Panofsky on Physics, Politics, and Peace

Wolfgang K.H. "Pief" Panofsky, a German-American physicist received his bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1938 and obtained his PhD from Caltech in 1942. In the years 1945-1951, Panofsky held an assistant professorship at Berkeley, before permanently establishing himself as a Professor of Physics at Stanford. Between 1961 and 1984, he was the director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.

• School Time in Germany.- Transition to the United States and Undergraduate Life at Princeton University.- Graduate Study and War Work at Caltech.- Work at the University of California Radiation Laboratory.- Military Work at Berkeley and the Loyalty Oath.- Beginnings at Stanford.- Research and Teaching Before SLAC.- Science Advising and Arms Control: The Beginnings.- Establishing SLAC.- Building a Laboratory.- Physics and the Cold War.- Student Unrest at Stanford.- Fixed Target Research at SLAC.- New Facilities—Colliding Beams.- International High Energy Physics.- Advances in Accelerator-Based High-Energy Physics.- Science and Politics After Retirement.

From the reviews: "Panofsky on Physics, Politics and Peace is an autobiographical essay by a remarkable man. In it Wolfgang 'Pief' Panofsky relates highlights of his professional life: his accomplishments as a scientist, as a teacher, as the director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC, the great high-energy laboratory he built), and as an adviser to those making science, technology and weapons policy at both the national and the international level." (Silvan S. Schweber, American Scientist, June, 2008) "The worlds of high-energy physics and international security have been intimately intertwined since WW II, focusing mainly on production, control, and plans for the use of nuclear weapons. Understanding these connections is vital for anyone wishing to understand and participate in the national political scene. Much of that understanding can be obtained from this record of the life of a man ... . Valuable for scientists, politicians, citizens, and security analysts. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; lower- and upper-division undergraduates through professionals." (A. M. Saperstein, CHOICE, Vol. 45 (9), 2008)