Sequoia’s VP Emeritus, Dr. Curtis Mobley, has just published a book, A Short History of Radiative Transfer Theory, which Sequoia’s customers might find interesting.
Do you know which of the founding fathers of radiative transfer theory was almost stoned to death by an angry mob? Which one was first to develop a radiative transfer equation, but then didn’t publish it because he didn’t know how to solve it? Who published seminal papers on quantum mechanics, general relativity, and radiative transfer theory while fighting it the trenches of World War I? Who first applied radiative transfer theory to the interior of stars? Who first used radiative transfer theory to explain the color of the sea and later narrowly escaped the gas chambers of Nazi Germany? Who was once the construction manager of what would have been, at the time, the world’s tallest building, had construction not been halted by war? Which genius had the seminal idea that is today found deep inside the HydroLight software? Who was publicly ridiculed by his own PhD advisor for the seemingly absurd implication of his dissertation research, but later got the last laugh when he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery? The answers are all there in Dr. Mobley’s book!
In A Short History of Radiative Transfer Theory, Dr. Mobley fuses history and science to trace the development of radiative transfer theory from its beginnings in the 1720s until today. Dr. Mobley accomplishes this via a thorough discussion of seminal papers in astrophysics, atmospheric science, and oceanography by 18 of the theory’s founders. Discussed in detail are such prominent names as Pierre Bouguer, Johann Lambert, August Beer, Eugen von Lommel, Orest Chwolson, Authur Schuster, Max Planck, Karl Schwarzschild, Louis King, Arthur Eddington, Arthur Milne, Richard Gans, Andrei Gershun, Viktor Ambartsumian, Viktor Sobolev, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Rudolph Preisendorfer, and Michael Mishchenko. Each chapter in the book begins with a vignette of the person’s life, then outlines that person’s contributions to the development of radiative transfer theory.
The book is privately published as a paperback via Amazon and available for purchase at https://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Radiative-Transfer-Theory/dp/B0D8GWJLW8. The list price is US $29.95. The ISBN is 979-8-218-44316-0, 234 pages.
If you are attending the Ocean Optics Conference in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, 6-11 October 2024, swing by Sequoia’s booth and drop a business card to enter our daily drawing for a *signed* copy of the book.
This is not the first book written by Dr. Mobley. He has also published an autobiography, and a 924-page book on ocean optics. Read those as well – you won’t be disappointed!