HISTORY OF PHYSICS NEWSLETTER

reprinted with permission The Herb Block Foundation EIN no. 26-0008276 [Fig 1]

REPORT FROM THE CHAIR

Nina Byers, Forum Chair

It is good to greet 2005 in which we have the centennial celebration of Albert Einstein's "miraculous year" and events marking the World Year of Physics (WYP). Hopefully as physicists we can reach out beyond our own community to share our love of science and promote the formation of long-lasting, peaceful, nurturing and productive societies. The Forum is engaged in various WYP activities. We are joining with the Topical Group in Gravitation (GGR) to provide a volunteer WYP Speakers Program for schools and other groups See http://www.physics2005.org/speakers/. There is a fill-in form on the internet linked to this site to request a speaker and provide information about the talk a group would like to have. Richard Price <rprice@physics.utah.edu> of the GGR and our own Virginia Trimble <vtrimble@astro.umd.edu> are organizing this (see also her note in this Newsletter). There is some financial support, in part from APS Council, for speaker travel to institutions that do not have physics or physical sciences colloquia because they  cannot afford them. Virginia writes ‘we definitely need more volunteer speakers, especially people to talk about Einstein & history of physics (but also other topics); volunteers should get in touch with me.’ She also writes that students at 4 year colleges are targeted and that FHP members who are at 4 year colleges should encourage applications.

I am pleased to announce that in response to the generosity of donors a Special Programs Fund has been established in our APS account to receive and disperse funds earmarked for FHP.  Details of the program are contained in the announcement that follows this article. Funds have been donated in 2004 to provide hard (paper) copies of our Newsletter and to reimburse, where needed, invited speakers’ travel expenses. It is hoped in the future Funds might also provide grants for research in history of physics and/or reimbursement of travel expense for presentation of contributed papers at APS meetings on history of physics. Generally work on history of physics and travel to meetings to give papers on history of physics are not funded by sources which fund physics research. Therefore the Forum on History of Physics might make significant contributions to our subject were we able to materially support some work; e.g., historical research generally requires documentation and bibliographic work that involve some expense. In my work I have found that students as paid research assistants have contributed greatly. Though their pay is small physics majors find the work very rewarding because they learn some physics, and about history of physics and library resources. I plan to introduce a motion at our next Executive Committee meeting next April to establish a committee that will receive and administer grant proposals. Donors are requested to send funds to the APS, Director of Development noting that they are earmarked for the FHP Special Fund. The donor may specify a particular purpose for which he/she would like the funds to be used. Funds donated to APS are tax deductible.

 Comments and discussion on the above are very welcome and should be sent either to the Editor of the Newsletter or to me <byers@physics.harvard.edu>.

Regular FHP activities have proceeded with success in 2004. The Program Committee, chaired by Bob Romer, has arranged attractive invited speaker sessions in the March (LA) and April (Tampa) APS general meetings. Please see the updated Program Bulletins for details: viz.,http://www.aps.org/meet/MAR05 and/or http://www.aps.org/meet/APR05, and the material on these meetings contained in this Newsletter. A new development is a Named Lecture. At the March meeting A. J. Kox will present  the first Robert H. Dicke Lecture on Einstein and Lorentz. The April meeting will be particularly rich in FHP activities. Lillian Hoddeson will give the Gertrude Scharff-Goldhaber Lecture, sponsored by the Goldhaber family in honor of Trudi., on Megascience on the Prairie: The Powers and Paradoxes of Pushing Frontiers at Fermilab. In a joint session with the Forum on Physics and Society, we will mark the occasion of the award of the first Abraham Pais Award to Martin Klein and he will deliver a lecture entitled  "Physics, History, and the History of Physics". The Leo Szilard Prize winner will also speak in that session. We encourage FHP members to attend this session.  We will also have our annual FHP Business Meeting in Tampa and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible there. Another new development is sponsorship of Contributed Paper sessions in both the March and April meetings.

All in all the activities of our Forum are rich and varied and promising for the future where we can safely predict increasing interest in the history of physics. Our history provides good illustrations of the efficacy of collaborative efforts and rational thought that might be inspirational beyond the borders of our profession. I’d like to end by reminding readers of Sir Arthur Eddington who led the 1919 eclipse expedition to observe the bending of light passing close to the sun. It is said that, arising out of his Quaker upbringing, his motivation in part was to counter the widespread hostility to the Germans in World War I. On 3 June he recorded in his notebook:- ... one plate I measured gave a result agreeing with Einstein. As a conscientious objector during the war he avoided active war service and made important contributions to the general theory of relativity starting in 1915. In a parody of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam¹ , after observing the bending of light around the sun, he wrote

                    Oh leave the Wise our measures to collate
                    One thing at least is certain, light has weight
                    One thing is certain and the rest debate
                    Light rays, when near the Sun, do not go straight.

We have wonderful recorded memories of scientists (including Khayyam) in our history, and sharing that is a worthy endeavor. I am grateful to the members of the Forum on History of Physics for the opportunity to serve as its Chair in the 2004-2005 term.

___________________________________________________________

1.Omar Khayyam (1048 - 1131) was an outstanding mathematician and astronomer. Khayyam's fame as a poet has caused some to forget his scientific achievements which were much more substantial; see, e.g., <http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Khayyam.html>.

FORUM ON HISTORY OF PHYSICS SPECIAL PROGRAM FUND

Purpose
 The purpose of the Special Program Fund is to enlarge or enhance FHP's activities beyond what is possible with the resources and restrictions of the regular operating budget.

