HISTORY NEWSLETTER One Physics Ellipse CENTER FOR HISTORY OF PHYSICS NEWSLETTER Vol. XXXVI, Number 2 Fall 2004 College Park, MD 20740-3843 AIP Tel. 301-209-3165 Plans Underway to Designate Historic Physics Sites in the U.S. variety of groups designate sites as “historic,” attracting A attention to the events commemorated. More important, the publicity and ceremonies attending the announcement of a designation, and a permanent plaque plus other informational materials, can educate the public in the locality or even more widely. With these ends in mind, the chairman of the American Physical Society’s Forum on the History of Physics, Michael Riordan, recently established an American Physical Society Historic Sites Committee. The members of the committee have agreed that “the presence of strategically-placed plaques that identify sites of historical significance to physics will be an effective means to raise public awareness of physics. We also recognize the initiative will ben- efit physicists by increasing their own awareness of important past scientific advances, hence of their membership in the his- toric evolution of their profession.” CAPTION courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives. The committee has recommended that two categories of sites be selected: sites with national or international significance to Hideki Yukawa in his house, doing calligraphy, March 1962. AIP physics and its history, and sites of more local significance. The Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Yukawa Collection. Donated by Mrs. committee plans to select a set from potential sites suggested Yukawa through Professor Michiji Konuma. by committee members or from ones formally nominated by American Physical Society (APS) members; a nomination form New Web Site Explains Marie Curie's and a few selection criteria will be posted on the Web. Both categories of sites will carry the imprimatur of the APS and will Life for Young People be given plaques following a standard format. Before APS makes arie Curie has long served as an inspiration for young public a selected site, the committee will obtain the endorse- M people, and especially girls, who are interested in sci- ment of individuals historically connected to the event being ence. Her example may by itself be a main reason why France has celebrated, and will make an agreement with the local authority a larger fraction of women physicists than most other nations. In administering the site so a plaque can be mounted in public the United States and elsewhere, there is a lower fraction of women view. Background information about the events commemorated in physics than in almost any other profession — a harmful ne- will be posted on a Web site. glect of a social resource and a loss of personal opportunity to Selection criteria are now being developed, drawing on the expe- thousands of individuals. Studies find that one reason for the rience of the National Register of Historic Places of the U.S. Na- shortfall is that girls are often discouraged from entering a career tional Park Service and other groups that already recognize sites in science in their pre-teen and early teen years. As one small of historical importance. The Historic Sites Committee will seek to step to address this problem, the AIP Center for History of Phys- launch the program by naming several sites for national recogni- ics has mounted a biographical Web exhibit designed explicitly tion during the World Year of Physics 2005 (see article, p. 6). to appeal to young people. The initiative has been approved by the APS’s Executive Board, The Center already has a major Web exhibit on “Marie Curie and which allocated some initial funds. Committee members are Gor- the Science of Radioactivity,” which is visited by nearly a thou- don Baym, Sid Drell, Millie Dresselhaus, Gerald Holton, and John sand people a day. Although designed for the high school - to - Rigden, chair, with Spencer Weart serving as advisor in his ca- retired audience, the exhibit has attracted complimentary e-mails pacity as Director of the AIP Center for History of Physics. (continued on page 2) History Newsletter Fall 2004 ● 1 (continued from page 1, New Website Explains Marie Curie's life...) as supplementary ma- terial, while the longer from lower-school teachers, parents and students. A much larger exhibit itself is linked audience in this age group is expected for the new exhibit, titled to “Marie Curie in “Marie Curie in Brief.” It has a shorter and more readable text, Brief” for readers brighter colors and graphics, many striking illustrations, and in- who want more infor- teractive “mouseover” activity to sustain interest. mation on any topic. The text was written The exhibit is divided into sections titled “From Poland to Paris,” by Naomi Pasachoff, “Looking for a Laboratory, Finding Love,” “The Discovery of author of five biogra- Radium” (supplemented by a section on “The Mystery of the phies for young Rays,” explaining the basic science), “Honors, Disasters & Re- people, with layout newal,” and “Radium Campaigns.” The new exhibit includes 14 by