Twenty years of Physics Today: The recent years

WHEN AT THE suggestion of the editors, Henry A. Barton and I each agreed to contribute a brief article for this 20th‐anniversary issue of PHYSICS TODAY, we found it quite natural to divide the subject matter by decades since Barton was director of the American Institute of Physics during the first decade of PHYSICS TODAY and I was director for more than two thirds of the second decade. We were asked to look back over the issues for these years and, if appropriate, relate the development of PHYSICS TODAY to that of AIP. We probably would have followed this suggestion instinctively since from the beginning the basic role of PHYSICS TODAY has been to further the objectives set for AIP itself. Also, since the PHYSICS TODAY budget is an integral part of the AIP budget, financial support of the magazine is inextricably tied to that of AIP. However, since we are helping to celebrate an anniversary, it seems more fitting, at least in discussing the second decade of PHYSICS TODAY, to put primary emphasis on the magazine as an entity in itself. It is only at the end, in envisaging future opportunities, that I will speak briefly about the role of PHYSICS TODAY in the development of AIP.