Source
Moneys for this Fund will be solicited and accepted from individual donors, educational institutions, professional organizations, foundations, government agencies, and corporations. An incentive to prospective donors will be the tax deductibility of the gifts. Solicitations may be made by any member of FHP with the concurrence of FHP's Chair and Secretary-Treasurer. Unsolicited donations may also be accepted.

Receipt and Acknowledgment of Contributions
Donors will be requested to direct their contributions to the American Physical Society's Director of Development. The Director will acknowledge the gift, issue a "tax receipt," and notify the FHP Chair and the Secretary-Treasurer, and, if known, the solicitor, of the gift's arrival.

Selection and Approval of Programs for the Special Fund
The FHP Executive Committee will, at its annual meeting, establish a priority list of activities for which donations to the Special Fund are to be sought. If a donation is received without specification as to its use, the Secretary-Treasurer, with the approval of the FHP Chair, will allocate funds from the gift to the priority programs, as needed. If these unrestricted funds are not needed for this purpose, the officers of FHP shall prepare a proposal and budget for a new initiative and submit it to the Executive Committee for consideration and approval. If a prospective donor proposes to donate funds for a program not on the priority list, the officers shall consider the proposal, and, if it is acceptable, submit it to the Executive Committee for approval. If it is not acceptable, or if modifications are needed, the most appropriate person (usually the Chair or Secretary-Treasurer) shall "negotiate " with the donor about FHP using the gift for another program. If a donation, solicited or unsolicited, is received with an unacceptable restrictions attached, the most appropriate person (normally the person who solicited the gift or, if the gift is unsolicited, the Chair or the Secretary-Treasurer) shall attempt to convince the donor to remove the restriction. If this effort is not successful , the gift will be declined or returned.

Administration of and Disbursements from Fund
The fiscal administration of the Special Programs Fund shall be the joint responsibility of the APS Treasurer's office and FHP's Secretary-Treasurer. Disbursements shall be made by the APS Treasurer upon authorization by the FHP Secretary-Treasurer. Receipts, expenditures , and the balance of the Fund shall be reported by the Secretary-Treasurer to the Executive Committee and the general membership at least annually.

 ANNOUNCEMENT OF ELECTION FOR FORUM OFFICERS

In the upcoming election, you will be asked to vote for Vice Chair, Secretary-Treasurer, Forum Councillor, and two at-large Members of the Executive Committee. If you have an email address registered with APS, you will receive a message inviting you to vote electronically. If not, you should have received a paper ballot by mail. If you want a paper ballot but have not yet received one, please email your request, including your mailing address, to kwford@verizon.net or contact Ken Ford, 729 Westview Street, Philadelphia PA 19119-3533 (phone 215-844-8054). The closing date of the election is March 11. Ballots must be executed on the Web or received by that date to be valid. Biographical information and statements by the candidates appear below.   Duplicates of this information and statements can be found at http://www.aps.org/units/fhp/elections/candidates05.cfm.)  

Candidates' Statements

Candidates for Vice-Chair

William Evenson

Institution: Utah Valley State College (Brigham Young University, retired)

Email: bill.evenson@uvsc.edu

Biographical Information: Bill Evenson is an APS Fellow and long-time participant in FHP. He served as FHP program chair in 1995-96 and on the committee to commemorate the centennial of the discovery of the electron in 1997. He was FHP Secretary-Treasurer from 1998 to 2001 and editor of History of Physics Newsletter for six-and-a-half years from 1997 to 2003. From 2001 through 2003 he served on the APS Panel on Public Affairs (POPA). He is a current member of the Editorial Board of the journal Physics in Perspective. His long-standing interest in the history of physics continues in parallel with other activities in the physics community. He was the founding chair of the APS Four Corners Section, where he instituted and promoted what has become a successful program of public-outreach lectures connected to the annual section meeting, and he is currently Secretary-Treasurer of that section.

Evenson is Associate Dean of Science & Health at Utah Valley State College. He was Professor of Physics at Brigham Young University for 34 years and served as Associate Academic Vice President, Dean of the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, and Dean of General Education. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical condensed matter physics from Iowa State University in 1968. He was an NSF postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania with J. R. Schrieffer. His physics research now deals mainly with studies of surfaces, defects in materials, and inverse problems in statistical physics. He was a Fulbright Senior Scholar (research) at University of Konstanz, Germany, for 1998-99.

Statement: The Forum has made important contributions to the physics community by fostering presentations and reports that both communicate and preserve physics history. The Abraham Pais Award for the History of Physics provides both recognition and strong encouragement for scholarly work in the history of physics. I would like to help the Forum strengthen its efforts further in these areas—keeping history of physics a lively and compelling part of APS meetings, activities, and awards, and in two other important areas: the use of history to bring a fuller understanding of physics to the general public and increased, more effective use of history in physics and science education.

I have urged in History of Physics Newsletter that we should use accurate history of physics more often as a guide in the teaching of physics, in explaining science to the public and to policy makers, and in our research in physics. For maximum effect in this effort, we must convey fully the realities of doing physics (something that is frequently done admirably in the journal Physics in Perspective). FHP needs to be at the forefront of dissemination of the perspective on physics that is possible through history. FHP must continue to encourage our colleagues in the preservation of history: archiving their papers; writing memoirs, obituaries, reports and reviews of important work and of interactions with memorable colleagues; and including relevant and accurate history in talks and reports to the public and to other physicists. Our efforts to produce and preserve first-hand history of physics are crucial. Working to bring the history of physics into more common currency in education and public outreach, I would seek to strengthen our ties to related organizations in both physics and physics history so we can more effectively make common cause. These organizations include the Committee on History and Philosophy of Physics of AAPT, the History of Science Society, and history groups in related disciplines (astronomy, geophysics, etc.) and in other regions of the world.

