Career In Physics Research Articles

60 years of quantum physics

I was invited to speak on the occasion of the 1500th Regular Meeting of the Society, and of course am delighted to be able to come and do it. But those who conveyed the invitation could not refrain from reminding me that I owed the Society a retiring presidential address. I was president in 1951, and it was in the fall of that year that I departed hastily to go to Corning Glass Works to be director of research. That was a very interesting experience, and I am still connected with the glass business, though I am also doing professing. I started my career in experimental physics and lasted one day. When I started work on a doctoral thesis at the University of California in 1925 I had to set up a vacuum system. All experimental physicists in those days had to get a Cenco pump on the floor and glass tubing up to something that was on the table. I started out like all the rest but broke so much glass the first day that they suggested I go into theoretical physics. I told this story at Corning after I became their director of research. Mr. Amory Houghton, chairman of the board, who is now our ambassador to France, said, “Isn't it good that at last you are in a place where you can't possibly break enough glass to make any difference.”

Personal history correlates of physical scientists' career aspirations.

Personal history correlates of physical scientists' career aspirations.

Careers in Physics

<i>Careers in Physics</i>

Careers in Physics

Careers in Physics

Patents for Inventions

National Security, welfare and progress depend alike upon the continuing application of scientific and technical knowledge to adapt and improve industrial products and processes. In recognition of this fact legal provisions exist, in all but the most primitive territories of the world, to encourage the development and exploitation of inventions resulting from the application of scientific discoveries to industry, and it is thought that the brief outline of these provisions, and the manner in which they operate, set out in this short article may be of interest to members engaged in, or setting out on, a career in physics. The basis of all such legal arrangements is to grant to an inventor a monopoly in the exploitation of his invention for a limited period, in return for a full disclosure of all necessary details of the invention so that, upon termination of his monopoly, the public will be able to make and use the invention.

Your Career in Physics

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Physics Lectures for Young People: Variations on a Theme by Faraday

Demonstration lectures for high school pupils are effective in stimulating some to choose careers in physics and in giving many an increased appreciation of physics. This institution has sponsored a diversified program of physics lectures for large groups during the past five years. The results of this experience are described, and an evaluation of the program is presented.

Training of High School Physics Teachers and Cooperation between College Physics Departments and High Schools

A report is presented of a study made primarily in the Southern States to determine what the certification requirements for teachers of high school physics are and what some college physics teachers think they should be; to determine what special undergraduate and graduate programs of study for those preparing to teach or already teaching high school physics are provided by colleges; and also to discover to what extent college physics departments are cooperating with high school physics departments, by loaning equipment, giving assistance to science clubs, presenting demonstration lectures at high school assembly programs, and discussing opportunities for a career in physics with high school seniors.

Who are the physicists?

Although the number of American physicists has increased during the last twenty years, the demand for them has increased even more so. The field of atomic physics alone has consumed a major portion of the physicists this last decade. The nation needs all the physicists it can produce, and the critical problem is how to induce students to enter this highly specialized field. In attacking the problem it would be well to consider the physicists we now have and how they entered a career in physics. Who are the physicists? What backgrounds, what training, and what experiences do they have and how have these influenced their decisions to become physicists?

Atomic physics…for physicists only?

Atomic physics in its wider sense, including nuclear, molecular, and solid-state physics, as well as quantum mechanics, seems to be taught at most schools either as separate fields of knowledge, or under the unwritten but nevertheless unmistakable label “For Physicists Only”. That means that it is taught with all the details and in particular with all the mathematics required for a thorough mastery of this difficult field. This custom was justified at a time when atomic physics was merely a small and restricted region of physics striving to establish its right of existence beside the older fields of mechanics, heat, acoustics, electricity, magnetism, and optics. This custom may have advantages for the graduate physicist who looks toward a career in atomic physics, though even here the predominance of mathematics makes many a student overlook the fact that the basic difficulties of a true understanding of atomic physics lie in its new concepts and ideas rather than in its mathematical formalism.

Careers in Physics

<i>Careers in Physics</i>

Prof. A. Sommerfeld

PROF. ABNOLD SOMMEBFELD, professor of theoretical physics in the University of Munich, will celebrate his seventieth birthday on December 5. He is able to look back on a long and successful career in mathematical physics, both in research and in teaching. During the time of his tenure of the chair in Munich, where he succeeded Boltzmann in 1905, his modest institute became the centre for students of physical theory, many of whom went there from abroad for a period under his inspired guidance. Among his numerous pupils who now occupy high positions in the academic world, Debye, Pauli and Heisenberg may be mentioned.

Graduate Preparation for a Career in Physics

Graduate Preparation for a Career in Physics