The state of US physics—1976

APR 01, 1976

Reflections on how the APS serves its members and the community, and a personal assessment of the year’s highlights in nuclear, biological, atomic, solid‐state and particle physics.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3023421

Chien‐Shiung Wu

There are cycles in the history of scientific development just as there are in the affairs of men. To keep a Society such as The American Physical Society healthy and strong in the face of these changes, we must review our objectives periodically and adjust to the demands and needs of the present. In preparing this report on the State of Physics I sought to acquire some sense of the historical development of American physics by browsing through two famous addresses given by Henry Augustus Rowland, the founder and first president of our Society.

References

1. Light‐Water Reactor Safety, Rev. Mod. Phys. 47, Supplement 1 (1975); https://doi.org/RMPHAT
The Study Group on Light‐Water Reactor Safety, PHYSICS TODAY, July 1975. page 38.
2. F. L. Vook, H. K. Birnbaum, T. H. Blewitt, W. L. Brown, J. W. Corbett, J. H. Crawford, Jr, A. N. Goland, G. L. Kulcinski, M. T. Robinson, D. N. Seidman, F. W. Young, Jr, Report of the APS Summer Study on Physics Problems Relating to Energy Technologies: Radiation Effects on Materials, Rev. Mod. Phys. 47, Supplement 3 (1975); https://doi.org/RMPHAT
F. L. Vook, PHYSICS TODAY, Sept. 1975, page 34.
3. Efficient Use of Energy, part I: A Physics Perspective (K. W. Ford, G. I. Rochlin, R. H. Socolow, eds.); part II: The Role of Physics in Combustion (D. L. Hartley, D. R. Hardesty, M. Lapp, J. Dooher, F. Dryer, eds.); part III: Energy Conservation and Window Systems (S. M. Berman. S. D. Silverstein, eds.) AIP Conference Proceedings No. 25, Amer. Inst. of Phys., New York (1975);
The Study Group on Technical Aspects of Efficient Energy Utilization, PHYSICS TODAY, August 1975. page 23;
D. Hartley, M. Lapp, D. Hardesty, PHYSICS TODAY, Dec. 1975. page 37.

More about the Authors

Chien‐Shiung Wu. Columbia University.