative, the B2 bomber, nuclear reactor
safety and global warming.

He was also a member of the JASON Defense Advisory Group.[9]

Death
Kendall died while diving the cave at the Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park, Florida as a part of the
Wakulla 2 Project.[3][10] He bypassed two pre-dive checklists for his Cis-Lunar MK-5P Mixed Gas
rebreather and entered the spring basin without his dive buddy from the National Geographic
Society.[10][11] Kendall missed turning on the oxygen supply to his rebreather and lost consciousness and
drowned.[10][11] The autopsy revealed a physiological issue that led to his disregarding the protocols.[10]

Awards and honors

Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1982
Bertrand Russell Society Award (https://bertrandrussellsociety.org/brs-award/), 1982
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1990
Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, 1993[12]
 Hall of Mountaineering Excellence of the American Alpine Club, 2012

References
1. Henry Way Kendall (https://www.nobelprize.org/laureate/139) on Nobelprize.org
2. "Nobel prize citation" (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1990/).
Nobelprize.org. Retrieved 2011-01-08.
3. Sales, Robert J (1999-02-16). "MIT Nobelist Henry Kendall dies at 72 while scuba diving in
Florida lake" (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1999/kendall.html). MIT News Office. Retrieved
2011-01-08.
4. "Collection: Henry W. Kendall papers | MIT ArchivesSpace" (https://archivesspace.mit.edu/r
epositories/2/resources/1041). archivesspace.mit.edu. Retrieved 2020-08-25.
5. Dye, Lee; Maugh II, Thomas H (1990-10-18). "Four U.S.-Based Scientists Share Nobel
Prizes" (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-10-18-mn-3365-story.html). Los
Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-01-08.
6. "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter K" (http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMe
mbers/ChapterK.pdf) (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 14 April
2011.
7. Osius, Alison (April 11, 2012). "Beautiful minds: Blum, Reichardt, Kendall, Molenaar in
Mountaineering Hall of Fame" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120412192703/http://www.roc
kandice.com/news/1889-beautiful-minds-blum-reichardt-kendall-molenaar-inducted-into-mo
untaineering-hall-of-fame). Rock and Ice. Archived from the original (http://www.rockandice.c
om/news/1889-beautiful-minds-blum-reichardt-kendall-molenaar-inducted-into-mountaineeri
ng-hall-of-fame) on April 12, 2012. Retrieved April 11, 2012.
8. Oliver, Myrna (1999-02-17). "Henry Kendall; Nobel Prize-Winning Nuclear Scientist" (https://
www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-feb-17-mn-8938-story.html). Los Angeles Times.
Retrieved 2011-01-08.
9. Berkeley Scientists; Engineers for Social; Political Action (1972). "The Story of Jason – The
Elite Group Of Academic Scientists Who, As Technical Consultants To The Pentagon, Have
Developed The Latest Weapon Against Peoples' Liberation Struggles: "Automated
Warfare" " (https://web.archive.org/web/20110607181553/http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~s
chwrtz/SftP/Jason.html). Archived from the original (http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~schwrt
z/SftP/Jason.html) on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2011-01-08.
10. Kakuk, Brian J (1999). "The Wakulla 2 Project: Cutting Edge Diving Technology for Science
and Exploration". In: Hamilton RW, Pence DF, Kesling DE, Eds. Assessment and Feasibility
of Technical Diving Operations for Scientific Exploration. American Academy of Underwater
Sciences.
11. "Safety Lapse Suspected in Scientist's Diving Death" (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-x
pm-1999-feb-18-mn-9174-story.html). Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. 1999-02-18.
Retrieved 2011-01-08.
12. "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement" (https://achievement.or
g/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration). www.achievement.org. American
Academy of Achievement.

External links
Oral History interview transcript with Henry Way Kendall 25 and 26 November 1986,
American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives (https://www.aip.org/history-p
rograms/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4704-1) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2012
 0113150959/http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/4704.html) 13 January 2012 at the Wayback
Machine
James D. Bjorken, Jerome I. Friedman, Kurt Gottfried, and Richard B. Taylor, "Henry Way
Kendall", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2009) (http://www.nas
online.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/kendall-henry.pdf)
Henry Way Kendall (https://www.nobelprize.org/laureate/139) on Nobelprize.org including
the Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1990 Deep Inelastic Scattering: Experiments on the Proton
and the Observation of Scaling
Henry W. Kendall papers (https://archivesspace.mit.edu/repositories/2/resources/1041),
MC-0550. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Distinctive Collections,
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Henry Way Kendall Papers (https://archivesspace.amherst.edu/repositories/2/resources/48
0) and Henry Way Kendall Nobel Prize Collection (https://archivesspace.amherst.edu/reposi
tories/2/resources/435) at the Amherst College Archives & Special Collections

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