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| - Edward Uhler Condon (March 2, 1902 – March 26, 1974) was a distinguished American nuclear physicist, a pioneer in quantum mechanics, a participant in the development of radar and nuclear weapons in World War II, research director of Corning Glass, director of the National Bureau of Standards, and president of the American Physical Society (as well as, late in his life, professor of physics at the University of Colorado, where he directed a controversial Air Force-funded scientific study of UFOs). Recently featured: Galileo Galilei – James Chadwick – Paul Davies
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| - Edward Uhler Condon (March 2, 1902 – March 26, 1974) was a distinguished American nuclear physicist, a pioneer in quantum mechanics, a participant in the development of radar and nuclear weapons in World War II, research director of Corning Glass, director of the National Bureau of Standards, and president of the American Physical Society (as well as, late in his life, professor of physics at the University of Colorado, where he directed a controversial Air Force-funded scientific study of UFOs). He was born in Alamogordo, New Mexico, United States, and earned a Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley in 1926. In 1943, Condon joined the Manhattan Project; however, within six weeks, he resigned as a result of conflicts with General Leslie R. Groves, the project's military leader. Condon was one of the physicists whose loyalty to the United States was challenged by members of Congress — including Congressman Richard M. Nixon, who called for the revocation of his security clearance — in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The superpatriotic chairman of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), Rep. J. Parnell Thomas, would call the physicist "Dr. Condom," the "weakest link" in American security, and even the "missing link." In 1948, U.S. President Harry Truman — at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and with Condon sitting beside him — denounced Rep. Thomas and HUAC on the grounds that vital scientific research "may be made impossible by the creation of an atmosphere in which no man feels safe against the public airing of unfounded rumors, gossip and vilification." He called HUAC's activities "the most un-American thing we have to contend with today. It is the climate of a totalitarian country." Carl Sagan, once a student of Condon, documented Condon's own account of being brought up before a loyalty review board: "Dr. Condon, it says here that you have been at the forefront of a revolutionary movement in physics called" — and here the inquisitor read the words slowly and carefully — "quantum mechanics. It strikes this hearing that if you could be at the forefront of one revolutionary movement...you could be at the forefront of another." More info... Recently featured: Galileo Galilei – James Chadwick – Paul Davies [[Scientists Wiki:Today's featured article/|Archive]] - More featured articles...
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