John Van Vleck was one of the United States' first theoretical physicists, specializing in problems of chemical physics, magnetism , quantum theory, and spectroscopy. Some of his work has had important practical applications in such devices as the atomic clock, lasers and transistors. He shared the 1977 Nobel Prize for Physics for his "fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems."

John Hasbrouck Van Vleck was born in Middletown, Connecticut, on March 13, 1899, into a prosperous family with a history of notable intellectual accomplishments. His paternal grandfather had been a professor of astronomy at Connecticut's Wesleyan College, and his father, Edward Burr Van Vleck, was professor of mathematics at Wesleyan at the time of his son's birth. Van Vleck's mother was the former Hester Lawrence (also given as Laurence) Raymond. It has been noted that his parents' overbearing manner may have been responsible for their only child's...