Biographical Memoirs Volume 48 (1976) / Chapter Skim
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Edward Uhler Condon
Edward Uhler Condon
Pages 124-151
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From page 125... ...
During that period Edward Uhler Condon was a leader in physics, in research of his own, in stimulating research in others, in applying physics, and in calling attention to the effects on all of us of its indiscriminate and irrational application. When he made his first contribution to theoretical physics in 1926, the word physics was not in the vocabularies of most Americans and the revolutionary concepts of quantum mechanics and relativity were just being worked out in Europe; by 1960 the applications of electronics and solid-state physics had begun to change our lives irreversibly, and the implications of nuclear physics were manifest to everyone.
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From page 126... ...
In that same year, 1922, he married Emilie Honzig, a tiny bundle of energy who enwere rlrnwn to communism. #Edward Uhler Condon, "Reminiscences of a Life In and Out of Quantum Mechanics," Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Atomic, Molecular, Solid State Theory and Quantum Biology, ed.
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From page 127... ...
He imbibed the probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics from Max Born and, under Arnold Sommerfeld, began the wave mechanical formulation of the Franck-Condon principle. Again the rivalry of interest between the gaining and the imparting of new knowledge intervened.
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From page 128... ...
"In that fall I soon found that the American physicists on the Atlantic Coast were by and large having as much trouble understanding and assimilating quantum mechanics as I had had in Germany.... The profession of theoretical physics was much smaller then than now.
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From page 129... ...
"I was asked by George Pegram to be a lecturer in physics at Columbia University in the spring of 1928.... I accepted and started on my first regular university appointment by giving two graduate courses, one in quantum mechanics and the other on electromagnetic theory of light....
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From page 130... ...
The same idea was developed almost simultaneously by George Gamow, then a postdoctoral fellow in Gottingen. This was the first application of quantum mechanics to details of inner structure of atomic nuclei, and at the same time its success gave a big boost to the probability interpretation of the intensity of the Schrodinger wave which was only being reluctantly accepted in some quarters." ~ Condon still was footloose.
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From page 131... ...
The two courses meshed perfectly because the same mathematical functions were used in both. Condon was a beautiful lecturer; he had the facility of 'making a difficult subject sound easy' whereas other professors often hacl the opposite tendency to 'make a simple subject sound difficult.' "These courses aroused my interest in the theory of atomic spectra and led eventually to my collaboration with Condon on the well-known book on this subject.
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From page 132... ...
While still enjoying the feeling of euphoria brought on by this decision, I read in the university newspaper that the visiting professor in theoretical physics for the summer quarter would be a brilliant young man, twenty-eight years old, who had discovered the FranckCondon principle while a graduate student at Berkeley, had spent two years at the great centers of theoretical physics in Europe as a National Research Council fellow, and had held prominent posts at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, Princeton University, and the University of Minnesota. Just a year earlier, he and Ronald Gurney had given an interpretation of spontaneous alpha disintegration of nuclei in terms of quantum mechanical tunneling.
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From page 133... ...
, Foreword by Frederick Seitz, pp. xxi-xxiii (hereafter cited as Topics in Modern Physics)
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From page 134... ...
These results showed quite clearly the charge independence of the strong nuclear force between nucleons on which all modern nuclear theory is based." Between 1928 and 1938 Condon published two booksQuantum Mechanics and The Theory of Atomic Spectra, both with co-authors; nine papers on general quantum mechanics; six papers on atomic spectra, all but one with co-authors; eight papers on the quantum mechanics of molecules, all but two with co-authors; two papers on solid-state theory, one with a coauthor; and two papers on the biological effects of radiation. In addition, there were three articles in the American Physics Teacher on simple ways to understand physical concepts, two on semiphilosophical topics, and one, published in the Proceedings of the U.S.
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From page 135... ...
Westinghouse wanted to strengthen its work in fundamental physics and assured Condon of liberal support and a free hand in developing such work at the laboratories in East Pittsburgh. Construction had already been started on a large pressurized van der Graaff machine for nuclear work.
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From page 136... ...
These multiple contacts with the Manhattan District strengthened Condon's aversion to the military control of scientific research and development. He had many anecdotes, some grim and some humorous, about the military attitude and the consequences of the paranoia for secrecy.
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From page 137... ...
He had been elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1944, and in 1945 he became vice-president of the American Physical Society, to become its president the following year. The many physicists who were concerned with the military control of nuclear weapons looked to him for leadership, and his penchant for action set him to writing articles and giving talks about the dangers, as well as the potentialities, of nuclear power.
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From page 138... ...
This chronicler remembers being castigated for commending the formation of not-for-profit corporations as a means of providing technical assistance to government agencies without becoming enmeshed in civil service red tape. Condon felt this was a cowardly evasion of the Augean task of revising civil service.
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From page 139... ...
Here again Condon recruited new scientists and initiated original research on the structure of glass and applications of its properties. He published a highly useful sequence of four papers on the physics of the glassy state in 1954.
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From page 140... ...
Branscomb, "Edward Uhler Condon," Physics Today 27~1974~:69.
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From page 141... ...
He continued to write and lecture on the need for peaceful, worldwide cooperation; he took on the job of editor of the Reviews of Modern Physics; he actively participated in the research of the Joint Institute of Laboratory Astrophysics; and he found time to be president of the American Association of Physics Teachers in 1964. And, in an incautious moment, he agreed to head a project, supported by the Office of Scientific Research of the Air Force, to investigate the many reports of uniclentified flying objects (UFOs)
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From page 142... ...
It deserves to be a landmark in the journey science has taken since the days of Stevin, Galileo and Kepler." Edward Uhler Condon died on March 26, 1974. Two comments may serve to close this survey of his life.
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From page 143... ...
#Churchill Eisenhart, "Edward Uhler Condon," The Technical News Bulletin of the National Bureau of Standards, Dimensions 58(1974~:151. iBrittin and Odabasi, Topics in Modern Physics.
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From page 144... ...
Phys. = Reviews of Modern Physics Westinghouse Eng.
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From page 145... ...
USA, 14:871. 1929 Quantum mechanics of momentum space.
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From page 146... ...
Rev., 37:1025. Quantum mechanics of collision processes.
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From page 147... ...
Phys., 5:753. 1938 Mathematical models in modern physics.
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From page 148... ...
Phys., 11:502. Recent advances in nuclear physics.
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From page 149... ...
Phys., 15:365. (Retiring address as president of the American Physical Society, 19;46)
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From page 150... ...
. In: American Philosophical Society Memoirs, p.
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From page 151... ...
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 113:425.
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