Harvard University. Dept. of Physics

The study of physics has been part of the Harvard College curriculum since 1642, when the text was by Aristotle and physics was found in a branch of the humanities called "natural philosophy." However, development came quickly, and the 17th century saw Harvard's curriculum embrace the ideas of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Bacon, and Descartes through the selection of a new text, Charles Morton's Compendium Physicae and through the gift to Harvard of its first piece of physics apparatus, a telescope.

During the 18th century, the study of natural philosophy became a more prominent feature of the curriculum. Notable are that the first professorship at Harvard in the field was established, the collection of apparatus grew, the space occupied for physical studies was enlarged, and two expeditions for astronomical observation were carried out. Also during the 18th century, Harvard began creating its own texts for use in the curriculum; publication in physics by Harvard expanded throughout the century.

The 19th century began with an expansion of the Harvard curriculum to include applied science as well as pure science, and the "Department of Physics" was established as an entity separate from mathematics. The name reflected the updated vocabulary of science. Harvard's interest in applied science also took shape in the Lawrence Scientific School, a professional school offering systematic instruction in the practical sciences. Laboratory experimentation in physics by students and research by faculty were encouraged and a departmental library was established. This curricular expansion contributed to the fact that the department twice outgrew its space. Eventually the Jefferson Physical Laboratory was constructed to meet the demand for classroom, laboratory and office space. The first evidence of concern over the difficulty in finding qualified students surfaced in the late 19th century, when Harvard established curriculum guidelines and publications for instruction of secondary school physics.

In the first third of the twentieth century, after some administrative upheaval, the study of Physics at Harvard for both graduate and undergraduate students coalesced administratively under the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The space occupied for study and experimentation grew with the construction of two new laboratories, one of which included a research library. The First World War initiated the Department of Physics' role in defense. Its members taught military personnel, served in the military, and performed defense research. The 1930s saw increased interest and investigation into the fields of nuclear science and computer science. In order to meet the research needs of its faculty, the Department oversaw construction of both a high-energy particle accelerator and an automatic calculating machine. Peacetime research was again interrupted for defense purposes during the Second World War. One of the most visible effects was the removal of the Harvard Cyclotron to Los Alamos, New Mexico, in 1943. Again, Harvard personnel served in the military, instructed military personnel, or were members of defense research teams.

Following the War, a new cyclotron and nuclear laboratory were built, with funding for construction and research coming primarily from defense contracts. The strengths of the Department included experimental and high energy physics which led to the construction in the early 1960's of a number of specialized research facilities such as the Cambridge Electron Accelerator (CEA). The Department continued its commitment to secondary school physics education with the program "Harvard Project Physics." As faculty interest in the CEA grew, use of the cyclotron fell; by 1967 it was used primarily for medical purposes.

In the last third of the 20th century, the opening of the Science Center led indirectly to the Department revamping its curriculum, developing closer research and instructional relationships with the faculties of the other sciences, and moving its instructional library. The CEA was decommissioned in 1973 and its facilities became the Department's High Energy Physics Laboratory. In the 1980s the Department concentrated efforts to increase the number of minority students in its graduate program and to strengthen selected areas of research. In January of 1999, the University announced plans to spend $200 million on new science programs, including a new research center to investigate the region between quantum and classical physics.

