After his bachelor's degree from the
University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1925, he worked at
Bell Telephone Laboratories in
radio frequency communication, where he wrote several patents. He received his PhD from the
University of Michigan in 1932 on the quantum theory of transport processes, advised by
George Uhlenbeck. His research lead to his famous paper on
vacuum polarization and the formulation of the now-called
Uehling potential. As described by Uehling theory, the effects of vacuum polarization were later confirmed with the discovery of the
Lamb shift in 1947. After his PhD he left for a ten-month collaboration with
Werner Heisenberg in the Institute of Theoretical Physics in
Leipzig University. When Uehling returned to the United States, he took a position at
RCA Laboratories. In 1934, he went to work with
J. Robert Oppenheimer in Berkeley and Pasadena funded by the
National Research Council. of
ferroelectricity to describe
monopotassium phosphate (). He worked in the
University of Washington since 1936, he formally retired in 1971, but continued to work as emeritus professor until 1984. During post-war related tensions and the
investigations of espionage related to the
Manhattan Project, president of the University of Washington Henry Schmitz denied professorship to Oppenheimer in 1954. Uehling, then the chairman of the physics department, tried various times to revert the president decision. Uehling appealed to the university senate with a speech on
academic freedom. The university committee ruled against the university president and Oppenheimer was allowed lectureship. Schmitz later apologized to Oppenheimer in 1956. ==See also==