Aug 1, 2017
San Diego Meeting of the Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and participating societies : August 9th to 12th, 1916 : preliminary announcement by the Executive Committee of the Pacific Division
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San Diego Meeting of the Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and participating societies : August 9th to 12th, 1916 : preliminary announcement by the Executive Committee of the Pacific Division
On 20 May 1899, a group of physicists gathered at Columbia University to revolutionise the study of physics in the United States. Together they would form The American Physical Society, the first organisation of its kind.
Prior to this point, physics was considered a meagre profession in America. In contrast to their counterparts in Europe, American universities valued technological triumphs over abstract research, and refused to provide physicists with much funding. With their colleagues across the Atlantic discovering electrons and X-rays, these 36 physicists decided that something needed to be done.
The society was born soon after. Its first president, Henry Rowland, was renowned for his work on diffraction gratings, and set the society on its path to success.
Image credit: Henry Augustus Rowland (November 27, 1848 – April 16, 1901) and his dividing engine from Popular Science Monthly, September 1903. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.