HistoryN E W S L E T T E R of Physics A F O R U M O F T H E A M E R I C A N P H Y S I C A L S O C I E T Y • V O L U M E I X N O . 5 • F A L L 2 0 0 5 Report From The Chair by Robert H. Romer, Amherst College, Forum Chair 2005, the World Year of Physics, has been a good one for the The Forum sponsored several sessions of invited lectures at History Forum. I want to take advantage of this opportunity to the March meeting (in Los Angeles) and the April meeting (in describe some of FHP’s activities during recent months and to Tampa), which are more fully described elsewhere in this Newslet- look forward to the coming year. ter. At Los Angeles we had two invited sessions under the general The single most important forum event of 2005 was the pre- rubric of “Einstein and Friends.” At Tampa, we had a third such sentation of the fi rst Pais Prize in the History of Physics to Martin Einstein session, as well as a good session on “Quantum Optics Klein of Yale University. It was only shortly before the award Through the Lens of History” and then a fi nal series of talks on ceremony, at the Tampa meeting in April, that funding reached “The Rise of Megascience.” A new feature of our invited sessions the level at which this honor could be promoted from “Award” to this year is the “named lecture.” The purpose of naming a lecture “Prize.” We are all indebted to the many generous donors and to is to pay tribute to a distinguished physicist while simultaneously the members of the Pais Award Committee and the Pais Selection encouraging donations to support the travel expenses of speak- Committee for their hard work over the last several years that ers. This new idea was suggested by Virginia Trimble, and as a has led to the establishment of the fi rst-ever History of Physics result of action by the APS Council any forum is now authorized prize. Professor Klein delivered his Pais Prize lecture (“Physics, to have one such talk at any meeting at which it sponsors invited History, and the History of Physics”) at the Tampa meeting, in a sessions. Naming the talk honors the physicist so designated, but session jointly sponsored by the Forum on Physics and Society, the talk need not be on the particular topic on which that person a session at which the Szilard Lecture was also given. We thank did his or her work. Thanks to the generosity of the Goldhaber FPS for generously sharing their time with us; the combination of family, we were able to provide travel support to Lillian Hod- Pais and Szilard lectures in the same session seems to be an event deson whose April talk was entitled “Megascience on the Prairie: well worth continuing. The Powers and Paradoxes of Pushing Frontiers at Fermilab (The And now the second Pais Prize winner has been announced Gertrude Scharff-Goldhaber Lecture).” And I myself was pleased — John L. Heilbron of UC-Berkeley. Professor Heilbron will of- to be able to honor my own thesis adviser, Robert H. Dicke, by fi cially receive his prize in the spring of 2006. All those who wish assisting with the travel expenses of A. J. Kox, whose talk at the to suggest names of possible future awardees are encouraged to March meeting was called “Einstein and Lorentz (The Robert H. send suggestions to Professor Michael Nauenberg of UC-Santa Dicke Lecture).” We hope that named lectures will continue, with Cruz, who now becomes chair of the Pais Selection Committee. other physicists being honored in this way in future years; send continued on page 2 INSIDE Report from the Chair 1 Forum Affairs 4 Call for Nominations 4 Meeting Reports 5 Book Reviews 18 Other Items of Interest 23 John L. Heilbron, winner of Pais Award in History of Physics Report from the Chair continued from page 1 your suggestions to Bill Evenson, who will small department, I was embarrassed to port to some of our invited speakers this become Program Chair next year, with re- learn that I was the only forum member. year, and we are also able – for now – to sponsibility for organizing talks for 2007. I should have taken that trip before, and continue to print the Newsletter in paper Contributed papers are on the increase, I urge forum members to follow my ex- as well as electronic form twice a year. with eight at the Los Angeles meeting and ample. Remember that membership in However, the long term outlook is not so twelve at the Tampa meeting. In recent the fi rst two fora is free, and even beyond clear. The current happy situation is highly years, we have been able to assign a 24- that, the annual cost of an additional one dependent on donations from a number of minute block of time to each contributed is only $7. benefactors; I want to mention in particu- paper, twice the usual time. APS’s will- At the April business meeting, it was lar the fi nancial help provided by Virginia ingness to do this, however, is contingent my pleasure to deliver an APS Fellowship Trimble, without whom we probably could upon our having only a relatively small certifi cate to Bill Evenson, who did valiant not afford to produce paper copies of this number of submissions. Of course we hope work for the forum as newsletter editor newsletter. to attract more and more contributed pa- for many years and is now once again a I will briefly mention several other pers, even though the result may well be a member of our executive board, this time new ventures. The Historic Sites Commit- reduction in time allowed for each paper. as Vice-Chair. At the April meeting, we tee has now chosen an initial set of sites Several of us have recruited quite a also said farewell, for the second time in and is at work arranging for the installa- few new members for the forum by rather twelve months, to Ken Ford, who has done tion of plaques. Thanks to a donation from aggressively passing around sign-up sheets noble work as Secretary-Treasurer, retiring the Bardeen family, we provided partial at various meetings. We invite those inter- from that important position in the spring travel support to the March meeting for ested simply to put down their names, even of 2004, only to be pressed into an emer- one student who was giving a contributed if they think they may already be members gency 9-month stint beginning in the sum- paper. And in cooperation with the APS of the forum; we then send the lists to Col- mer of 2004. Ken, on behalf of all forum Topical Group on Gravitation, we were lege Park, where APS staff will check for members, thank you again! able to help send speakers to a number of duplication and then enroll the new ones. Forum finances are in rather good institutions, primarily four-year colleges. In my own department, I acquired half a condition at the moment. We were able to For reports on both of these programs, see dozen new members simply by walking offer more generous than usual travel sup- Virginia Trimble’s reports in this issue. the hall and asking my colleagues. In this John Heilbron Recipient of HistorN E W S L E T T E R y of Physics Pais Prize The Forum on History of Physics of the American Physical Society pub- by Allan Franklin, University of Colorado Boulder lishes this Newsletter semiannually. Nonmembers who wish to receive the John Lewis Heilbron, Professor Emeri- Project, he began his academic career as an Newsletter should make a donation to tus of History and History of Science at the Assistant Professor of History at the Uni- the Forum of $5 per year (+ $3 addi- University of California at Berkeley and a versity of Pennsylvania (1964 1967) and tional for airmail). Each 3-year volume Member of the Modern History Faculty of then returned to Berkeley, rising through consists of six issues. the University of Oxford and Senior Re- the academic ranks to become Professor search Fellow in the Oxford Museum for and Director of the Offi ce for the History Editor History of Science and Worcester College, of Science and Technology in 1973, Class Benjamin Bederson Oxford, is the winner of the 2006 APS/ of 1936 Professor of History and History New York University of Science in 1985, and Professor Emeritus Physics Department AIP Prize for History of Physics “For his 4 Washington Place ground-breaking and broad historical stud- in 1994. He also served as Vice Chancellor New York , NY 10003 ies, ranging from the use of renaissance of the University of California at Berkeley [email protected] churches for astronomy, through 17th and from 1990 to 1994. He has held visiting (212) 998 7695 18th century electrical science, to modern appointments as Andrew Dickson White quantum mechanics.” Professor at Large at Cornell University Associate Editor Heilbron was educated at the Univer- (1985-1991), the California Institute of Michael Riordan sity of California at Berkeley where he Technology (1997), and Yale University Institute of Particle Physics received A.B. and M.A. degrees in phys- (2002-2004). Since 1996 he has been a University of California ics in 1955 and 1958 and a Ph.D.