JOSEPH GUSTAV HIRSCHBERG's Obituary
Professor Joseph Gustav Hirschberg passed away on Sunday, March 27 peacefully at home. He was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 13, 1921 to Lillian Kahn Hirschberg and Joseph G. Hirschberg, Sr. He attended Dartmouth College and graduated Magna Cum Laude. He joined the Air Force and worked as a weatherman in N. Europe. During that time he met his future wife, Ginette, while celebrating the first Bastille Day after the war was over in the streets of Orly. They made their home in Madison and Joe earned his PhD in physics from the University of Wisconsin. The family moved to Princeton, New Jersey where he worked on one of first projects to develop a controlled fusion reactor at the Forrestal Research Center in Princeton, New Jersey where he was the head of the Optical Physics Laboratory. In 1965 he accepted a position as professor and head of the physics department at the University of Miami. While at The University of Miami he trained numerous students that earned doctorates. For many years he taught popular undergraduate physics classes in the Physics of Music and Art for which he had developed the text. He presented papers and lectures all over the world.
His contributions to science were in the physics of optics. Google Scholar lists over 1500 citations to over 160 scholarly works. Since his retirement his contributions have continued to be cited with over 150 since 2011. His research ranged from advances in astrophysics and microscopy. He developed methods for measuring such diverse phenomena as solar flares during a solar eclipse, plasma in a controlled fusion device, ocean temperatures from space and the florescence activity of human cells. He was not only a laboratory scientist but also led NSF funded expeditions to Mexico and Kenya to make observations during total solar eclipses. He was always thinking of new ways of doing things and he held patents for inventions that ranged from interferometers to coffee makers.
Joe shared his love of the outdoors and the sea with his children, taking them camping and boating. He was a world traveler, beginning on a trip around the world with his family when he was 11 to traveling until his late 80's, with his last trip going to Easter Island one of few places he had not seen. The only continent he had not been was Antarctica.
He was preceded in death by his wife Ginette Hirschberg in 1992. He remarried and leaves behind his devoted wife, Judith Mintz-Hirschberg, daughter Dorothy-Jean Pixomatis(Jim) of Orlando, Florida, son Joseph G. Hirschberg (Jenny) of Melbourne, Australia, Anne Smith (Wayne) of Micanopy, Florida daughter Lynn Sontag (Tim) of Yellow Springs, OH, step children Lori Gibson (Will) of London, UK, and Alan Mintz of Boca Raton. He also leaves behind his grand-children Carolyn Demefack, Elizabeth Gener, Nicolas Sontag, Andy Sontag Cheryl Perkins, Susan Widmer, Rebeccah Dooley, Rachel Cramer, Joshua Pixomatis, Matthew Hirschberg, Matthew Gibson and Sara Gibson, and many great-grandchildren.
A memorial service is planned for 2:00 pm on Saturday, April 9, 2016 at the VanOrsdel Family Funeral Chapel, 4600 SW 8th Street, Coral Gables, Fl. 33134. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the University of Miami, Dept. of Physics. www.as.miami.edu/physics/ 305-238-4443.
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