@article{2862d1673fe34260abc4d64a8d5888ae,
title = "History of the New York University Physics Department",
abstract = "We trace the history of physics at New York University after its founding in 1831, focusing especially on its relatively recent history, which can be divided into five periods: the Gregory Breit period from 1929 to 1934; the prewar period from 1935 to 1941; the wartime period from 1942 to 1945; the postwar period from around 1961 to 1973 when several semiautonomous physics departments were united into a single all-university department under a single head; and after 1973 when the University Heights campus was sold to New York City and its physics department joined the one at the Washington Square campus. For each of these periods we comment on the careers and work of prominent members of the physics faculty and on some of the outstanding graduate students who later went on to distinguished careers at NYU and elsewhere.",
keywords = "Alfred Lee Loomis, Allan C.G. Mitchell, Allen V. Astin, Arthur Roberts, Bruno Zumino, Clifford G. Shull, Daniel Webster Hering, David B. Douglass, Edward O. Salant, Elias Loomis, Eugene Feenberg, Francis A. Jenkins, Francis Wheeler Loomis, Frederick Reines, Gerald Goertzel, Gregory Breit, Hartmut Kallmann, Henry Draper, Henry Primakoff, Henry Vethade, James Arthur Lectures, James M. Mathews, Jenny Rosenthal Bramley, John A. Simpson, John A. Wheeler, John C. Draper, John C. Hubbard, John H. Van Vleck, John William Draper, Louis P. Granath, Morton Hamermesh, New York University, Norman Hilberry, Otto Halpern, Richard T. Cox, Robert S. Mulliken, Robert W. Wood, Samuel F.B. Morse, Serge Korff, Stanley H. Klosk Lectures, Theodore Holstein, University Heights campus, Washington Square campus, history of physics",
author = "Benjamin Bederson and Stroke, {H. Henry}",
note = "Funding Information: We thank Roger H. Stuewer for his invaluable help in organizing the final version of our paper. We thank the NYU archivist Nancy Cricco for her help in providing access to the (sparse) information contained in the university archives. Thanks are also due to Nancy Greenberg, former Director of Sponsored Programs, for supplying us with some useful old records. We thank Peter Levy for a critical reading of the manuscript, and Dan Zwanziger for his help in getting the project started. Finally, we thank the Physics Department and its Chair, David Grier, for financial assistance. Funding Information: Korff{\textquoteright}s Counter Project and Cosmic Ray Project attracted numerous students to NYU; many later achieved prominence as physicists. The project also brought the university substantial funding from government agencies, such as the National Air and Space Agency and the National Science Foundation. Author of over 150 scientific papers and books, as well as a number of works on exploration, geology and stamps, Korff{\textquoteright}s contributions to science went beyond the study of cosmic rays…. Funding Information: An important ingredient in this process was the initiative the physics faculty took toward self-governance. Within the overall financial constraints imposed on the department by the University, matters of faculty appointments, tenure, educational and internal funding allocations (particularly of the NSF Development Grant), salaries, and duties, were determined by an elected Executive Council. A parallel Experimental Research Council with an appropriate charge was also established. This openness has served the department well, by now for over four decades.",
year = "2011",
month = sep,
doi = "10.1007/s00016-011-0056-7",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "13",
pages = "260--328",
journal = "Physics in Perspective",
issn = "1422-6944",
publisher = "Birkhauser Verlag Basel",
number = "3",
}