Aspen Center for Physics
The Aspen Center for Physics (ACP) is a physics research facility based in Aspen , Colorado , in the heart of the Rocky Mountains . The center has the function of promoting the dialogue between physicists who work in research. Conferences and workshops are organized for this purpose.
The ACP is a non-profit organization that was created by physicists for physicists. The center was founded in 1962 by physicist George Stranahan, Michael Cohen from the University of Pennsylvania, and Robert W. Craig, then director of the Aspen Institute . The idea came to Strahnahan, a former brewery owner, while he was writing his dissertation in Aspen.
The Aspen Center for Physics is primarily financed by the National Science Foundation. The center has only a lean administration and is run by an honorary board of 80 members and a board of trustees of nine.
history
In 1961, two physicists, George Stranahan of the Carnegie Institute of Technology and Michael Cohen of the University of Pennsylvania, suggested that the Aspen Institute create a unique research center for physicists for the summer season. It should be a free work environment where physicists could freely research, detached from their usual tasks and responsibilities. The head of the Aspen Institute at the time was immediately enthusiastic about the idea, especially since the mission of his institute is to combine science and humanism in the spirit of Goethe . A first building was erected on a property owned by the Aspen Institute in the west end of the city of Aspen and opened in 1962. In a few years the APC had gained worldwide renown and in 1968 it became an independent non-profit organization.
Programs
The ACP offers programs for physicists and the interested public.
The summer program for physicists from mid-May to mid-September is rather unstructured and enables individual research and collaboration in small groups. There are numerous conferences and seminars in the winter program from January to March. The participants come from all areas of physics, there are professors, researchers, theoretical physicists and experimental physicists. Over 10,000 physicists from 65 countries have already been to the ACP and more than 50% of all Nobel Prize winners in physics in recent years have taken part here.
Freely accessible lectures are held for the interested public in summer and winter. Talks and discussions are organized, also combined with picnics in the countryside. There are events for children and care programs for high school students. The Physics Cafe also enables individual discussions with physicists in winter.
Out of season (from April to mid-May and from mid-September to December) the conference rooms can be rented for events.
The attachment
The facility consists of three low, elongated Bauhaus-style buildings on a plot of more than 17,000 square meters and within walking distance of the center of Aspen. There is an auditorium for 100 people and a seminar room for 40 people. Smaller meeting and break rooms, 43 spartan double offices for researchers and a library complete the space. In the spacious inner courtyard there is seating and a picnic or barbecue area. "No kilometer-long particle accelerators, no experiments worth millions, no computer clusters filling halls: and yet one of the great meccas of physics."
literature
- Hilmar Schmundt, Miloš Vec, Hildegard Westphal (eds.), Mekkas der Moderne - pilgrimage sites of the knowledge society . Cologne 2010.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dennis Overbye: In Aspen, Physics on a High Plane . In: The New York Times , August 28, 2001. Retrieved January 1, 2013.
- ↑ a b About Us . Aspen Center for Physics. Retrieved January 1, 2013.
- ^ History . Aspen Center for Physics. Retrieved January 1, 2013.
- ^ Science for Science's Sake . Aspen Daily News. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
- ↑ Get Smart . The Aspen Times. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
- ↑ Ulrich Schollwöck: Summit storms of physics in: Sciencegarden. Magazine for young research. July 9, 2010.