C. Stewart Gillmor

Institution: Wesleyan University

Email: sgillmor@wesleyan.edu

Biographical Information: Stewart Gillmor attended the original organizing meeting of the Forum (then Division) on the History of Physics at Baltimore more than twenty years ago, and has served FHP in several capacities since then. Following receipt of his BSEE degree from Stanford University, he did graduate work in Astro-Geophysics at the University of Colorado and worked at the National Bureau of Standards. He earned his Ph.D. in the history of science at Princeton University, working with Thomas Kuhn and Charles Gillespie. His research and writing is in the history of physics and engineering. His books include Coulomb and the Evolution of Physics and Engineering in Eighteenth-Century France; several volumes in the AGU series History of Geophysics, including Discovery of the Magnetosphere (edited with John R. Spreiter); and, most recently, Fred Terman at Stanford. He is currently studying Hal Middleton (1851-1932), who, with J. A. Fleming, was the last student to attend lectures of James Clerk Maxwell.

Statement: I have always been grateful for the open acceptance and support by physicists of us traditional historians of science. In service to the Forum I would wish to continue our presentation of interesting, sometimes controversial, topics at our own APS meetings and also try to bring closer to APS those historians of physics who research and write somewhat out of our purview. I am quite pleased that we have established a Prize for accomplishments in the history of physics within the APS.

Candidate for Secretary-Treasurer  

Larry Josbeno

Institution: Corning Community College

Email: josbenlj@corning-cc.edu

Biographical information: Larry Josbeno is professor of physics at Corning Community College in Corning, New York. He received his B.S. degree from St. Bonaventure University and his M.S. degree from the University of New Hampshire. He has pursued graduate work at Rensselaer Polytechnic, Penn State, Princeton, and Cornell, and has conducted research in beam-beam interactions in high-energy physics. He is Director of the Corning Community College Observatory.

Josbeno has 43 years of experience teaching physics at the high-school and community-college levels. He is a past President of the APS New York State Section and, since 2001, Secretary-Treasurer of that Section. He is also past President and a fellow of Science Teachers of New York State. His honors include the New York State Presidential Award and the Chancellor’s Award, both for excellence in teaching.

Statement: I believe that we physicists, educators, and scientists in general should do more to promote an appreciation and an understanding of the history of physics. We must foster interest in our students and colleagues by exposing them to the exciting development of physics and related areas of science. I have served four years as Secretary-Treasurer of the New York State Section of APS and have worked extensively with the APS Accounting Department. I have also attended four APS Unit Convocations. My interest in becoming Secretary-Treasurer of the Forum on History of Physics is to use my experience to ensure good fiscal management of FHP's finances and the continuity of our successful Newsletter, as well as to look for ways to create new programs to supplement our current activities.

I believe that APS can do more to increase the general public’s awareness of the importance of physics education and research through all its Sections and Forums. I would welcome the opportunity to participate in the Forum on History of Physics.

Candidates for Forum Councillor

William Blanpied

Institution: George Mason University (NSF retired)

Email: wblanpie@gmu.edu

Biographical Information: William A. Blanpied is Senior Research Scholar in the Science and Trade Policy Program at George Mason University. Until his retirement from the federal government in January 2003, he had been Senior International Analyst at the National Science Foundation (NSF) since 1983. Prior to joining NSF as Program Manager for Ethics and Human Values in Science and Technology in 1976, he held faculty appointments in the physics departments at Case Western Reserve, Yale, and Harvard Universities, where his research interests were in experimental particle physics. While at Harvard, he established and served as first editor of an international newsletter that has since evolved into the quarterly journal, Science, Technology and Human Values. He left Harvard in 1974 to head the Division of Public Sector Programs at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), where he was instrumental in organizing the first AAAS Science and Technology Policy colloquium, now held in Washington, DC, each April..

Blanpied received his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University in 1959. He is a Fellow of the APS and the AAAS. He is the author or co-author of three books, and has published numerous articles and reviews in the professional literature on physics, history of science, international science, and science policy, including both its national and international aspects. His historical interests have focused on the development of science policy in the United States since WWII and comparative science policies in the United States and East Asia.

In April 2003, Blanpied was designated an International Affiliated Fellow of the National Institute for Science and Technology Policy in Tokyo, at the conclusion of three years as Director of the NSF’s Tokyo Regional Office in the US Embassy. During the 2003 autumn semester, he was Visiting Professor in the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University, Beijing.