• 1728: Isaac Greenwood is the first Hollis Professor Of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy
• 1738: John Winthrop succeeds Greenwood as Hollis Professor
• 1780: Williams succeeds Winthrop as Hollis Professor
• 1789: Samuel Webber (A.B. 1784) succeeds Williams as Hollis Professor
• 1807: John Farrar succeeds Webber as Hollis Professor
• 1816: Jacob Bigelow is the first Rumford Professor of Physics
• 1833 - 1834 : Department of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy under the superintendence of Benjamin Pierce
• 1834: Daniel Treadwell succeeds Bigelow as Rumford Professor
• 1836 - 1837 : Benjamin Pierce becomes University Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. He is head of the Dept. and assisted by Joseph Lovering
• 1837 - 1838 : Mathematics and Natural Philosophy become two separate Departments. The Department of Mathematics headed by Pierce and the Department of Natural Philosophy headed by Joseph Lovering
• 1838: Joseph Lovering succeeds Farrar as Hollis Professor
• 1840 - 1841 : Department of Natural Philosophy becomes Department of Physics
• 1847: Lawrence Scientific School established
• 1847: Eben Norton Horsford succeeds Treadwell as the Rumford Professor
• 1863: Wolcott Gibbs succeeds Horsford as Rumford Professor
• 1871 - 1872 : A physical laboratory in set up in Harvard Hall under the charge of Assistant Professors John Trowbridge and George Hill
• 1884: Jefferson Physical Laboratory opens; Lovering is its first director
• 1888: Benjamin Osgood Peirce succeeds Lovering as Hollis Professor
• 1888: Trowbridge succeeds Lovering as Director of the Jefferson Physical Laboratory and succeeds Gibbs as Rumford Professor
• 1892: the Department of Physics employs George Thompson as its first skilled machinist
• 1906: the Graduate School of Applied Science established; Wallace Clement Sabine is Dean
• 1910: Theodore Lyman succeeds Trowbridge as Director of the Jefferson Physical Laboratory
• 1912: the Graduate Schools of Applied Science supersede the Graduate School of Applied Science; Sabine continues as Dean
• 1914: Agreement is reached between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard results in closure of Graduate Schools of Applied Science
• 1914: Sabine succeeds Peirce as Hollis Professor
• 1914: Edwin Herbert Hall succeeds Trowbridge as Rumford Professor
• 1915: Cruft laboratory opens under the direction of George Washington Pierce and Emory L. Chaffee
• 1917: Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts dissolves the cooperative agreement between MIT and Harvard
• 1917 - 1918 : Activities of the Department relate to World War I
• 1918: the Harvard Engineering School is established
• 1921: Theodore Lyman succeeds as Hollis Professor
• 1921: George Washington Pierce succeeds Hall as Rumford Professor
• 1926: Frederick A. Saunders Chairman of the Department
• 1926: Percy Williams Bridgman succeeds Lyman as Hollis Professor
• 1931: Research Laboratory of Physics completed; Lyman is its first director
• 1932: the Harvard Engineering School is superceded by the Graduate and Undergraduate Schools of Engineering
• 1938: Cyclotron constructed
• 1940: Emory Leon Chaffee succeeds Pierce as Rumford Professor
• 1940: Edwin C. Kemble Chairman of the Department
• 1940: Efforts related to World War II begin
• 1940: Electro-Acoustic Laboratory established and directed by Dr. L.L. Beranek
• 1941: Underwater Sound Laboratory established and directed by Prof. F.V. Hunt
• 1942: Radio Research Laboratory established
• 1943: Cyclotron requisitioned by the Manhattan Project; Prof. Kenneth T. Bainbridge is recruited by the government to work at Los Alamos
• 1944: J.H. Van Vleck Chairman of the Department
• 1945: Roger W. Hickman appointed Associate Director of the Physics Laboratories
• 1947: Hickman succeeds Lyman as Director of the Physics Laboratories
• 1947: Research Laboratory of Physics renamed the Lyman Laboratory of Physics
• 1948: Otto Oldenberg Chairman of the Department
• 1949: Synchrocyclotron and Nuclear Laboratory open
• 1949: The Graduate School of Engineering merges with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to create the Division of Engineering Sciences
• 1950: Low temperature laboratory completed
• 1951: John Hasbrouck Van Vleck succeeds Bridgman as Hollis Professor
• 1951: the Division of Engineering Sciences renamed the Division of Applied Science
• 1952: Kenneth T. Bainbridge Chairman of the Department
• 1953: Frederick Vinton Hunt succeeds Chaffee as Rumford professor
• 1955: J.C. Street Chairman of the Department
• 1955: Division of Applied Science renamed the Division of Engineering and Applied Physics
• 1959: W. M. Preston Chairman of the Department
• 1960: J.C. Street Acting Chairman of the Department
• 1962: Cambridge Electron Accelerator is operational
• 1965: Wendell H. Furry Chairman of the Department
• 1966: W. M. Preston succeeds Hickman as Director of the Physics Laboratories
• 1968: R.V. Pound Chairman of the Department
• 1969: Andrea Mattei Gleason succeeds Van Vleck as Hollis Professor
• 1972: Paul C. Martin Chairman of the Department
• 1972 - 1973 : Work at the C.E.A. comes to an end
• 1973: Completion of the Science Center
• 1974: Nicolaas Bloembergen succeeds Hunt as Rumford Professor
• 1975: Michael Tinkham Chairman of the Department
• 1975: Robert V. Pound succeeds Preston as Director of the Physics Laboratories
• 1977: the Division of Engineering and Applied Physics renamed the Division of Applied Sciences
• 1978: Karl Strauch as Chairman of the Department
• 1980: Michael Tinkham succeeds Bloembergen as Rumford Professor
• 1983: Prof. Costas Papaliolios Director of the Physics Laboratories
• 1982: Richard Wilson Chairman of the Department
• 1984: Ronald C. Vanelli appointed Director of the Physics Laboratories
• 1985: Francis M. Pipkin Chairman of the Department
• 1988: Bertrand I. Halperin Chairman of the Department
• 1989: Margaret Law succeeds Vanelli as Director of the Physics Laboratories
• 1991: Howard Georgi Chairman of the Department.
• 1992: Bertrand I. Halperin succeeds Gleason as Hollis Professor
• 1994: Gary J. Feldman Chairman of the Department
• 1997: the Division of Applied Sciences renamed the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences
• 1997: David P. Nelson Chairman of the Department
• 1999: Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory celebrated its 50th anniversary
• 2002 June 2: Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory was shut down at 9:00 am

From the guide to the Records of the Harvard University Dept. of Physics, 1879-1983 (textual records), and 2007- (web archive), (Harvard University Archives)