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Memoir
C. Tristram Coffin
Regents' Proceedings 338
Regents' Proceedings 338
C. Tristram Coffin, professor of physics, will retire from active faculty status on May 31, 1997.
Professor Coffin received his B.S. degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1951 and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Washington in 1956. After working for two years at the Columbia University Nevis Cyclotron, he joined the University of Michigan faculty as an assistant professor in 1959. He was promoted to associate professor in 1964 and professor in 1974.
Professor Coffin's early work involved experiments on a number of particle reactions using spark chamber and counter techniques. Between 1963 and 1975, he worked on a number of experiments at the Argonne Zero Gradient Synchrotron involving pion-produced reactions. From the mid seventies through 1981, Professor Coffin collaborated with a group at Fermilab investigating neutrino interactions with the large bubble chamber. The results from this program established neutrino interactions cross- sections and many parameters of the weak interaction.
In the early 1980s, Professor Coffin joined collaboration at Fermilab studying neutrino production from the decay of "charm" particles by running the high-energy proton beam into a solid target. The collaborators built a large detector and developed a sophisticated beam system, which caused interactions among energetic protons and thus swept away all particles save the neutrinos. They were able to quantify the cross section for "charm" production from various element targets. In a second group of Fermilab experiments, he and his collaborators studied production of charmed particles by 800 GeV protons on protons. Professor Coffin's work contributed significantly to the important results of this collaboration.
In the late 1980s, Professor Coffin turned to biophysics, using electron paramagnetic resonance and Mossbauer spectrometers to study the active sites of metal proteins. Professor Coffin is developing a high sensitivity M6ssbauer spectrometer. This device obtained the first precision spectrum on a natural abundance mammalian protein.
The Regents now salute this faculty member by naming C. Tristram Coffin professor emeritus of physics.