{{Short description|American physicist}} {{Infobox scientist | birth_name = William Phelps Allis | image = <!--(filename only, i.e. without "File:" prefix)--> | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date |1901|11|15}} | birth_place = Menton, France | death_date = {{death date and age |1999|3|5 |1901|11|15|mf=yes}} | death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts | nationality = | fields = Theoretical physics | workplaces = Massachusetts Institute of Technology | alma_mater = Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>University of Nancy | thesis_title = <!--(or | thesis1_title = and | thesis2_title = )--> | thesis_url = <!--(or | thesis1_url = and | thesis2_url = )--> | thesis_year = <!--(or | thesis1_year = and | thesis2_year = )--> | doctoral_advisor = <!--(or | doctoral_advisors = )--> | doctoral_students = Martin Harwit | known_for = | awards = }} '''William Phelps Allis''' (November 15, 1901 &ndash; March 5, 1999) was an American theoretical physicist specializing in electrical discharges in gases.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Bers, Abraham|author2=Haus, Hermann A.|authorlink2=Hermann Haus|title=Obituary: William Phelps Allis|journal=Physics Today|date=October 1999|volume=52|issue=10|pages=106|url=http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/phtoad/v52/i10/p106_s1?bypassSSO=1|doi=10.1063/1.882876|bibcode = 1999PhT....52j.106B |doi-access=free|url-access=subscription}}</ref> He was the grandson of Edward P. Allis,<ref name="Morse, 1967 p. 100">Morse, 1967 p. 100</ref> founder of the E.P. Allis Company, which became Allis-Chalmers. His father Edward Phelps Allis was a leading comparative anatomist and evolutionary morphologist in the early twentieth century.<ref name="Lauder 1981">{{cite journal |last1=Lauder |first1=George V. |title=Edward Phelps Allis: discovery of his anatomical illustrations |journal=Biological Journal of the Linnean Society |date=1981 |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=283–291|doi=10.1111/j.1095-8312.1981.tb01653.x }}</ref>

==Education==

Allis majored in school and received his S.B. in 1923 and S.M. in 1924 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was granted his ''Docteur ès science'' (Sc.D.) in physics, in 1925, from Nancy-Université, France. From 1925 to 1929, he was a research associate at MIT. It was there that he met Philip M. Morse. Morse, at the suggestion of Karl T. Compton, made arrangements for postdoctoral studies and research with Arnold Sommerfeld at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in 1930 and at the University of Cambridge in the spring and summer of 1931. Allis went with Morse to Munich and Cambridge.<ref name="Morse, 1967 p. 100"/><ref name="William Allis">[http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1999/allis-0310.html William Allis] – MIT News Office</ref><ref name="libserv.aip.org">[http://libserv.aip.org:81/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!12!0&profile=newcustom-icos#focus William Allis] – American Institute of Physics</ref>

==Career==

Upon his return from Europe, Allis was an instructor in physics at MIT from 1931 to 1934. He joined MIT's physics department faculty in 1934 and was appointed full professor in 1950, a position he held until he became professor emeritus in 1967.<ref name="William Allis"/>

During World War II he worked at the MIT Radiation Laboratory conducting research on magnetron theory. He then joined the United States Army where he served in the Liaison Office of the Naval Defense Research Committee. He also participated in Operation Alsos. He achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel, and was awarded the Legion of Merit in 1945.<ref name="William Allis"/><ref name="libserv.aip.org"/><ref>Boris T. Pash ''The Alsos Mission'' 249 (Award, 1969)</ref>

Allis was one of co-founders of the American Physical Society's Gaseous Electronics Conference, for which he served as chairman from 1949 to 1962. On leave from MIT for two years, 1962–1964, he served as assistant secretary-general for scientific affairs for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NARUTO).<ref name="William Allis"/><ref name="libserv.aip.org"/>

Allis directed Project Ashby, which was to determine the feasibility of building a nuclear fusion engine.<ref name="libserv.aip.org"/>

==Honors== *1945 &ndash; Awarded the Legion of Merit by the United States Army.<ref name="William Allis"/> *1951 Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|accessdate=15 April 2011}}</ref> also Vice President<ref name="William Allis"/> *Elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society<ref name="William Allis"/>

==Books== *William P. Allis ''Motions of ions and electrons'' [MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics. Technical report.] (MIT, 1951) *William P. Allis ''Electron density distribution in a high frequency discharge in the presence of plasma resonance'' [MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics. Technical report.] (MIT, 1951) *William P. Allis ''High-frequency electrical breakdown of gases'' [MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics. Technical report] (MIT, 1952) *William P. Allis and Melvin A. Herlin ''Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics'' (McGraw Hill, 1952) *W. P. Allis, "Motions of Ions and Electrons" in S. Flugge, editor "Handbuch der Physik" (Springer-Verlag, 1956, Berlin) *William P. Allis, editor ''Nuclear Fusion. (The Second Geneva Series on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy)'' (Van Nostrand, 1960) *William P. Allis, Solomon J. Buchsbaum and Abraham Bers ''Waves in Anisotropic Plasmas'' MIT Press, 1962 *Sanborn C. Brown, editor ''Electrons, Ions, and Waves: Selected Works of William Phelps Allis'' (MIT, 1967) *George Bekefi ''Principles of Laser Plasmas'' (John Wiley, 1976). Contribution by William P. Allis: ''The Application of Electron Upflux to the Calculation of Excitation Frequencies in Glow Discharges'' pp235–256.

==References==

* Philip M. Morse ''In at the Beginnings: A Physicists Life'' (MIT Press, second printing 1978)

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{Find a Grave}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allis, William}} Category:1901 births Category:1999 deaths William Category:People from Menton Category:20th-century American physicists Category:French emigrants to the United States Category:MIT School of Science alumni Category:University of Lorraine alumni Category:MIT School of Science faculty Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Recipients of the Legion of Merit Category:Nancy-Université alumni Category:United States Army colonels Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society Category:MIT Radiation Laboratory people