Available:*
Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | EB000956 | EB 000956 | Electronic Book | 1:EBOOK | Searching... |
On Order
Summary
Summary
This book is not only an autobiography of the respected physicist and director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, but a discussion and analysis of issues critical to the relationship between independent academic inquiry and imposed government orthodoxy. The book describes each phase of Dr. Panofsky's career in a way that clarifies the nature of the issues surrounding his work, and explains his chosen course of action.
Author Notes
Wolfgang K.H. "Pief" Panofsky, a German-American physicist received his bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1938 and obtained his PhD from Caltech in 1942. In the years 1945-1951, Panofsky held an assistant professorship at Berkeley, before permanently establishing himself as a Professor of Physics at Stanford. Between 1961 and 1984, he was the director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.
Reviews 1
Choice Review
The worlds of high-energy physics and international security have been intimately intertwined since WW II, focusing mainly on production, control, and plans for the use of nuclear weapons. Understanding these connections is vital for anyone wishing to understand and participate in the national political scene. Much of that understanding can be obtained from this record of the life of a man who was a major contributor to all of these activities. Panofsky was a brilliant physicist who was involved in the Manhattan Project that produced the first nuclear bombs. He helped create a major accelerator center that was and is a mainstay of the new world of high-energy nuclear physics. He was a gifted researcher and teacher. He was an understanding friend of "radical" students and a mainstay of the US government's attempts to control nuclear weapons. He was a government adviser as well as a critic of many of its policies, and a participant in many international organizations concerned with these vital issues. This is not an autobiography, but rather a "record" of the professional life of Pief Panofsky, who died in 2007. Valuable for scientists, politicians, citizens, and security analysts. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; lower- and upper-division undergraduates through professionals. A. M. Saperstein Wayne State University