{{Short description|American physicist and academic}} {{Infobox academic|name=Arthur Edward Ruark|birth_date=November 9, 1899|birth_place=Washington, D.C., U.S.|education=Johns Hopkins University (AB, AM, PhD)|discipline=Physics|sub_discipline=Quantum mechanics|death_date=May 1, 1979 (aged 79)|death_place=Washington, D.C. |workplaces=*National Bureau of Standards<br> *Yale University *Gulf Oil *Mellon Institute of Industrial Research *University of Pittsburgh *University of North Carolina *University of Alabama *United States Atomic Energy Commission}}

'''Arthur Edward Ruark''' (November 9, 1899 – 1979) was an American physicist and academic known for his role in the development of quantum mechanics. He wrote the book ''Atoms, Molecules, and Quanta'' with Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner Harold Clayton Urey in 1930, and is the author of numerous scientific papers on quantum physics.

== Early life and education == Ruark was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Oliver Miles and Margaret Gordon Ruark (née Smith). He graduated from Towson High School in Maryland and attended Shepherd University. He received a Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and PhD from Johns Hopkins University.

== Career == He was a member of Atomic Structure Section of the National Bureau of Standards from 1922 to 1926. He was assistant professor of physics at Yale University from 1926 to 1927. He was physicist for Gulf Oil and the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research from 1927 to 1929. He was chief of physics division Gulf Research Laboratory in 1930. He was professor of physics at the University of Pittsburgh from 1930 to 1934. He was head of the physics department at University of North Carolina after 1934.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gough|first=William C.|date=2008-12-29|title=Arthur E. Ruark|journal=Physics Today|language=en|volume=32|issue=9|pages=84–86|doi=10.1063/1.2995748|issn=0031-9228|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Ruark, Arthur Edward, 1899-.... - Social Networks and Archival Context|url=https://snaccooperative.org/view/32755433|access-date=2021-01-15|website=snaccooperative.org}}</ref> One of his doctoral students at UNC was physicist Mary Wilma Hodge.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Driscoll|first1=Raymond L.|last2=Hodge|first2=Mary W.|last3=Ruark|first3=Arthur|date=August 1940|title=An Interval Meter and Its Application to Studies of Geiger Counter Statistics|url=http://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.1751699|journal=Review of Scientific Instruments|language=en|volume=11|issue=8|pages=241–250|doi=10.1063/1.1751699|bibcode=1940RScI...11..241D |issn=0034-6748|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

After World War II, Ruark became the founding director of the graduate physics program of the University of Alabama. Afterwards, he became the senior associate director of research at the United States Atomic Energy Commission from 1961 to 1969. During his time with the commission, Ruark also supervised the research and development process of Project Sherwood.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Register of the Arthur Edward Ruark papers|url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt4h4nf194/entire_text/|access-date=2021-01-15|website=oac.cdlib.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Ruark, Arthur Edward, 1899-.... - Social Networks and Archival Context|url=https://snaccooperative.org/view/32755433|access-date=2021-01-15|website=snaccooperative.org}}</ref>

Ruark is the author of ''Multiple Electron Transmissions and Primed Spectral Terms'', 1925; ''Atoms, Molecules, and Quanta'', 1930; ''Atomic Physics'' (with others), 1933; and numerous articles on critical potentials, Spectroscopy, wave mechanics, indetermination principle, radio activity and nuclear physics.

== Personal life == He married Sarah Grace Hazen, of Canton, New York, on March 17, 1927. He died in Washington, D.C., in 1979.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Arthur Ruark, Nuclear Expert|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1979/05/03/arthur-ruark-nuclear-expert/cc77f909-ed16-4dc3-91cb-f788b45c145a/|access-date=2021-01-15|issn=0190-8286}}</ref>

==References== <references />{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruark, Arthur Edward}} Category:1899 births Category:1979 deaths Category:Shepherd University alumni Category:20th-century American physicists Category:American nuclear physicists Category:American quantum physicists Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society Category:Johns Hopkins University alumni Category:Towson High School alumni Category:University of Pittsburgh faculty Category:University of North Carolina faculty Category:University of Alabama faculty Category:United States Atomic Energy Commission Category:Yale University faculty