University of Texas
Syed Amir Ali Zaidi
April 15, 1935–

 

 

 

Amir Zaidi was born in Lahore, Punjab, India. Following Partition, Lahore became the capital of Punjab Province in Pakistan. Amir’s father and grandfather were photographers and active members of the Congress Party and the Indian Resistance Movement. Amir attended University of the Punjab, a leading university that counts among its graduates Abdus Salam, 1979 Nobel Laureate in Physics for his Electroweak Theory, and Satish Dhawan, leading Indian rocket scientist and former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization. After completion of his undergraduate degree, Amir went to Göttingen University in Germany. After two semesters he determined that his interest in nuclear physics would be better served at the University of Heidelberg. He pursued his doctorate there in nuclear physics with a brief return to Lahore in 1962 to marry his wife, Amna. Amir ad Amna have a son, Omar who is an engineer.

Following his completion of his degree, Amir made a tour of the U.S., giving talks about his research. On the tour he met Taro Tamura at Oak Ridge. A friend from Heidelberg, Peter von Brentano, now in Austin, invited him to come and collaborate on some experiments with the UT tandem accelerator. During these experiments he did a job search and received three offers. The UT nuclear group secured approval to make him an offer which he accepted. He was a very prolific member of the research group in the Center for Nuclear Studies, publishing many papers on nuclear structure, especially using isobaric analog resonances. He served twice as Director of the Center. As the Center was winding down, Amir switched his interest to theoretical particle physics. He also designed a freshman physics mechanics laboratory which involved high precision measurements and computer analysis of the data. One of his classroom demonstration of angular momentum utilized a very ingenious rod he designed. He published the demo in American Journal of Physics. Others in the department used it in upper division classes.

One of his PhD students, Gary Westfall, 1975 graduate, became a University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University.

Zaidi at controls of Tandem Van deGraaff.

 

Below are some representative publication by Zaidi and his collaborators. (Thanks to Molly White, retired UT Librarian, for providing sources for this information.) Following this list is a photo album.

[1]Zaidi, S. A. A., “Self-energy of the graviton in second order”, Journal of Physics A Mathematical General, vol. 24, no. 18, IOP, pp. 4325–4334, 1991. doi:10.1088/0305-4470/24/18/019.

[2]Westfall, G. D. and Zaidi, S. A. A., “Reactions induced by ¹³C on ¹²C, ¹⁶O, ²⁸Si, and ³²S”, Physical Review C, vol. 14, no. 2, APS, pp. 610–618, 1976. doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.14.610. 17 Citations

[3]Bigler, R. E., Zaidi, S. A. A., Horton, J. L., and Seitz, H., “¹⁹F(d,α₀)¹⁷O and ¹⁹F(d,α₁)¹⁷O reaction excitation function measurements between 2.34 and 14.45 MeV”, Physical Review C, vol. 13, no. 2, APS, pp. 528–535, 1976. doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.13.528.

[4]Ray, L., Westfall, G., Zaidi, S. A. A., and Coker, W. R., “Elastic scattering of the carbon isotopes from light nuclei ( Z = 7 to 16) in optical model, strong-absorption, and folding approaches”, Physics Letters B, vol. 59, no. 5, pp. 427–430, 1975. doi:10.1016/0370-2693(75)90337-8. [5]Zaidi, S. A. A. and Tyan, Y. L., “Treatment of continua in the shell-model theory of nuclear reactions”, Physics Letters B, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 305–308, 1974. doi:10.1016/0370-2693(74)90675-3.

[6]Zaidi, S. A. A., Hoffmann, G. W., and Coker, W. R., “The⁸⁸Sr( d, n∼p)⁸⁸Sr reaction”, Zeitschrift fur Physik, vol. 260, no. 4, Springer, pp. 329–336, 1973. doi:10.1007/BF01396024.

[7]Hoffmann, G. W., Coker, W. R., Zaidi, S. A. A., and Elliott, D. O., “A consistent coupled channel born approximation analysis of ⁸⁸Sr(d, np∼) ⁸⁸Sr and ⁸⁸Sr(d, p) ⁸⁹Sr”, Physics Letters B, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 47–49, 1972. doi:10.1016/0370-2693(72)90364-4.

[8]Horton, J. L., Hollas, C. L., Riley, P. J., Zaidi, S. A. A., Jones, C. M., and Ford, J. L. C., “The ⁹⁰Zr(d, n) ⁹¹Nb and ⁹⁶Zr(d, n) ⁹⁷Nb reactions”, Nuclear Physics A, vol. 190, no. 2, pp. 362–372, 1972. doi:10.1016/0375-9474(72)90147-9.

[9]Coker, W. R. and Zaidi, S. A. A., “( ³He, d) population of analog resonances in ⁹³Tc”, Nuclear Physics A, vol. 188, no. 1, pp. 65–71, 1972. doi:10.1016/0375-9474(72)90180-7.

[10]Seitz, H., Zaidi, S. A., and Bigler, R., “Systematics and Fine Structure of Coulomb Displacement Energies”, Physical Review Letters, vol. 28, no. 22, APS, pp. 1465–1468, 1972. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.28.1465.

