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Wigner, Eugene Paul, 1902-1995. Oral history interview with Eugene Paul Wigner, 1966 November 30.

Title: Oral history interview with Eugene Paul Wigner, 1966 November 30.

Arrival in U.S., 1930; comparison of social, scientific, general intellectual climates in U.S. and Europe; early interest in nuclear physics; relationship with graduate students; beta decay, compound-nucleus model, Breit-Wigner formula, early shell model; the Reviews of Modern Physics articles by Hans Bethe; relation of early meson theory to nuclear physics; nuclear forces; charge independence; journal literature of physics, ca. 1937; effectiveness of group-theoretic methods in nuclear physics; effectiveness of quantum mechanics for nuclear physics; significant early experimental discoveries in nuclear physics: neutron, deuteron, artificial radioactivity; fission; shell model of Mayer and Jensen; rotational levels in nuclei; the specialization of physics; effect of World War II on nuclear physics research; Shelter Island conference (J. Robert Oppenheimer); work at University of Chicago; conferences after the war; branching off of high-energy physics from nuclear physics; work personally regarded as interesting. Also prominently mentioned are: John Bardeen, Niels Henrik David Bohr, Gregory Breit, Edward Uhler Condon, Paul Ehrenfest, William D. Harkins, Werner Heisenberg, Conyers Herring, Ernst Pasqual Jordan, Erwin Schrödinger, Frederick Seitz, Leo Szilard, Igal Talmi, Thieberger, Hideki Yukawa; Los Alamos National Laboratory, Princeton University, Universität Berlin, and University of Wisconsin. Interview conducted by Charles Weiner and Jagdish Mehra, 30 November, 1966.

ArchivalResource: Transcript, 44 p.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/80400209 View

Anderson, P. W. (Philip W.), 1923-. Oral history interview with Philip Anderson, 1999.

Title: Oral history interview with Philip Anderson, 1999.

Interview focuses briefly personal details of Philip Anderson's life and almost exclusively on technicial aspects of Anderson's research. After discussing his undergraduate and graduate education at Harvard including his research on spectral lines, he begins the technical aspects of the interview by reviewing his interest in antiferromagnetism and his time in Japan. Included in this is his thoughts on the organization of the Japanese scientific community. The second half of the interview deals interely with his interest in superconductitity and localized moments. Within this general topic there is some treatment of his thoughts on the time that he spend in Cambridge, MA.

ArchivalResource: Sound recording: (Six sessions), 12 cassette tapes.Transcript: 108 pp.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/154305371 View

Herman, Frank, 1926-. Oral history interview with Frank Herman, 1982 June 17.

Title: Oral history interview with Frank Herman, 1982 June 17.

Herman's scientific career from his early education through a Ph. D. at Columbia University and his work at the RCA David Sarnoff Research Center from 1949 to 1961. Numerical calculation of the band structures of diamond, silicon and germanium, using Conyers Herring's OPW method. Also prominently mentioned are: Henry Michael Foley, Conyers Herring, George E. Kimball, Arnold Moore, Dwight O. North, Fred Rose, Fred Rosi, Frederick Seitz; Bell Telephone Laboratories, International Business Machines Corporation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Radio Corporation of America.

ArchivalResource: Transcript, 25 p.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/84308579 View

American Institute of Physics. Office of the Director. Records of Elmer Hutchisson, 1948-1966, (bulk 1957-1964)

Title: Records of Elmer Hutchisson, 1948-1966, (bulk 1957-1964)

Correspondence; reports; printed matter; memoranda; grant proposals; drafts of articles; speeches; minutes of meetings. The records of Hutchisson, director of the American Institute of Physics (AIP) (1957-1964) are primarily from his tenure as director, a period of enormous growth at the AIP with the initiation of the Education Department, the history of physics project, the Documentation Research Project, and a major increase in journal publication, particularly Soviet translation journals. The collection focuses on the areas of Hutchisson's particular interests: science education including various projects to improve physics teaching at all levels and increase the public understanding of physics; physics history including the creation of the Niels Bohr Library; journal publication including internal examination of publishing procedures at AIP, and an evaluation of SCIENCE ABSTRACTS. The largest series reflects Hutchisson's activities in the scientific community at large with correspondence discussing educational and scientific legislation and funding, and international cooperation on scientific matters. Other material concerns AIP awards, organizational structure and operations with coverage of the revision of the constitution and bylaws to create associate member society status and of the physical expansion at the new headquarters; public relations activities with press releases and files on seminars for science writers; the development of citation indexing; and the placement of physics graduates. Files of the Member Societies: Acoustical Society of America, American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), American Physical Society (APS), Optical Society of America, and Society of Rheology, are mostly informational copies, although the APS and AAPT files contain some substantive correspondence. Also contains speeches, reprints, personal correspondence, and correspondence concerning Hutchisson's involvement with the AIP in capacities other than director. Correspondents include: Henry A. Barton, W. Kenneth Brasher. Ferdinand G. Brickwedde, Karl K. Darrow, John Henry Dillon, George F. Gainsborough, Grant O. Gale, Conyers Herring, William C. Kelly, W. James King, Robert E. Maizell, Thomas Harris Osgood, Shirley Leon Quimby, Norman Foster Ramsey, Raymond John Seeger, Frederick Seitz, Wallace Waterfall, Robert T. Webber, and Hugh Wolfe.

ArchivalResource: 15.5 linear ft. (31 boxes)

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/81949161 View

Wigner, Eugene Paul, 1902-1995. Oral history interview with Eugene Paul Wigner, 1984 April 12.

Title: Oral history interview with Eugene Paul Wigner, 1984 April 12.

Arrival at Princeton University, early 1931. Discusses some of his students, including Frederick Seitz, John Bardeen, Conyers Herring, Leonard Eisenbud. Describes how he offically became a physicist; Ph. D. in chemical engineering. Discusses friends and colleagues, including Edward Condon, Paul Dirac, and John Von Neumann. Also prominently mentioned are: Gregory Breit, Paul Ehrenfest, Ernst Pasqual Jordan; and University of Wisconsin.

ArchivalResource: 1 session; transcript, 10 p.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/78112225 View

Wigner, Eugene Paul, 1902-1995. Oral history interview with Eugene Paul Wigner, 1981 January 24.

Title: Oral history interview with Eugene Paul Wigner, 1981 January 24.

Scientific background in solid state physics; early work in group theory; work in solid state with Frederick Seitz. His contemporaries; John Bardeen. Stored energy problem; war work on the nuclear reactor. Teaching career. Also prominently mentioned are: Felix Bloch, David Bohm, Milton Burton, Leon Cooper, Karl Kelchner Darrow, James Franck, Werner Heisenberg, Conyers Herring, John Robert Schrieffer, Erwin Schrödinger, I. Schur, John Clarke Slater, Roman Smoluchowski, Leo Szilard, Weissenberg; Argonne National Laboratory, Physical Review, Princeton University, and University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory.

ArchivalResource: Transcript, 26 p.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/84447580 View