Statement: Since the days when I taught “Physics for Poets” as a newly-minted assistant professor, I have been insisting that physics is not only the fundamental basis for all science, but is also an integral component of the liberal arts and, thus, that some knowledge of physics is essential to all educated persons. Perhaps the best way to emphasize the latter points is to help all physicists, particularly those who teach new generations of scientists and non-scientists alike, to understand better the many facets of the history of physics: e.g., the history of individual discoveries, the evolution of scientific institutions, and the relationships of physics to government and to the broader society. The Forum on History of Physics (FHP) has an enviable record of organizing interesting and well-attended sessions at national, regional and topical APS meetings. I would strongly support, and contribute to, the continuation of these efforts. Since a sizeable fraction of APS members now work abroad, I would also try to interest more foreign members in joining the FHP, ask for their suggestions about sessions on the history of physics in non-Western countries, and also nominate distinguished non-Western members as FHP officers. As one means for making the importance of the history of physics more broadly recognized, I would also attempt to identify nominees for the APS presidency who have a demonstrable interest in history of physics, and who have perhaps made some contributions as well. In view of the intense competition among younger physicists to obtain satisfactory positions and to advance in those positions, few are able to devote substantial time to serious historical research and writing. However, I do believe that we can do more to interest these younger colleagues in joining the FHP and perhaps standing for office so that in due course, the interests of at least a few of them will lead to significant scholarly contributions. This, I believe, may be the most significant contribution that we senior physicists can make to our profession and our avocation.

Roger Stuewer

Institution: University of Minnesota (retired)

Email: rstuewer@physics.umn.edu

Biographical Information: Roger Stuewer received his Ph.D. degree in 1968 from the University of Wisconsin with a double doctoral major in the history of science and physics. He currently is Professor Emeritus of the History of Science and Technology at the University of Minnesota with faculty appointments in the School of Physics and Astronomy and the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science. He has taught courses on the history of nineteenth- and twentieth -century physics, supervised the Ph.D. dissertations of nine graduate students in the history of physics at Minnesota, and served as external examiner for seven Ph.D. dissertations in the history of physics at other universities in North America and Europe. He has held visiting professorships in the history of physics at the Universities of Munich, Vienna, Graz, and Amsterdam, and has given over 100 invited lectures in many countries of the world. He has published numerous articles on the history of quantum and nuclear physics and has written, edited, or co-edited eight books, including The Compton Effect and Nuclear Physics in Retrospect. He has served as Secretary of the History of Science Society, Co-Chair of the International Union’s Commission on History of Modern Physics, Chair of the AIP Advisory Committee on History of Physics, Chair of both the APS Division and Forum on History of Physics, Member of the FHP Executive Committee, Chair of the APS/AIP Selection Committee for the Abraham Pais Award for the History of Physics, Chair of the AAAS Section on History and Philosophy of Science, President of the Minnesota Chapter of Sigma Xi, and Chair of the Advisory Board of the Seven Pines Symposium. He is Co-Editor of the journal Physics in Perspective, Editor of the Resource Letters of the American Journal of Physics, and serves on the Editorial Board of other publications and journals, including the Archive for History of Exact Sciences. He has been a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer and an APS Centennial Speaker. He has received a Distinguished Service Citation from AAPT and the George Taylor Distinguished Service Award from Minnesota’s Institute of Technology. He is a Fellow of the AAAS and of the APS.

Statement: The Forum on History of Physics has been and continues to be a major vehicle for advancing teaching and research in the history of physics, and for promoting public awareness and understanding of physics, bringing physicists and historians of physics together to pursue common educational, scholarly, and professional goals. I have devoted much of my academic and professional life to such cooperative and mutually supportive activities, and I would look forward to continuing them during the World Year of Physics 2005 and beyond by serving the Forum on History of Physics as Forum Councilor.

Candidates for Executive Committee, At-Large

Charles Holbrow

Institution: MIT, Harvard (Colgate University, retired)

Email: cholbrow@mail.colgate.edu

Biographical Information: Charles Holbrow is a nuclear physicist with an extensive background and deep interest in history. After obtaining his B.A. in history from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1955, he attended Columbia University where he obtained an A.M. degree and passed his Ph.D. exams in history. He then returned to Wisconsin and obtained a Ph.D. degree in physics under the direction of Henry Barschall. During his career as a professional physicist, Holbrow has done fast-neutron spectroscopy, studied nuclear reactions with magnetic spectrographs, used laser beams to orient and examine short-lived nuclear isomers, and used laser spectroscopy to measure properties of atoms possessing nuclei far from the line of stability. Recently he collaborated in developing for undergraduates a set of experiments that use entangled photon states to exhibit vividly the remarkable consequences of quantum superposition.

Throughout his physics research career Holbrow maintained an active interest in the history of physics. In 1981 his history of the founding of Caltech’s Kellogg Radiation Laboratory was published in Physics Today. In 1995 he spent a sabbatical as Visiting Scholar in The History of Science Department at Harvard. In 1999, on behalf of the Forum on Education, he prepared and presented an exhibit on the historical evolution of physics textbooks for the APS Centennial celebration, and he published the related article “Archaeology of a Bookstack” in Physics Today. In 2003 his biographical essay on Charles Lauritsen, a pioneering nuclear physicist and influential advisor to the U.S. government, was published in Physics in Perspective. This article is part of his current work on the origins, accomplishments and problems of physicists advising the U.S. government.

Holbrow is Charles A. Dana Professor Emeritus, Colgate University, and Visiting Scientist at MIT’s Harrison Spectroscopy Laboratory and Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s Department of Physics. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a member of the APS Division of Nuclear Physics, the Forum on Education, and the Forum on the History of Physics. A longtime member of the American Association of Physics Teachers, he has served as vice president, president elect, president (2003), and past president. He is a member of the History of Science Society.

