Recent Posts in Particle Physics

Oppenheimer and Los Alamos: Beyond the Movie

By Gordon Baym

I imagine that a good number of you have seen the movie, Oppenheimer, which focusses on the remarkable character of J. Robert Oppenheimer, and especially on the confrontations at the 1954 Atomic Energy Commission hearings

25th Anniversary and Patio Dedication with George Stranahan, Michael Cohen, and Robert Anderson

The Founding of the Aspen Center for Physics

By George Stranahan

In 1957 I theorized that if a guy with three kids going to graduate school in Pittsburgh on the GI Bill could rent a house plus jeep in Aspen for three summer months at $400, he’d be a damn fool for not getting outta town. Part of the theory was that, since paper and pencil […]

Catalog Number: Reeder Donald D1 Aspen, Colorado, 1972, Fermilab Program Advisory Committee week-long meeting. L-R: June Steingart, Oakland, CA artist and teacher (Mrs. Owen Chamberlain to be); Donald Reeder, University of Wisconsin (walking), Owen Chamberlain, UC Berkeley, Nobel Laureate (seated); James Walker, Fermilab (red pants). Scanned from the J. D. Jackson Slide Collection No. J48. Credit: Photograph by J.D. Jackson, courtesy AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives, J. D. Jackson Collection

Particle Physics: The Early Years

By Loyal (Randy) Durand

The early program at the Center (then the Physics Division of the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies) was very informal. There were no organized workshops, and people came when it fit their schedules and housing was available...

Particle Physics History

By Howard Haber and Joseph Lykken

It started small: a few dozen physicists making their way to Aspen in the summer, with plenty of time to think and discuss but no formal program. It wasn't a conference or a school; it was a new way for theoretical physicists from around the world to get together and interact.

The First 35 Years

By Jeremy Bernstein

I made my first visit to the Aspen Center for Physics in June of 1969. The Center had been in operation since the summer of 1962 and from the beginning one of its founders, Michael Cohen, had been urging me to apply for a visit. There was a selection committee.