Physics and physicists of the past fifty years

MAY 01, 1956

The address of the Retiring President of the American Physical Society, presented at the APS‐AAPT Joint Ceremonial Session in New York City, February 2, 1956, during the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the American Institute of Physics.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3059962

Raymond T. Birge

Dr. Wigner, Members of the American Physical Society and of other Societies associated with the American Institute of Physics, and Guests: In the case of British organizations such as the Royal Society and the British Association, it is quite customary for the president to deliver an address of a general, nontechnical character. On the other hand, in the case at least of the American Physical Society, a purely technical paper is much more common. It seems to me, however, that at a meeting where several hundred technical papers appear on the program, at least one nontechnical paper may appropriately find a place.

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More about the Authors

Raymond T. Birge. University of California at Berkeley.