Statement: I strongly support FHP’s stated objectives of encouraging scholarly research in the history of physics and of helping to diffuse this knowledge. I think that FHP has a crucial role to play as the meeting place of those who make physics history and those who interpret it. By its sessions at APS meetings and its newsletter FHP also helps APS members and the broader public appreciate the human side of physics and physicists, their excitement, their achievements and their personalities. FHP programs foster a sense of community among physicists while showing them how their contributions fit into the larger picture of science and of society. If elected to the FHP Executive Committee, I will work hard to sustain and extend FHP efforts to preserve the records and heritage of physics and to help physicists better know their great tradition.

J. David Jackson

Institution: University of California, Berkeley

Email: jdjackson@lbl.gov

Biographical Information: David Jackson is a theoretical physicist who received his B.Sc. in Honours Physics and Mathematics from the University of Western Ontario in 1946 and his Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1949. His academic career has been at three universities—McGill University in Montreal, University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, and University of California, Berkeley. Beginning in nuclear physics, he has worked in particle physics for most of his career, with forays into electromagnetic theory (field theory of traveling-wave tubes), atomic collisions, plasma physics, muon-catalyzed fusion, and energy loss, among other topics. Jackson is author of the well-known text, Classical Electrodynamics, now in its third edition, as well as two smaller physics books. In recent years he has published a number of pedagogical articles in the American Journal of physics. He is Fellow of the American Physical Society, Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. He is presently Professor Emeritus of Physics, UC Berkeley, and Participating Retiree, Physics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Jackson is a life-long amateur in the history of science, particularly of physics. His record of publication in the history of science is thin, with his paper with Lev Okun, Historical roots of gauge invariance [Rev. Mod. Phys. 73, 663-680 (2001)] the most notable. He has also written NAS biographical memoirs of Edwin Mattison McMillan (with W. K. H. Panofsky), Emilio Segrè, and Victor Frederick Weisskopf (with Kurt Gottfried), as well as a paper on Weisskopf's research in the CERN Courier and a tribute to Weisskopf in Physics Today (with Gottfried). He has very recently edited History of the Berkeley Physics Department, 1950-1968, from the unfinished draft of A. C. Helmholz.

Statement: The history of physics has much to teach present-day physicists and others about how insights or discoveries were made and propagated (or not) to the larger scientific community and how physicists in the past interacted with society to help shape its advancement. I find young physicists largely ignorant of the originators of ideas and techniques that are common currency in physics today. Specific instances with full development of each context can illuminate the why and how, and the reasons for lasting or transitory importance. I think the younger physicists will be the better for a knowledge of on whose shoulders they stand and cavort. The Forum on the History of Physics needs to broaden its membership with younger physicists. The success of a dozen colloquia based on my paper with Okun shows a real interest among all ages in accounts of the history of physics. The Forum might redouble its efforts to have the colloquium chairs around the country feature at least one historical colloquium each term. Another project, brought to mind by my work on the Helmholz history, would be the preparation of a bibliography for the whole country of all available histories of physics departments, many informal and unknown outside the individual institutions.

Gordon Kane

Institution: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Email: gkane@umich.edu

Biographical Information: Gordon Kane is a theoretical particle physicist and particle cosmologist. He has published over 165 research papers, written or edited eight books, and given over 175 talks at national or international meetings plus many seminars, colloquia, and public talks. Two of the books are for general readers. He has been a J. S. Guggenheim Fellow, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, A Fellow of the Institute of Physics of England, and a Fellow of the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars. He is the Victor Weisskopf Collegiate Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan, and Interim Director of the Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics.

Statement: Four centuries ago there was no understanding of how the natural world works, or why it is as it is. Today a great deal is understood. How we got from there to here is fascinating and should be better known to scientists and to everyone. History adds meaning to science. I am convinced that understanding how scientific progress occurs improves our ability to make progress, and should be more widely available to scientists. I have occasionally taught a general undergraduate course that covers scientific developments in their historical context, "From the Greeks to quarks and dark matter". Understanding the history, and why science flourishes better in some cultures than others, has long been important to me, and I would be happy to contribute to broadening the appeal and availability of the history of science via the Forum on the History of Physics.

Catherine Westfall

Institution: Argonne National Laboratory, Michigan State University

Email: cwestfall@nscl.msu.edu

Biographical Information: Catherine Westfall is a historian of physics who currently heads a history group at Argonne National Laboratory. Her position is supported by the Office of the Director and supervised through the Physics Division. From the time of her Ph.D. work in the 1980s at Michigan State University in the history of American physics, Westfall has focused on the history of various projects at U.S. national laboratories. In 1993 along with Lillian Hoddeson and others, she published Critical Assembly: A Technical History of Los Alamos During the Oppenheimer Years, 1943-1945. With Hoddeson and Adrienne Kolb she will soon publish a history of Fermilab through the 1980s. In addition to documenting the founding of Fermilab, a topic covered in her dissertation and summarized in a Physics Today article, Westfall wrote chapters on the discovery of the bottom quark and the development of the CDF and D-0 detectors. She has also published several articles on the history of nuclear physics, including a study of the advent of relativistic heavy ion physics at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and the launching of Jefferson Laboratory's pioneering effort in superconducting radiofrequency accelerator technology. She is currently completing a paper on the fifty-year development of Mössbauer spectroscopy at Argonne which emerged from a Mössbauer History Day celebration she co-sponsored with Argonne physicists.

Westfall holds an adjunct professorship in the History Department at Michigan State University and has taught a variety of courses in the history of science. Most recently she taught a history of physics survey course in the MSU Physics Department. She is a member of the American Physical Society, the History of Science Society, and the Society for the History of Technology. She has been instrumental in organizing a series of conferences for physicists and historians interested in the history of laboratories, and she is the program chair for the fourth conference in the series to be held at the University of British Columbia in 2006.

