F. Wheeler Loomis Papers, 1920-1976 | University of Illinois Archives

Description: Papers of Francis Wheeler Loomis (1889-1976), professor of physics and department head (1929-57) and Director of the Control Systems Laboratory (1952-59), including transcription & tapes of a Nov. 19, 1965 interview relating to his decision to come to Illinois, Milo Ketchum, Ward Rodebush, family background, Newton High School & Harvard, the development of modern physics, rebuilding & recruiting a faculty at Illinois, theoretical physicists, College of Engineering, Champaign-Urbana, cyclotrons, spectroscopy, P. Gerald Kruger, betatrons, Leland Haworth, Robert Serber, Donald Kerst, Gilberto Bernardini, Moritz Goldhaber, Polykarp Kusch, research at Bell Telephone & General Electric, World War I work in anti-aircraft ballistics, a sabbatical in England before World War II, the Radiation Laboratory at M.I.T., radar, staffing the Laboratory & writing its history, relations with industrial firms & the federal government, the atomic bomb project, Harold Mott-Smith, Louis Ridenour, the Control Systems Laboratory, Frederick Seitz & John Bardeen. The series includes correspondence (1932-33, 1945-76) for Loomis' work as Associate Director of Radiation Laboratory (1941-46) at M.I.T. & director of the Lincoln Laboratory (1951-52) at Cambridge, Mass. about administrative matters, Systems Laboratory, National Academy of Sciences (Section of Physics), the Naval Office of Ordnance Research & Operations Evaluation Group, the Oppenheimer security clearance case, cooperative curriculum development, a speech on "the future of Physics" (1949) and publication (1920-59) relating to atomic physics & molecular spectroscopy (1920-40), Louis N. Ridenour, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (1950), management of research institutions & the Radiation Laboratory.