54 Facts About Edward Condon

Edward Uhler Condon was an American nuclear physicist, a pioneer in quantum mechanics, and a participant during World War II in the development of radar and, very briefly, of nuclear weapons as part of the Manhattan Project.

Edward Condon was the fourth director of the National Bureau of Standards from 1945 to 1951.

In 1946, Edward Condon was president of the American Physical Society, and in 1953 was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Edward Condon's case became a cause celebre among those who opposed McCarthyism, especially scientists, and was one of the most prominent cases of its time, and he was defended by many prominent scientists, as well as President Harry Truman.

Edward Condon became widely known in 1968 as principal author of the Edward Condon Report, an official review funded by the United States Air Force that concluded that unidentified flying objects have prosaic explanations.

Edward Condon's father was supervising the construction of a narrow-gauge railroad, many of which were built in the area by logging companies.

Edward Condon then attended the University of California, Berkeley, initially joining the College of Chemistry; when he learned that his high school physics teacher had joined the faculty, he switched majors to take classes in theoretical physics.

Edward Condon earned his bachelor's degree in three years and his doctorate in two.

Thanks to a National Research Council fellowship, Edward Condon studied at Gottingen under Max Born and at Munich under Arnold Sommerfeld.

Edward Condon taught briefly at Columbia University and was associate professor of physics at Princeton University from 1928 to 1937, except for a year at the University of Minnesota.

Edward Condon was associate director of research at the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh, beginning in 1937, where he established research programs in nuclear physics, solid-state physics, and mass spectrometry.

Edward Condon then headed the company's research on microwave radar development.

Edward Condon worked on the equipment used to isolate uranium for use in atomic bombs.

Edward Condon served as a consultant to the National Defense Research Committee during World War II and helped organize MIT's Radiation Laboratory.

On May 11,1940, Edward Condon showcased his machine called the Nimatron at the 1940 New York World Fair.

Edward Condon filed for the patent on April 26,1940 and got it on September 24,1940 for his innovating machine, Nimatron.

From August 1943 to February 1945, Edward Condon worked as a part-time consultant at Berkeley on the separation of U-235 and U-238.

Edward Condon was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1944.

In June 1945, Edward Condon was among many prominent American scientists invited to attend a celebration of the 220th anniversary of the founding of the Russian Academy of Sciences to be held in Moscow.

Edward Condon worked as science adviser to Senator Brien McMahon, chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Atomic Energy, which wrote the McMahon-Douglas Act, enacted in August 1946, that created the Atomic Energy Commission, placing atomic energy under civilian control.

Edward Condon was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1947.

Edward Condon was president of the American Physical Society in 1946.

Edward Condon was either a member or associated with the Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions.

Edward Condon was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1949.

Edward Condon had no sympathy for the scientific community's international spirit in the first place and could use the ongoing controversy to argue for an increase in his committee's appropriation, to bolster opposition to the Condon-supported McMahon Act, and to attract favorable coverage during election season.

Nevertheless, a HUAC report dated March 2,1948 stated, "It appears that Dr Edward Condon is one of the weakest links in our atomic security".

Edward Condon responded: "If it is true that I am one of the weakest links in atomic security that is very gratifying and the country can feel absolutely safe for I am completely reliable, loyal, conscientious and devoted to the interests of my country, as my whole life and career clearly reveal".

The conduct of that committee on the Edward Condon case is typical.

Dr Edward Condon has been deliberately made a victim of popular hysteria against Russia.

Edward Condon has not been heard by the Un-American Activities Committee.

Edward Condon requested a hearing twice before, and again last week; but his requests have been denied.

In September 1948, at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, President Truman, with Edward Condon sitting nearby on the dais, denounced Rep.

Edward Condon opposed any cooperation with Congressional attempts to identify security risks within the scientific community.

Edward Condon criticized Thomas and the HUAC for holding closed hearings and then leaking information that denigrated his loyalty and that of other scientists.

Edward Condon said that the committee denied his and his colleagues' requests for public hearings so they could respond.

Edward Condon said his $14,000 annual government salary was his reason for the move.

Two Republican Congressmen asserted that Edward Condon was being investigated as a security risk and was leaving "under fire", a charge the Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer denied.

In 1951, Edward Condon served as president of the Philosophical Society of Washington.

The HUAC concluded in its annual report for 1952 that Edward Condon was unsuited for a security clearance because of his "propensity for associating with persons disloyal or of questionable loyalty and his contempt for necessary security regulations".

Five months later Edward Condon's clearance was revoked as was standard when someone left government service.

Edward Condon was granted a security clearance once more on July 12,1954.

Years later, Carl Sagan reported how Edward Condon described one encounter with a loyalty review board.

Edward Condon was professor of physics at Washington University in St Louis from 1956 to 1963 and then at the University of Colorado Boulder from 1963, where he was a fellow of the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, until retiring in 1970.

From 1966 to 1968, Edward Condon directed Boulder's UFO Project, known as the Edward Condon Committee.

Edward Condon was chosen for his eminence and his lack of any stated position on UFOs.

Edward Condon later wrote that he agreed to head the project "on the basis of appeals to duty to do a needed public service" on the part of the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

Blue Book was terminated at the end of 1969 - shortly after the Edward Condon Report reached the general public - and the latter work has been cited as a key factor in the generally low levels of interest in UFOs taken subsequently by mainstream scientists and academics.

Edward Condon was president of the American Institute of Physics and the American Association of Physics Teachers in 1964.

Edward Condon was President of the Society for Social Responsibility in Science and was Co-Chair of the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy.

Edward Condon co-edited the Handbook of Physics with Hugh Odishaw of the University of Arizona.

Edward Condon received the Frederic Ives Medal awarded by the Optical Society in 1968.

Edward Condon was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting a world constitution.

Edward Condon died on March 26,1974, twenty-four days after his 72nd birthday, in Boulder Colorado Community Hospital.

The Edward Condon Award recognizes distinguished achievements in written exposition in science and technology at NIST.