Statement: Trained as a historian, I have always worked closely with both physicists and historians of physics to uphold and reinforce the highest scholarly standards of both fields. I would bring this commitment and interdisciplinary perspective to my work on the Executive Committee. Using my background, experience, and contacts, I would focus in particular on drawing together scholars from a variety of backgrounds to study and discuss the struggle to solve nature’s physical mysteries. Since I think it’s particularly important that the achievements of older physicists be recognized and that younger physicists come to understand their intellectual heritage, I would focus in particular on finding ways to draw young people to all Forum activities, but especially those aimed at celebrating the many and varied contributions of physicists.

*********************************************************************

OTHER NOTEWORTHY CENTENNIALS (AND BICENTENNIALS)

It wasn’t just Einstein. J. Robert.Oppenheimer was born in 1904. William Hamilton, of Hamiltonians and quaternions fame, was born in 1805. We note below two occasions marking these events.

William Rowan Hamilton

2005 marks the bicentenary of the birth of William Rowan Hamilton, Ireland's greatest scientist, the namesake of the ubiquitous Hamiltonian, and the creator of quaternions, the precursor of the Pauli spin matrices. 2005 has been designated by the Irish Government as "Hamilton Year 2005: Celebrating Irish Science", sharing this year with the World Year of Physics, and Einstein.

 Contact Niamh Morris, at n.morris@ria.ie of the Royal Irish Academy for more details.

Fig.2
Plaque to William Rowan Hamilton at Broome Bridge in Dublin,(above) and below is a reproduction of what he actually cut:

Courtesy of the Royal Irish Academy.[Fig 3]

J. Robert Oppenheimer: Preserving the Manhattan Project Heritage at Los Alamos, NM: Program on “Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project” Held June 25 and 26, 2004 in Los Alamos, NM

Cynthia C. Kelly, Atomic Heritage Foundation

 The Atomic Heritage Foundation, a non-profit organization in Washington, DC dedicated to preserving the history of the Manhattan Project and the Atomic Age, organized the two-day program in partnership with the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Los Alamos Historical Society, State of New Mexico Historic Preservation Division, National Atomic Museum and other partners.

The program included tours of some of the last remaining properties from the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos that are to be restored with the help of a Save America’s Treasures grant. Two properties are the high-bay building at the “V Site” where the Trinity device was assembled and the “Little Boy” site where tests were conducted for the uranium-based or gun-type bomb. Also included on the tour was the house where Oppenheimer and his family lived, a former Master’s Cottage of the Los Alamos Boys Ranch School, which was recently acquired by the Los Alamos Historical Society.

On Saturday, June 26, a symposium on “Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project” was held. Leading authors Richard Rhodes, Ferenc Szasz, Gregg Herken, Robert Norris, Kai Bird and other experts on the Manhattan Project spoke about Oppenheimer’s role, the significance of the Manhattan Project and its legacy for today. In addition, Manhattan Project veterans provided some first-hand accounts.

 Preservation of the Manhattan Project history at Los Alamos and the other sites is important to the current mission of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. As Laboratory Director Peter Nanos stated in support of the legislation to include Los Alamos in the National Park System, “Having a stronger historical perspective and interpretation of the Manhattan Project… will help increase employee morale and provide the Laboratory with an additional resource in recruiting the next generation of scientists and engineers.”

For more information, send an e-mail to info@atomicheritage.org, see http://www.atomicheritage.org/ or call the Atomic Heritage Foundation at 202-293-0045.

WORLD YEAR OF PHYSICS

 Events related to the World Year of Physics (WYP), also known as the Einstein Year, are too numerous to list here. For full details of activities around the world, see http://www.physics2005.org/ or http://www.wyp2005.org/

SPEAKERS WANTED

Do you like to talk about and/or hear about history of physics? Then please
take advantage of this outreach/involvement opportunity. You may recall from
earlier announcements that FHP has joined with the Topical Group on Gravitation
and General Relativity and the Division of Astrophysics to provide a pool of
speakers on topics particularly suitable for the World Year of Physics (Einstein's
Wonder Year centenary and all that). The primary target is students at four year
colleges who already have some interest in science, and the hope is that we can
encourage them to remain in science through a BS and perhaps graduate school by'
sharing with them some of the excitement of physics. Two year colleges, community
groups, planetariums, and even PhD-granting institutions are also welcome to
request speakers.

If you are at a 4-year college or other relevant institution and would like
to host a speaker, the request web site is http://www.phys.utb.edu/WYPspeakers/REQUESTS/howto.html

There is some money available to support travel of speakers to deserving institutions
that do not normally have a colloquium series because they cannot afford it. The
request web site has a spot for noting the need for travel support. If you are willing to be a speaker for a 4-year college student target audience, please contact FHP vice chair Virginia Trimble (vtrimble@uci.edu) with Your Name, Your Location, one or more Topics or Titles relevant to WYP, general relativity, history of physics and astrophysics that you would be willing to talk about. A large number of early requests were for speakers on historical topics explicitly involving Einstein, and volunteers in this territory are particularly welcome.

Virginia Trimble

MARCH AND APRIL APS MEETINGS

For the first time contributed papers were solicited for the March APS meeting. Eight such papers have been submitted. Twelve contributed papers are being presented orally at the April meeting, in three sessions. Here is a summary of titles and authors of all FHP-sponsored papers being presented at both meetings. Details will appear in the Fall Newsletter; full abstracts can be accessed at the APS website http://www.aps.org/units/fhp/meetings.

