Physics at Cornell University

Ever since Cornell University first opened its doors in the fall of 1868, physics has been taught here. Physics Professor Eli W. Blake, who taught at Cornell from 1867 to 1870, was among Cornell's first faculty. William A. Anthony, who was considered an innovator, came to Cornell in 1872. Anthony promoted the demonstration lecture, still the mainstay of physics courses.

Many consider Anthony's arrival as the "real" beginning of the physics department at Cornell. With his assistant , Professor Moler, Anthony built a Gramme ring-armature dynamo. The dynamo was the prized exhibit at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 and was used to power arc lamps that lighted the Cornell campus. It was "one of the first" dynamos built in this country and Cornell's out-door electric lighting was the first of its kind in this country, probably the first anywhere. Anthony also constructed a mammoth tangent galvanometer, a device utilizing the earth's magnetic field for the measurement of current. The galvanometer was housed in the "magnetic observatory". In order to avoid magnetic materials, the magnetic observatory was constructed using copper nails and it even had a copper stove. The galvanometer was the best of its day and a source of pride to the department. In 1885, Cornell shared with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology the honor of having the first electrical engineering course in this country. Cornell granted the country's first PhD in Electrical Engineering in 1885.

In 1892-3 Professors Edward L. Nichols and Ernest Merritt were instrumental in creating , with an annual appropriation of $2400 from the trustees of Cornell, the Physical Review. The Physical Review was the first American journal devoted to physics. Nichols and Merritt served as editors until 1913, when the journal was self-supporting and the American Physical Society assumed sole responsibility for the publication of the Physical Review. Frederick Bedell, who was the recipient in 1892 of the first PhD in physics awarded at Cornell, also served on the editorial board of the Physical Review. The first issue of the Physical Review appeared in July-August of 1893, and was a mere 80 pages long. When first published, the Physical Review was a bi-monthly publication. Beginning with Volume 5 in 1897, it became a monthly publication. The annual subscription was $5 in 1897, $15 in 1943, and $1,000 in 1993.

The American Physical Society was formed in New York City in 1899. Ernest G. Merritt, head of the physics department at Cornell was the first secretary of the group and served in that capacity for many years.

Physics was first housed in Morrill Hall, but moved in 1869 to a new wooden building on the site where the northern section of Goldwin Smith Hall now stands. In 1872 the physics department moved to McGraw Hall and in 1873 moved again to White Hall. Franklin Hall (now known as Tjaden), was completed in 1884 and the physics department moved to the basement and first floor of the new building. A wooden annex was added to accommodate expanded laboratory instruction. This was the first real laboratory of the physics department and it was proclaimed that the equipment for physics was the finest in the country. When the chemistry department moved to Morse Hall in 1891, the physics department had all of Franklin Hall.

Gifts of $150,00 for construction and $100,000 for maintenance from John D. Rockefeller were matched by seven well-wishers, and Rockefeller Hall was built. When it opened in 1906, Rockefeller Hall was the largest and best-equipped physics laboratory in America. The attic of Rockefeller Hall was used for chemistry laboratory classes between the time that Morse Hall burned in 1916 and Baker Laboratory was completed in 1921.

One interesting example of the research conducted by the physics department at Cornell is the Aurora Borealis Project. Carl Gartlein's interest in the aurora led to the formation of an observational program for Northern United States and Southern Canada in 1938. The project was under the sponsorship of the National Geographical Society. Volunteer observers from amateur and professional astronomical societies and some U.S. Weather Bureau Stations fed data to the Visual Aurora Subcenter World Data Center A, of which Dr. Gartlein was director from 1938-1957. The program was still active when Gartlein met an untimely death in the 1960's. Dr. Gartlein also was a member of the Technical Panel on the Upper Atmosphere of the Polar Research Committee of the National Academy of Sciences. During the International Geophysical Year 1957-58, Dr. Gartlein flew to Antarctica to help with the Visual Observation of the Aurora project.

In 1945, the Laboratory of Nuclear Studies and Engineering Physics was established. President Day proposed the construction of a nuclear laboratory and Floyd R. Newman (Cornell '12), donated one million dollars for construction. The Newman Laboratory of Nuclear Studies was dedicated in October of 1948. It is believed that Newman Laboratory was the first building on the Cornell campus to be air conditioned. Electronic equipment suffers ill effects from humidity. Robert R. Wilson, former chief of experimental physics at Los Alamos was named director. Funding for a 300 MeV synchrotron came from the Office of Naval Research in 1949. A 1.1GeV synchrotron was built at the Laboratory of Nuclear Studies in 1952-3. It was followed by a 3.3 GeV machine. The Wilson Synchrotron Laboratory with its 10 GeV syrchrotron was dedicted in October, 1968. The current director of Newman Laboratory is Professor James Alexander.

To be in a better position to address opportunities for the future in particle physics and X-ray science, the Laboratory of Elementary Particle Physics (LEPP) and the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) combined in 2006 to become the Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-based Sciences and education (CLASSE).  Maury Tigner, the Hans A. Behte Professor of Physics Emeritus and former director of LEPP will chair the directorate of the new organization.

Cornell was one of the first universities to recognize solid-state physics as a distinct subdivision of physics. Rapid growth in research in the area of solid-state physics by the Department of Physics led to the establishment of the Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics (LASSP) in 1959. Professor R. L. Sproull was the first director and Professor Dan Ralph is the current director.

A departmental library was maintained by the physics department until 1965 when the new Physical Sciences Library combined materials from astronomy, chemistry and physics at one location.

In 1887, Professor Edward L. Nichols and Assistant Professor Moler were able to meet the physics course needs of Cornell's 1,000 students. By 1905, the department consisted of 2 Professors, 4 Assistant Professors and 10 instructors and assistants. Today the department has 58 faculty, including emeritus, 36 post doctoral researchers and associate researchers, 203 graduate students and 55 undergraduate majors. The current Chairman of the Physics Department is Professor Saul Teukolsky.