THE BEGINNINGS OF ITAMP — PROPOSALS FROM THE AMO COMMUNITY AND THE NSF RESPONSE

Abstract

The Dalgarno Celebratory Symposium included a session September 11, 2008 on the history of ITAMP (now the Institute for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics), for which Alex Dalgarno is largely responsible. ITAMP history has two parts, (1) 1984-88, leading to its founding, i.e. pre-history, and (2) after 1987, during its existence. Kate Kirby and I described the first period in our talks, while she and the other speakers discussed what happened afterwards. I spoke because I was an NSF Program Director for Theoretical Physics, responsible for Atomic Theory, as a rotator (i.e. temporary, on loan from the University of Pittsburgh) in 1987-89, during the period when ITAMP was funded and founded. The pages that follow correspond to the text of my talk. The pre-history of ITAMP has three aspects: (1) activities in the community, which can be related to the founding of TAMOC in 1984 and to NRC reports in 1986 and 1987, (2) the preparation of the Harvard/Smithsonian proposal, and (3) the response of NSF to the community and then to the ITAMP proposal. Here I will sketch the community activities and the subsequent NSF responses, while Kirby will describe the ITAMP proposal and its preparation.