Linda Wooliever, an expert Web designer and home-school- excerpts from Curie’s writings and seven quotes from letters by ing parent. The site editor is Spencer Weart, a historian of phys- Marie and her husband Pierre, bringing her experiences vividly ics and author of two children’s science books. The exhibit is to life. Links from the longer exhibit make the excerpts available located at www.aip.org/history/curie/brief . Project to Document the History of Physicists in Industry Reaches Halfway Mark by Joe Anderson he AIP Center for History of Physics’ three-year Project dowment is funded it will insure that we can continue to target T to Document the History of Physicists in Industry is distinguished industrial physicists in perpetuity. We’re currently now in the middle of its second year and making good progress compiling a master list of significant physicists in industrial (see this Newsletter, Fall 2003, www.aip.org/history/newslet- R&D with whom we would like to conduct full autobiographical ter/fall2003/industry.htm). Meanwhile we’re laying plans to interviews, and we have solicited advice and recommendations continue work with industrial physicists once the current, from more than 30 distinguished physicists and historians of grant-funded undertaking ends. The study is designed to science. We welcome input from others as well. We have found develop realistic strategies and approaches for preserving that, unlike the academic physicists we have mainly dealt with historically valuable records of physicists who work in the in the past, few industrial physicists have an overview broad corporate sector and, at the same time, create a collection of enough to identify many leading figures outside their own im- oral history interviews that helps document their work. mediate corporate environment. The main work completed so far: Project staff have been editing the transcripts of more than 50 structured, question-set interviews that we have completed so • We completed site visits at nine industrial laboratories (3M, far during the site visits. With the permission of the people Corning, Eastman Kodak, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, interviewed, these will also be added to our oral history collec- Lucent Technologies, Texas Instruments, and Xerox) out of tion at the end of the project. Analysis of the interviews using the fifteen that we’re targeting in the study, appropriate analytical tools is getting started, and will be a cen- • Staff conducted question-set interviews with 54 physicists tral activity during the second half of the project. and R&D managers and 18 information professionals at the companies we have visited, Although we have only begun formal analysis of the interviews, • We finished the first two of fifteen or more longer autobio- we have an initial impression that the records-keeping patterns graphical interviews with eminent industrial physicists, in most of the companies that we have visited are highly di- • We began visits to selected public archives that collect and verse. In general, we have found little provision for systemati- preserve industrial records, and cally preserving the history of industrial research and • The American Institute of Physics launched a campaign to development. In addition, all of the firms are grappling with the create a small endowment to continue our work to preserve transformation of communication from paper to electronic form the history of corporate physicists after the current study is and the accompanying problems of data appraisal, storage, and finished. retrieval. At the same time, the scientists and managers we have met during the site visits generally show interest in preserving Although more than half of all physicists work in industry, the history of their own work and that of their labs. We hope only some 10% of the physicists represented in the oral histo- through this study to stimulate their interest and give them ries in the History Center’s Niels Bohr Library have had ca- guidelines and tools that they can use to take action. reers centered in industry. We aim to systematically strengthen this collection during the project and beyond. Under the For additional information, contact the project director, Joe project’s grant funds, we will conduct a total of at least 15 Anderson ([email protected], 301-209-3183), or the project career-length autobiographical interviews, and when the en- historian, Thomas Lassman ([email protected], 301-209-3167). 2 ● History Newsletter Fall 2004 Personal papers and organizational records related to physics History of Physics in the MIT Institute include those of acoustician Leo Beranek; Francis Bitter and the National Magnet Laboratory; national science leader Archives and Special Collections Vannevar Bush; atmospheric scientist Jule Charney; Robley by Tom Rosko, Head, MIT Institute Archives and Special Collections Evans and the Radioactivity Center; high-energy physicist Ber- nard Feld; former director of the Lincoln and Draper laborato- he MIT Institute Archives and Special Collections serves ries Albert Gordon Hill; former U.S.