For the Irish nationalist, see Edward O'Meagher Condon.
Edward Condon
Edward Condon at NIST (c. 1945-1951)
Director of National Bureau of Standards
In office 1945–1951
President
Harry S. Truman
Preceded by
Lyman James Briggs
Succeeded by
Allen V. Astin
Personal details
Born
(1902-03-02)March 2, 1902 Alamogordo, New Mexico Territory, U.S.
Died
March 26, 1974(1974-03-26) (aged 72) Boulder, Colorado, U.S.
Education
University of California, Berkeley (BS, MS, PhD)
Known for
Condon–Shortley phase Franck–Condon principle Slater–Condon rules Nimatron Quantum tunneling theory of alpha decay Radar and nuclear weapons research Target of McCarthyism
Scientific career
Fields
Physics
Institutions
Columbia University
Princeton University
Westinghouse Electric Company
National Bureau of Standards
Washington University in St. Louis
University of Colorado Boulder
Thesis
On the theory of intensity distribution in band systems(1927)
Doctoral advisor
Raymond Thayer Birge
Doctoral students
Edwin McMillan
Other notable students
Walter Kauzmann (postdoc) James Stark Koehler (postdoc) Richard Zare (postdoc)
Edward Uhler Condon (March 2, 1902 – March 26, 1974) was an American nuclear physicist, a pioneer in quantum mechanics, and a participant during World War II in the development of radar and, very briefly, of nuclear weapons as part of the Manhattan Project. The Franck–Condon principle and the Slater–Condon rules are co-named after him.[1][2][3]
He was the director of the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) from 1945 to 1951. In 1946, Condon was president of the American Physical Society, and in 1953 was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
During the McCarthy period, Condon was one of the first prominent scientists to become a target of the House Un-American Activities Committee, charged publicly in 1948 with being "one of the weakest links in our atomic security" on account of his extensive knowledge of classified information, his connections with the development of the atomic bomb, and his alleged sympathies for communism and the Soviet Union. His case became a cause célèbre among those who opposed McCarthyism, especially scientists, and was one of the most prominent cases of its time, and he was defended by many prominent scientists, as well as President Harry Truman.[4]
Condon became widely known in 1968 as principal author of the Condon Report, an official review funded by the United States Air Force that concluded that unidentified flying objects (UFOs) have prosaic explanations. The lunar crater Condon is named for him.
^Edward Condon Archived November 5, 2013, at the Wayback Machine was elected as a member of the US National Academy of Sciences in 1944.
^"APS Fellow Archive". www.aps.org. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved April 22, 2018.
^Branscomb, Lewis M. (June 1974). "Edward Uhler Condon". Physics Today. 27 (6): 68–70. Bibcode:1974PhT....27f..68B. doi:10.1063/1.3128661.
Edward Uhler Condon (March 2, 1902 – March 26, 1974) was an American nuclear physicist, a pioneer in quantum mechanics, and a participant during World...
physicist EdwardCondon. The result of its work, formally titled Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects, and known as the Condon Report, appeared...
World's Fair to entertain fair-goers. Conceived of some months prior by EdwardCondon and built by Gerald L. Tawney and Willard A. Derr, the device was a...
closer scientific scrutiny. The result was the Condon Committee (1966–68), led by physicist EdwardCondon, and in their final report they formally concluded...
and physicist, who spent most of his career at Bell Labs. The son of EdwardCondon (a distinguished American nuclear physicist, pioneer in quantum mechanics...
Institute of Physics: EdwardCondon Archived 6 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine and American Philosophical Society –MOLE: Condon Archived 27 September...
Molecules in a Non-Homogeneous Electric Field" under the supervision of EdwardCondon. In 1932, McMillan was awarded a National Research Council fellowship...
In Munich, he found two more Americans, Howard Percy Robertson and EdwardCondon. Sommerfeld accepted Rabi as a postdoctoral researcher. German physicists...
of the Order of Australia in the General Division made to Mr Clinton EdwardCondon". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. Archived from the original on 11...
Columbia University from Isidor Isaac Rabi, Princeton University from EdwardCondon, University of Rochester from Lee DuBridge, Purdue University from Karl...
The notes from the lectures which became the Primer were written by EdwardCondon. The Los Alamos Primer was composed from five lectures given by the...
independently developed by George Gamow and by Ronald Wilfred Gurney and EdwardCondon in 1928, was hailed as a very striking confirmation of quantum theory...
the notable signatories of the call. Other notable figures such as EdwardCondon, Edris Rice-Wray Carson, and Martin Luther King Jr. endorsed it as well...
developed in 1928 by George Gamow and independently by Ronald Gurney and EdwardCondon. The latter researchers simultaneously solved the Schrödinger equation...
discussions of the feasibility of the fusion bomb, leading to arguments with Edward Teller. Although he had been cleared of any potential wrongdoing at a subsequent...
time–frequency analysis. In physics, this transform was introduced by EdwardCondon. This change of basis functions becomes possible because the Fourier...
Unforgettable in 2012. In 2019, Haaskivi appeared in a small role opposite Edward Norton in Motherless Brooklyn, directed by Norton. He would made a guest...
Edward Mills Purcell (August 30, 1912 – March 7, 1997) was an American physicist who shared the 1952 Nobel Prize for Physics for his independent discovery...
1969 after a study by the University of Colorado led by Edward U. Condon and known as the Condon Report concluded "that nothing has come from the study...
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