In an email to the campus community, President Garry W. Jenkins has shared the news of the passing of Charles A. Dana Professor Emeritus of Physics George Antony Ruff, a member of the faculty from 1968 to 2008.
Dear Members of the Bates Community,
I write with the sad news that Charles A. Dana Professor Emeritus of Physics George Antony Ruff, an accomplished, innovative, and inclusive physicist and educator, died Sept. 26, 2024, at age 83.
After earning a bachelor’s degree from Le Moyne College and a doctorate in physics from Princeton University, Professor Ruff completed post-doctoral research at Cornell University before joining the Bates faculty in 1968.
George Ruff
Two BatesNews stories offer insights into George Ruff’s life and career:
At Bates, he taught courses on quantum mechanics, laboratory physics, and laboratory electronics, among others. He conducted research on atomic and laser physics, including the study of ultracold atoms in magneto-optical atom traps.
He visited universities worldwide during summers and sabbaticals, always bringing new insights and knowledge back to his Bates students. While on sabbatical in 1975–76, he did research with Nobel Laureate Willis Lamb and others at the University of Arizona that yielded a co-authored paper in Physical Review Letters on the first observation of the infrared radiation spectrum of the hydrogen molecular ion.
Professor Ruff fostered a generous and collaborative environment in his Carnegie Science Hall lab, classrooms, and departmental spaces. Students learned not only the principles of physics but hands-on skills as well: Every student in his laboratory physics course was required to complete a project using the milling machine in the Carnegie machine shop.
When Professor Ruff retired in 2008, Professor of Physics John Smedley presented the traditional retirement citation, recalling his visit to Bates as a prospective faculty member. “Coming from graduate study at a high-powered research institution, I had no great expectations for the labs of Carnegie Science Hall. Instead, I found George and a contingent of nitrogen lasers and dye lasers and a carbon dioxide laser, all home-built. Not only was his equipment up to date, but George had four or five thesis students, several doing honors, working in the lab virtually every night. It was exciting, much more like graduate school than my own undergraduate experience had been.”
At Bates, Professor Ruff served terms as chair of the Department of Physics and chair of the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and advised students in the Engineering Combined Plan. He also served as an adviser to the Newman Club, now the Catholic Student Community. He was a member of Sigma Xi, the American Physical Society, and the American Association of Physics Teachers. He was active in his church, St. Joseph’s Church in Lewiston and later at St. Philip Church in Auburn.
His survivors include his wife, Nancy; children Joseph, Daniel, Susan, and Arthur; eight grandchildren; nieces and nephews; and their families.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated at St. Philip Church in Auburn at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 5. His complete obituary includes a memorial gift designation to Bates.
I join the rest of the Bates community in extending my condolences to the family and friends of George A. Ruff.
