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The Summer of 1953: A Watershed for Astrophysics

DEC 01, 1994
In 1953, the Michigan Symposium on Astrophysics proved instrumental in shaping our understanding of stellar evolution and in shaping the future careers of many of the participants. One participant gathers his colleagues’ reminiscences.
Owen Gingerich

Beginning in 1927 the University of Michigan’s summer school in physics became famous as the international forum for learning about the latest advances in modern physics. Within a decade of its inception perhaps half of the most renowned European physicists had turned up for its sessions—scientists like Fermi, Dirac, Pauli, Sommerfeld, Goudsmit, Uhlenbeck, Ehrenfest and the astrophysicists Robert Atkinson and E. A. Milne.

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References

  1. 1. Shapley Collection, Harvard U. Archives, Cambridge, Mass.

  2. 2. Oral history interview conducted by S. Weart, Niels Bohr Library, American Institute of Physics, College Park, Md.

More about the authors

Owen Gingerich, Harvard University.

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This Content Appeared In
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Volume 47, Number 12

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