Bohm, David Joseph (1917–1992)

US-born British physicist who specialized in quantum mechanics but also worked on plasmas, metals, and liquid helium. In 1959 he and his student Yakir Aharanov discovered the Aharanov–Bohm effect, showing that the motions of charged particles can be affected by magnetic fields even if they never enter the regions to which those fields are confined.

Bohm left the USA 1951 after an accusation of un-American activities during the McCarthy era made it impossible for him to find university employment. He settled permanently in London 1961, where he was professor of theoretical physics at Birkbeck College until 1983.

In 1952 he produced a radical alternative version of quantum theory which stated that particles are particles at all times, even when not observed, and that their wavelike behaviour is determined by a hidden field or ‘pilot wave’. When Bohm published his ideas, they were immediately rejected, but in 1982 French physicists carried out Bohm's experiment and demonstrated that such a theory was possible.

Later in life Bohm developed an interest in philosophy and wrote several books on physics, philosophy, and the nature of consciousness.