We remind readers that APS members have a right to present both a technical and a non-technical (e.g., FHP, FPS) talk at APS meetings. We also note that FHP contributed talks have been allotted 24 minutes, including 4 minutes for discussion, per talk. This is twice the usual  assignment, although this dispensation may be removed in the future should the number of FHP contributed talks exceed our allotted time slots.

MARCH 2005 MEETING, FHP SESSIONS

**************************************************************

INVITED PAPER SESSIONS

Session B5: Einstein and Friends I Chair: Virginia Trimble, University of California Irvine March 21, 2005

Einstein and Millikan, Judith Goodstein, California Inst. of Technology

Einstein and Lorentz (The Robert H. Dicke Lecture), A. J. Kox, University of Amsterdam

Einstein and Hilbert, John Stachel, Boston University

Emmy Noether on Conservation of Energy in the General Theory, Nina Byers, Physics Department, Harvard University

*********************************************************************

Session N7 Einstein and Friends II Chair Alex Maradudin, University of California Irvine March 23

Einstein and Boltzmann, Michael Nauenberg University of California Santa Cruz

Einstein, Bohr and Born—Scientific Friendships and their Vagaries, Diana Buchwald, California Institute of Technology

Einstein and Planck, J. L. Heilbron, Worcester College Oxford

Einstein and Ehrenfest, Martin J. Klein, Yale University

************************************************************************

CONTRIBUTED PAPER SESSION

Session L19: History of Physics Chair: Nina Byers, UCLA Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Physics at Fisk University Ronald Mickens, Clark Atlanta University

Attempts to link Quanta & Atoms before the Bohr Atom model A. Venkatesan, Northeastern University; M. Lieber, University of Arkansas

Personal Recollections of Albert Einstein, Steven Moszkowski, UCLA

Ugo Fano, Enrico Fermi, and spectral line shapes Charles W. Clark, NIST

Citation Statistics From More Than a Century of Physical Review Sidney Redner, CNLS, LANL, and Boston University

Sarah Frances Whiting: Foremother of American Women Physicists, Frieda Stahl, California State, Los Angeles

A half-century ago physicists missed a major public service opportunity, costing the

human race widespread chronic illness and many deaths! Marjorie Lundquist, Bioelectromagnetic Hygiene Institute)

(Supplemental)

History of the Wave Structure of Matter Milo Wolff, MIT (retired); Geoff Haselhurst, Space and Motion-Australia

**********************************************************************

ALSO OF INTEREST:

Session H6: The Physics Community’s Defense of Human Rights, Chair Myriam Sarachik sponsored by Forum on Physics and Society

Session T1: Einstein and Condensed Matter, Chair Marvin L. Cohen University of California Berkeley sponsored by DCMP

Session V4: Albert Einstein and Social Responsibility, Chair Barbara Levi, Physics Today

Sponsored by Forum on Physics and Society

NOTE: The annual FHP business meeting will take place directly after the U11 session, from 5:10-6:00.PM All FHP members are invited.

INVITED PAPER SESSIONS

Session C5: Quantum Optics Through the Lens of History Chair: Daniel Greenberger, City College of New York, April 16, 2005

Leonard Mandel and Experimental Tests of Quantum Mechanics, Joan Lisa Bromberg, Johns Hopkins University

Quantum Optics from the Beginning - Reflections from Rochester, Joseph H. Eberly University of Rochester

From Bohm to Aspect: Philosophy Enters the Optics Laboratory Invited, Olival Freire, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil and Dibner Institute, MIT

*******************************************************************

Session J5: Einstein and Friends, Chair: Robert H. Romer, Amherst College April 17 2005

Einstein and Besso, Michel Janssen, University of Minnesota

Einstein, Mach, and the Fortunes of Gravity, David Kaiser, MIT

Einstein and Bose, Kameshwar C. Wali, Syracuse University

************************************************************************

Session X13: The Rise of Megascience Chair: Adrienne Kolb, Fermilab Tuesday, April 19, 2005

 Megascience on the Prairie: The Powers and Paradoxes of Pushing Frontiers at Fermilab

(The Gertrude Scharff-Goldhaber Lecture), Lillian Hoddeson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Submicroscopic Nature Needs Megascience, Leon Lederman, Illinois Math \& Science Academy

*************************************************************

Session T6 -JOINT SESSION, CO-SPONSORED BY FHP AND FORUM ON PHYSICS AND SOCIETY Chair: Joel Primack, University of California-Santa Cruz , April 18, 2005

Pais History of Physics Award History, and the History of Physics, Martin J. Klein , Yale University

Burton Award Talk: Science Under Attack: Intelligent Design, Lawrence Krauss, Case Western Reserve University

Leo Szilard and the role of physicists in countering nuclear threats, Daniel Kleppner, MIT

Current nuclear threats and possible responses, Frederick K. Lamb, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The impact of the APS study and the future of boost-phase defense against ballistic Missiles, David E. Mosher, RAND, Washington, DC

Technical approaches to reducing the threat of nuclear terrorism, William C. Priedhorsky, Los Alamos National Laboratory

CONTRIBUTED PAPER SESSIONS

Session K11: History of Physics I Chair: Kenneth Ford, Retired, April 17, 2005

The rotational specific heat of molecular hydrogen in the old quantum theory, Clayton Gearhart, St. John's University (Minnesota)