[11]Ali, S. S., Zaidi, S. A. A., and Seitz, H., “Particle-hole states in ¹²⁴Sn excited by proton inelastic resonance scattering”, Nuclear Physics A, vol. 186, no. 1, pp. 152–160, 1972. doi:10.1016/0375-9474(72)90131-5.

[12]Bigler, R. E., Horton, J. L., and Zaidi, S. A. A., “High resolution charged particle spectrometer combining a low dispersion magnet and Si(Li) drifted detectors”, Nuclear Instruments and Methods, vol. 98, no. 1, pp. 125–129, 1972. doi:10.1016/0029-554X(72)90434-X.

[13]Marquardt, N., Rauser, P., von Brentano, P., Wurm, J. P., and Zaidi, S. A. A., “Isobaric analogue resonances in ¹⁴¹Pr by elastic and inelastic proton scattering from ¹⁴⁰Ce”, Nuclear Physics A, vol. 177, no. 1, pp. 33–69, 1971. doi:10.1016/0375-9474(71)90162-X.

[14]Riley, P. J., Horton, J. L., Hollas, C. L., Zaidi, S. A., Jones, C. M., and Ford, J. L., “Spectroscopy of ^93,95,97Tc Through the (d,n) Reaction”, Physical Review C, vol. 4, no. 5, APS, pp. 1864–1876, 1971. doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.4.1864. 18 Citations

[15]Darmodjo, S., Alders, R. D., Martin, D. G., Dyer, P., Ali, S., and Zaidi, S. A., “Quantitative Studies of Nuclear Structure Through Isobaric Analog Resonances”, Physical Review C, vol. 4, no. 3, APS, pp. 672–683, 1971. doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.4.672. 20 Citations

[16]Zaidi, S. A. and Coker, W. R., “Form Factors for Proton Transfer Reactions to Unbound Isobaric Analog States”, Physical Review C, vol. 4, no. 1, APS, pp. 236–244, 1971. doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.4.236.

[17]Zaidi, S. A., Hollas, C. L., Horton, J. L., Riley, P. J., Ford, J. L., and Jones, C. M., “Anomalies in the Cross Sections of (d,n) Reactions Leading to Isobaric Analog States”, Physical Review Letters, vol. 25, no. 21, APS, pp. 1503–1507, 1970. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.25.1503. 29 Citations

[18]Zaidi, S. A., Coker, W. R., and Martin, D. G., “⁸⁸Sr(d,p)⁸⁹Sr Reaction in the Region of the ⁸⁸Sr(d,n)⁸⁹Y^A Threshold”, Physical Review C, vol. 2, no. 4, APS, pp. 1384–1389, 1970. doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.2.1384.

[19]Zaidi, S. A. and Dyer, P., “Microscopic Description of the Inelastic Proton Decay of Analog Resonances”, Physical Review, vol. 185, no. 4, APS, pp. 1332–1350, 1969. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.185.1332.

[20]Zaidi, S. A., Parish, J. L., Kulleck, J. G., Moore, C. F., and von Brentano, P., “Isobaric Analog Resonances in Elastic and Inelastic Scattering of Protons on ²⁰⁸Pb”, Physical Review, vol. 165, no. 4, APS, pp. 1312–1318, 1968. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.165.1312. 65 Citations

[21]Zaidi, S. A. and Darmodjo, S., “Quantitative Studies of Nuclear Structure Through Isobaric Analog Resonances”, Physical Review Letters, vol. 19, no. 25, APS, pp. 1446–1449, 1967. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.19.1446. 89 Citations

[22]Moore, C. F., Zaidi, S. A., and Kent, J. J., “Single-Particle States Built on the Second 0⁺ State in ⁹⁰Zr”, Physical Review Letters, vol. 18, no. 10, APS, pp. 345–346, 1967. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.18.345. 35 Citations

[23]Zaidi, S. A. A. and Von Brentano, P., “Influence of the charge exchange process on the (d, p) stripping cross sections”, Physics Letters, vol. 23, no. 8, pp. 466–467, 1966. doi:10.1016/0031-9163(66)90777-3.

[24]Moore, C. F., Watson, C. E., Zaidi, S. A., Kent, J. J., and Kulleck, J. G., “Experimental Observation of the Coupling of the Analogous Channels in a (d, p) AND (d, n) Reaction”, Physical Review Letters, vol. 17, no. 17, APS, pp. 926–928, 1966. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.17.926. 60 Citations

[25]Moore, C. F., Parish, L. J., Von Brentano, P., and Zaidi, S. A. A., “On the structure of the first three excited states in ²⁰⁸Pb”, Physics Letters, vol. 22, no. 5, pp. 616–618, 1966. doi:10.1016/0031-9163(66)90679-2.

[26]Brodsky, Stanley J., Lepage, G. Peter, Zaidi, S. A. A.,"Weak and electromagnetic form factors of baryons at large momentum transfer "Phys. Rev. D 23, 1152 (1981) - Published 1 March, 1981, 75 Citations

[27]Zaidi, S.A.A., Tyan. Y. L., "Treatment of continua in the shell-model theory of nuclear reactions" - Physics Letters B, 1974

[28]Mayer-Kuckuk, T., Zaidi. S. A. A. "Paritätsreinheit der Kernzustände in Rb^85" - Zeitschrift für Physik, 1960

Amir Zaidi Photo Album

 

 

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