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Institutional History
AbstractImportant DatesPlacesSubjectsCitationsRelationships
PeopleInstitutionsResources
Archival as AuthorArchival as SubjectPublished as AuthorWashington University (Saint Louis, Mo.). Department of Physics
Dates
1853 – present
Authorized Form of Name
Washington University (Saint Louis, Mo.). Department of Physics
Additional Forms of Names
Washington University (Saint Louis, Mo.). Dept. of Physics
Institutional History
Abstract
The Department of Physics at Washington University was founded in 1853 and has had numerous well-known physicists on its staff, including Nobel laureate Arthur Holly Compton. Current areas of research include astrophysics, biophysics, condensed matter, atomic and molecular physics, and nuclear and particle physics.
Important Dates
1853Washington University is founded, Saint Louis (Mo.).
1857Funds are obtained to build a "superior telescope".
1920 – 1923Arthur Compton was on faculty.
1928 – 1934Lee DuBridge was on faculty.
1934Construction begins on Crow Hall.
1934Department resides in Eads Hall, an original structure of the Hilltop campus next to the main quadrangle, Saint Louis (Mo.).
1942The Manhattan Project commandeers the department's cyclotron to produce the first significant samples of plutonium.
1946 – 1960Henry Primakoff was on faculty.
1946 – 1977Eugene Feenberg was on faculty.
1948 – 1956George Pake was on faculty.
1954 – 1961Arthur Compton was on faculty.
1956 – 1963Edward Condon was on faculty.
1961 – 1962Douglas Scalapino was on faculty.
1964Construction begins on Compton Laboratory.
1969 – 1970George Pake was on faculty.
1981 – presentCliffor Will has been on faculty.
Places
Headquarters
Subjects
Physics -- Study and teaching.
Citations
Historical information from the Washington University Department of Physics Historical Milestones (http://physics.wustl.edu/nd/docs/Milestones.pdf).
Relationships
People
Employees & Officers
Compton, Arthur Holly, 1892-1962
Wayman Crow Professor Physics; Head, Physics Department; and Distinguished Service Professor of Natural Philosophy.
Condon, Edward Uhler, 1902-1974
Wayman Crow Professor of Physics.
DuBridge, Lee A. (Lee Alvin), 1901-1994
Assistant Professor of Physics and Associate Professor of Physics.
Associate Professor to Professor of Physics; Wayman Crow Professor of Physics; and Emeritus Professor of Physics.
Received PhD in Physics (1966). Member, Board of Trustees.
Assistant Professor of Physics; Associate Professor of Physics; Professor of Physics; and Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor of Physics.
Primakoff, H. (Henry), 1914-1983
Assistant Professor to Professor of Physics.
Research Associate.
Associate Professor of Physics, McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences; Professor of Physics, McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences; Department Chair; James S. McDonnell Professor of Physics; McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences; and James S. McDonnell Professor of Space Sciences, Emeritus.
Professor of Physics.
Associates & Members
Bolef, Dan I., 1921-
Compton, Betty Charity McCloskey, 1916-
Fichtel, Carl E.
Hirsh, Ira J.
Hughes, Arthur Llewelyn, 1883-
Jaynes, E. T. (Edwin T.)
Kamen, Martin David, 1913-2002
Knudsen, Arthur W.
Manley, John Henry, 1907-
Nipher, Francis E. (Francis Eugene), 1847-
Roman, Irwin
Sard, R. D., 1915-
Walker, Robert M., 1929-2004
Institutions
Institutional Hierarchy
Washington University (Saint Louis, Mo.)
Resources
Archival Resources
Author
Banquet in honor of the retirement of Eugene Feenberg [sound recording], 1975 March 20.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Washington University audiotape collection [sound recordings], 1946-1991.
Libraries. Special Collections
Washington University
Box 1061, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA
Washington University cyclotron records, circa 1940-1985.
Libraries. University Archives
Washington University
Campus Box 1061, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA
Subject
Arthur Knudsen correspondence with Lorene Stringer, 1945-1946.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Arthur L. Hughes administrative records, 1923-1953.
Libraries. University Archives
Washington University
Campus Box 1061, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA
Carl E. Fichtel autobiography, 1965.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Dan I. Bolef papers, 1946-1987.
Libraries. University Archives
Washington University
Campus Box 1061, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA
Edward Condon papers, circa 1920-1974.
Library
American Philosophical Society
105 South Fifth Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA
Edwin T. Jaynes papers, 1950-1995.
Libraries. University Archives
University of Washington
Campus Box 1061, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA
Eugene Feenberg correspondence, 1927-1958.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Francis E. Nipher collection, 1877-1882.
Libraries. University Archives
University of Washington
Campus Box 1061, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA
Irwin Roman papers, 1913-1966.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Martin David Kamen papers, 1923-1992 (bulk 1945-1955).
Mandeville Special Collections Library
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
On the occasion of the 80th birthday celebration for Clarence Melvin Zener, 1985.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Betty Compton, 1968 April 11 and 15.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Dan Bolef, 1997 January 21 and February 13.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Ira Hirsh, 1994 June 9.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with John Henry Manley, 1976 July 9 and 11.
The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA, 94720-6000, USA
Oral history interview with Lee A. DuBridge, 1972 June 9.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Lee A. DuBridge, 1987 March 6.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Martin David Kamen, 1975. Physics, politics and photosynthesis, 1975.
The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA, 94720-6000, USA
Oral history interview with Melba Newell Phillips, 1977 December 5.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Robert D. Sard scientific memoirs (1946-1972), 1993.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Robert M. Walker papers, undated.
Libraries. University Archives
Washington University
Campus Box 1061, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA
Published Resources
Author
Engineering physics / Department of Physics, Washington Univeristy, ... Charles Frederick Hagenow.