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PHYSICS at ARKANSAS Discharge Tubes Were Used 8. Doctoral Program and Graduate Research by Raymond H. Hughes and Paul C. Sharrah second group of programs. These included ani- mal sciences, botany and bacteriology, compara- First Doctoral Programs tive literature, physics, psychology, zoology, and Under the Presidency of Lewis Webster Jones engineering. In the next few years doctoral pro- in 1949 it was determined that it was time to grams were approved also for business adminis- initiate doctoral programs within the graduate tration, agronomy, anatomy, microbiology, school. (Ref. 3, p. 233) instrumental sciences (at the Graduate Institute The newly appointed graduate dean, Dr. Virgil of Technology in Little Rock), and mathematics. W. Adkisson, was instructed to proceed carefully A third significant expansion was authorized but ambitiously in 1970. These programs were history, plant with this program. pathology, and entomology. These last two pro- The departments, grams were implemented after reaccreditation as a starter, were and improved funding had been provided. to offer a better The graduate school enrollment in 1948 had selection of ad- been 272 students (Ref. 2, p. 159) but had risen vanced undergrad- to 1,659 by spring 1971 (Ref. 3, p. 234). By fall uate courses as 1993 there were a total of about 35 clearly deemed appropri- defined doctoral programs on the Fayetteville ate! Physics, for campus and a graduate school enrollment figure example, decided of 2,150 students. (Information courtesy in the early Professor David W. Hart, Associate Dean, 1 9 5 0 ’s, to require Graduate School.) Forty-four years of progress a thesis for the since that day in 1949 when it was decided to M.S. degrees as a develop doctoral programs! part of this effort Virgil W. Adkisson, Graduate to strengthen the Dean when the expansion into Physics Proposal departmental pro- Ph.D. programs took place prin- The Ph.D. program in physics was approved in gram. cipally in the 1950s and 1960s. 1959 even though the manpower and research The first thing support and other visible assets in physics were D r. Adkisson did quite limited. There were only four active was to visit a number of graduate programs both members of the physics faculty: C. Y. Fan, R. H. regionally and nationally seeking to ascertain Hughes, H. M. Schwartz, and P. C. Sharrah. what the move into offering doctoral work About all that could be said for the department would entail. A graduate affairs committee of was that there was a strong desire to succeed! broad representation within the university was Of course it seemed necessary for the major appointed as a study and advisory group to the University in the State to go that route, but this dean. fact alone was not sufficient. Considerable The first doctoral programs were initiated in work had to be done by the University and espe- 1950-51. These were in biochemistry (at the cially the physics faculty! Medical Center), education, chemistry, eco- A few details concerning the physics doctoral nomics, English, history (discontinued in 1952), proposal and the process of gaining its approval and philosophy. Physiology and pharmacology are in order here. were approved later. The proposal was submitted by the Ph y s i c s Physics was one of the departments approved Department to the Graduate School in 1958. for a doctoral program in 1959 as a part of a The graduate dean and the graduate council, 83 after a private session, sent the proposal back resources to begin the Ph.D. program; hence, for certain clarification of points and rewriting the stipulation by the Graduate School to obtain by its principal author, Professor R. H. Hughes. the fellowships was most relevant. The chairman of physics, Professor Paul C. Proposals were written promptly for the NDEA Sharrah, was called to another meeting of the Title IV fellowships. Four were provided by the graduate council in the graduate dean’s office. initial proposal. These fellowships were to be a Arts and Sciences Dean Guerdon D. Nichols was vital part of the physics programs for the next also brought in for this conference. several years. Many of these NDEA Title IV fel- One of the members of the graduate council lows are teaching in various colleges and univer- leaned over to Sharrah and whispered, “I know sities today. This was the goal of that program. why you are so calm and self-confident. Yo u Two other Federal fellowship programs soon know that we are going to approve your propos- became available. These programs provided al ultimately”. Suddenly Sharrah was calm and NSF Traineeships and NASA Traineeships; funded self-confident. by the National Science Foundation and the At one point, after about thirty minutes of National Aeronautics and Space Administration discussion, Graduate Dean Adkisson turned r e s p e c