To Wise King Ehrenfest: Humorous Writings by Oskar Klein and Others from 1930s Copenhagen, Paul Halpern, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia and Haverford College

Historic Objections to the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics---How They Veered Close to Chaos Theory, Wm. C. McHarris, Michigan State University

Likelihood of women vs. men to receive bachelor's degrees in physics at Stanford, 1900-1929, Anthony Nero, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Plato's Timaeus and Modern Particle Physics, Ruprecht Machleidt, University of Idaho

Early radium experiments in Guadalajara, Mexico, Durruty Jesus de Alba

Martinez, Inst. de Astronomia y Meteorologia, CUCEI, Universidad de Guadalajara

U.S. Scientists and the Chinese Reception of Relativity, Danian Hu, The City College of New York

Disaster Scenarios at Nuclear Accelerators, Joseph Kapusta, University of Minnesota

************************************************************************

Session U11: History of Physics III Chair: Robert H. Romer, Amherst College, April 18, 2005

My Half-Hour with Einstein, Robert H. Romer, Amherst College

Did Heisenberg Spit at Max Born?, Harry Lustig, City College of the CUNY

The Rayleigh Papers, Thomas Miller, Hanscom AFB & Benjamin Bederson, New York University

On The Hilbert-Einstein Priority Dispute, Friedwardt Winterberg , University of Nevada, Reno

 ************************************************************************

NOTES, REPORTS, AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

AIP Center of History of Physics (CHP) Activities

Nearly two dozen new links added to the CHP page of Web resources for history of physics, astronomy & geophysics:  www.aip.org/history/web-link.htm (See the "new" box near the top.) The links point to fine new biographical exhibits, timelines, and sites on special topics ranging from the 18th-century Venus transits to the Van de Graaff generator.

The Fall 2004 issue of the AIP History of Physics Newsletter is now online:   www.aip.org/history/newsletter/fall2004 .You can browse the Web version or download a PDF. Includes articles on an initiative to designate historic physics sites, progress in plans for the Year of Physics 2005, preservation of source materials at MIT, Strasbourg, Bristol University and elsewhere, our bibliographies of recent books and articles, and more.

If you receive a paper copy of this Newsletter, you may want to switch your subscription to online-only. This will leave us more money for our programs and projects, and you can see the Newsletter as soon as it's issued -- with active links and some of the pictures in color! E-mail us at chp@aip.org including your name and address and the phrase "stop mailing paper" (or words to that effect).

 Below is our regular grant-in-aid announcement, which we trust will be of interest to readers of the APS Forum's History of Physics Newsletter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AIP Center for History of Physics

Grants-in-Aid for History of Modern Physics

and Allied Fields (Astronomy, Geophysics, etc.)

The Center for History of Physics of the American Institute of Physics has a program of grants-in-aid for research in the history of modern physics and allied sciences (such as astronomy, geophysics, and optics) and their social interactions. Grants can be up to $2,000 each. They can be used only to reimburse direct expenses connected with the work. Grants will be given only to reimburse: (1) expenses for travel and subsistence to use the resources of the Center's Niels Bohr Library in College Park, Maryland (easily accessible from Washington, DC), OR (2) expenses including travel and subsistence to tape-record oral history interviews or microfilm archival materials, with a copy for deposit in the Library. Applicants should suggest the persons they would interview or papers they would microfilm, or the collections at the Library they need to see; you can consult the online catalog at our Website, http://www.aip.org/history, and please feel free to make inquiries about the Library's holdings.

Applicants should either be working toward a graduate degree in the history of science (in which case they should include a letter of reference from their thesis adviser), or show a record of publication in the field. To apply, send a vitae, a letter of no more than two pages describing your research project, and a brief budget showing the expenses for which support is requested to:

Spencer Weart

Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740

Phone: 301-209-3174, Fax: 301-209-0882 e-mail: sweart@aip.org.

DEADLINES for receipt of applications:

APRIL 15 and NOVEMBER 15 of each year.

Inaugural Cushing Memorial Prize Awarded to Hans Halvorson

The Graduate Program in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Notre Dame and the Cushing Memorial Prize Advisory Committee are pleased to announce the award of the first Cushing Memorial Prize to Professor Hans Halvorson of the Department of Philosophy, Princeton University, for his paper:

“Reeh-Schlieder Defeats Newton-Wigner: On Alternative Localization Schemes in Relativistic Quantum Field Theory.” Philosophy of Science 68 (2001), 111-133.

The $1,000 prize was awarded on Friday, September 3, 2004 in conjunction with Professor Halvorson’s delivering at Notre Dame an invited lecture under the title, “No Eliminative Materialism, No Quantum Measurement Problem.”

The Cushing Memorial Prize is awarded annually for the best work by a younger scholar on the history and philosophy of physics. The prize honors the memory of the late James T. Cushing (1937-2002), long-time professor of physics, philosophy, and the history and philosophy of science at the University of Notre Dame. The prize is administered by Notre Dame’s Graduate Program in the History and Philosophy of Science with the assistance of a distinguished international advisory committee composed of Professor Cushing’s students, friends, and professional colleagues

 The next winner will receive $1,000 and an invitation to deliver a paper in Notre Dame's History and Philosophy of Science Colloquium series during the 2005-2006 academic year. Eligible are all papers in the history and philosophy of physics published by a younger scholar within the three years prior to the nomination (e.g., for the 2004-2005 competition, no earlier than September, 2001). Work is el