Edward Condon

It’s the birthday of Edward Condon, who was born in 1902 in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Condon studied physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Taking advantage of a fellowship, he did postdoctoral work in Göttingen and Munich, where he became one of the first Americans to become expert in quantum mechanics. Condon held jobs in academia, industry and government, including at the National Bureau of Standards, which he directed. In the late 1940s and into the 1950s Condon was groundlessly suspected of being a Soviet spy and was persecuted by the House Un-American Activities Committee. He was eventually cleared of disloyalty and went on to become president of the American Institute of Physics (which publishes Physics Today) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Condon also directed an investigation commissioned by the US Air Force into unidentified flying objects. The investigation’s report was published in 1968 and became known to conspiracy theorists at the Condon report.

Date in History: 2 March 1902