Editing Robert Hofstadter (section)

== Biography ==
Hofstadter was born in [[New York City]] on February 5, 1915, to [[Polish Jewish]] immigrants Louis Hofstadter, a salesman, and Henrietta, [[née]] Koenigsberg. <ref>{{cite news|title=Dr. Robert Hofstadter, U.S. Jewish Scientist, Wins 1961 Nobel Prize|url=http://www.jta.org/1961/11/03/archive/dr-robert-hofstadter-u-s-jewish-scientist-wins-1961-nobel-prize|access-date=October 20, 2013|newspaper=[[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]]|date=November 3, 1961}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Robert Hofstadter biography|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/318/000072102/|publisher=NNDB|access-date=October 20, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Guide to the Robert Hofstadter Papers |url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt458037nx/entire_text/|access-date=November 5, 2014}}</ref> He attended elementary and high schools in New York City and entered [[City College of New York]], graduating with a B.S. degree ''[[magna cum laude]]'' in 1935 at the age of 20, and was awarded the Kenyon Prize in Mathematics and Physics.  He also received a Charles A. Coffin Foundation Fellowship from the [[General Electric Company]], which enabled him to attend graduate school at [[Princeton University]], where he earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at the age of 23.<ref>{{cite book|title=Robert Hofstadter biography|url=http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10169&page=161|access-date=November 5, 2014|doi = 10.17226/10169|year = 2001|isbn = 978-0-309-07572-5}}</ref> His doctoral dissertation was titled "Infra-red absorption by light and heavy formic and acetic acids."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hofstadter|first=Robert|url=https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/2123975|title=Infra-red absorption by light and heavy formic and acetic acids|date=1938|publisher=Princeton|language=en}}</ref> He did his post-doctoral research at the [[University of Pennsylvania]] and was an assistant professor at Princeton before joining [[Stanford University]].  Hofstadter taught at Stanford from 1950 to 1985.<ref>{{cite web |title=Robert Hofstadter |url=https://physics.stanford.edu/people/robert-hofstadter |website=Stanford University Department of Physics |access-date=January 30, 2025}}</ref>


In 1942 he married Nancy Givan (1920–2007), a native of [[Baltimore]].<ref>[http://news.stanford.edu/pr/2007/pr-nancy-082207.html Obituary to Nancy Givan] from Stanford University, 2007.</ref>  They had three children: Laura, Molly (who was disabled and not able to communicate),<ref>[https://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/hofstadter/autolipography.html Douglas Hofstadter's autobiography]</ref> and [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winner [[Douglas Hofstadter]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20010628061939/http://stills.nap.edu/html/biomems/rhofstadter.html National Academy of Sciences biography]</ref>