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Berkeley and Its Physics Heritage

Abstract.

I first sketch the settlement of Berkeley, California, the founding of the University of California at Berkeley, and the origin of its Department of Physics. I then discuss the pivotal role that Ernest O. Lawrence (1901–1958) and his invention and subsequent development of the cyclotron played in physics at Berkeley after his arrival there in 1928 through the Second World War and beyond. I close by commenting on the Lawrence Hall of Science, the educational center and science museum conceived as a living memorial to Lawrence.

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Correspondence to Per F. Dahl.

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Dahl, P.F. Berkeley and Its Physics Heritage. Phys. perspect. 8, 90–101 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-005-0252-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-005-0252-4

Keywords.

  • Ernest O. Lawrence
  • John H. Lawrence
  • John LeConte
  • Raymond T. Birge
  • Merle A.Tuve
  • Edwin M. McMillan
  • Luis Alvarez
  • University of California at Berkeley
  • Radiation Laboratory
  • Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
  • Lawrence Hall of Science
  • cyclotron
  • nuclear physics