Edward Condon
Edward Uhler Condon (born March 2, 1902 in Alamogordo , New Mexico , † March 26, 1974 in Boulder , Colorado ) was an American physicist . The Franck-Condon principle is named after him.
During the Second World War he worked in the field of atomic energy and radar . From 1945 to 1951 he was director of the National Bureau of Standards . In 1946 Condon became President of the American Physical Society , and in 1953 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science .
In the McCarthy era , Edward Condon came before the Committee for Un-American Activities on the grounds that, as a “follower” of quantum mechanics, he could also represent other “revolutionary” (meaning Stalinist) theories. Edward Condon defended himself with a now famous commitment to physics.
The lunar crater Condon is named after him.
Condon Committee
From 1966 onwards, at the request of the Air Force, Condon led a scientific research team at the University of Colorado to study UFOs . Condon applied for additional funding, which was also granted, but the group's work was discontinued after two years.
The work of the Condon group ended in a small scientific scandal: In the summary of the final report, Condon wrote that his team had found neither signs of the presence of extraterrestrial life forms nor other phenomena that could not be scientifically explained. This finding fits in with Condon's public statements years before the project was officially closed, but not so well with the content of the report itself: 33 of 59 cases examined were resolved. One of these declarations was, for example, that this was "a natural phenomenon that had not been observed either before or after".
With the help of James McDonald, a memorandum from Condon's administrative assistant Robert Low got to the press. Accordingly, the investigation should maintain the appearance of objectivity, but only come to the conclusion, which the Air Force agrees, that there are no UFOs. Condon fired several of the staff responsible for this publication.
Thornton Page wrote after the report on the project was published in the American Journal of Physics that Condon's conclusions "do not follow logically from the data." The chairman of the UFO committee of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Joachim Küttner , expressed a similar opinion .
In the scientific journal 'Science' the Condon project was even referred to as the "Heavenly Bay of Pigs Landing" (referring to the invasion of Cuba supported by the US secret service).
Despite the accusations, the personal integrity of Edward Condon was never questioned, nor by the physicists and other scientists (such as James McDonald or J. Allen Hynek ) who studied the UFO problem.
Years later, the project's psychologist, David Saunders, wrote a book about the work of the Condon Group, in which he suspected a connection between Condon's behavior and his opposition to the later US President Richard Nixon - from the McCarthy era.
Memberships
In 1944, Condon was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences . In 1947 he was accepted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1949 he became an elected member of the American Philosophical Society . Since 1928 he was a fellow of the American Physical Society .
literature
- Edward U. Condon, et al .: The theory of atomic spectra. Univ. Press, Cambridge 1953
- Edward U. Condon: Handbook of physics. McGraw-Hill, New York 1958
- Edward U. Condon / Daniel S. Gillmor (Eds.): Final report of the scientific study of unidentified flying objects. Dutton, New York 1969. Online version at www.avia-it.com
- Edward U. Condon, et al .: Selected scientific papers of EU Condon. Springer, New York 1990, ISBN 0-387-97420-2
- Curtis Peebles : Watch the Skies: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth , New York (Berkley Books, pp.) 1995. ISBN 0-425-15117-4 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Edward Condon in the catalog of the German National Library
- Lecture by Condon on "Sixty Years of Quantum Physics" (1960)
- Edward U. Condon Papers @ the American Philosophical Society
- Oral History Transcript - Edward U. Condon @ aip.org
- Edward Condon @ The Array of Contemporary American Physicists
Individual evidence
- ↑ SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS @ ncas.org, accessed October 24, 2010
- ↑ Illobrand von Ludwiger : The state of the UFO research
- ↑ American Journal of Physics. Vol. 37, October 1969, pp. 1071-1072
- ^ Aeronautics and Astronautics. November 1970, pp. 49/51
- ^ Letter from D. Greenberg in Science . Vol. 162, October 25, 1968
- ↑ Saunders & Harkins: UFOs? Yes! - Where the Condon Committee went wrong
- ^ Member Directory: Edward Condon. National Academy of Sciences, accessed November 27, 2015 .
- ^ Members of the American Academy. Listed by election year, 1900-1949 ( PDF ). Retrieved October 11, 2015
- ^ Member History: Edward U. Condon. American Philosophical Society, accessed June 25, 2018 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Condon, Edward |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Condon, Edward Uhler (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American physicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 2, 1902 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Alamogordo , New Mexico |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 26, 1974 |
| Place of death | Boulder , Colorado |