t i v e l y. These new programs forced the abruptly to Dean Nichols and said, “If we decide departments to compete with each other to give the go ahead to physics, will you give University wide for these fellowships. These them your complete backing?” Dean Nichols two programs, like NDEA Title IV, also supported looked at Sharrah and said quietly but sincerely, the student’s research programs as well as pro- “Yes.” viding their stipends. Dean Adkisson and Associate Dean Aubrey A one-time grant from the Baldwin Pi a n o Harvey came to the department to talk directly Company came at a propitious moment in the with the physics faculty. The meeting was in early 1960’s and made possible the purchase of Room 1, the only air-conditioned classroom in certain critical items. One such item was a heli- the physics building. The meeting was short, um vacuum leak detector. only about thirty minutes. We were becoming Thus these three fellowship programs not only rather self-conscious and even apologetic about provided critical funds to assist the department our obvious limitations. But it was Dean to develop the doctoral program but also made Adkisson who volunteered that we would be it possible to attract promising students into the given approval to proceed because there was a new graduate program. These special fellow- clear unanimous desire on the part of the ship programs became less critical when rea- department to go ahead. sonable research grant funding became avail- The doctoral program in physics was approved able in physics. The funding of the graduate in 1959 with the stipulation that the department students on research assistantships supplement- obtain NDEA (National Defense Education Act) ed by teaching assistantships became fairly ade- Title IV fellowships to support the doctoral pro- quate. gram. These Federally funded four-year fellow- Program Evolves ships gave the student a stipend comparable to an assistantship and a monetary supplement to The creation of the Ph.D. program in 1959, the department to support the student’s re- under the energetic stewardship of Pr o f . search effort. Hughes, led to the first Ph.D. graduate in 1964 The Ph.D. program was fortunate to be born ( William R. Pendleton). This together with a in the early post-Sputnik era (the Ru s s i a n growth in faculty led to the creation of a num- Sputnik went into orbit in 1957) when Con- ber of new graduate courses: Goldstein-level gressional cold-war concern over possible Advanced Mechanics, Jackson-level Russian scientific and technological dominance Electrodynamics (two semesters), Statistical led to a Federal push to develop graduate pro- Mechanics, Mathematical Methods of Ph y s i c s , grams in science and engineering. Neither the and several post-quantum mechanics courses: university nor the physics department had the Advanced Quantum Theory (two semesters), 84 Solid State Physics, and Atomic and Molecular eign languages! By 1975 the Ph.D. candidates Physics. Actually, an undergraduate course in in physics at the University of Arkansas no Solid State Physics was created in the 1950s, and longer had a foreign language requirement. was taught through the 60s by Prof. Day, using The two examination system, master’s and the text by Kittel which first appeared in 1953. doctoral preliminary examinations, quickly This course was dropped when the graduate evolved to a single examination, a preliminary course was put in its place. With the arrival of examination only for the doctoral candidates. Prof. Salamo in 1975 and subsequent quantum Thus the master’s degree lost its role as a step- opticians, courses in Quantum Optics, Laser ping stone to the Ph.D. degree and at the pre- Physics (and lab), and Optical Prop-erties of sent time essentially all Ph.D. students at Solids were added, bringing the graduate pro- Arkansas by-pass the master’s degree. gram to essentially its present state. The first Ph.D. degree in physics was granted The original physics Ph.D. program initiated in in 1964 under the direction of Dr. R. H. Hughes. 1959 was modeled principally after the University of Wisconsin plan since the principal Faculty Recruitment author was a recent Wisconsin graduate. The One significant potential advantage gained program initially made the Master of Science with the introduction of the Ph.D. program was degree an integral part of the Ph.D. program. the ability to interest better qualified young The M.S. degree was a serious research degree, Ph.D.s to apply for a position at Arkansas and to requiring a Master’s thesis. It was expected that retain some of the qualified physics faculty the student would take a written Master’s exam- already here. We had already lost Brenton ination at the end of the second semester of Stearns and Berol Robinson, two very competent graduate study.
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