History Of Physics Newsletter

Historyof Physics N E W S L E T T E R A F O R U M O F T H E A M E R I C A N P H Y S I C A L S O C I E T Y • V O L U M E X N O . 1 • FALL 2 0 0 6 Max Jammer Wins 2007 Pais Prize By Michael Nauenberg, Chair, Pais Prize Selection Committee I n early October, the American Physical Society and American Institute of Physics announced that Max Jammer has been named to receive the 2007 Pais Prize in History of Physics “for his groundbreaking historical studies of fundamental concepts in physics, including his comprehensive account of the development of quantum mechanics.” He joins Martin Klein and John Heilbron, who received this Forum-sponsored Prize in 2005 and 2006. He is the first winner of the Pais Prize — which was specifically intended to be awarded internationally — who is not a US citizen. Jammer was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1915. He studied physics and its history first at the University of Vienna and then at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he received his Ph.D. degree in 1942. After active service in the British Army during World War II, he lectured on the history and philosophy of science at the Hebrew University. In the early 1950s, while lecturing at Harvard, he wrote the first of his Max Jammer penetrating studies in the history of physics, Concepts of Space (Harvard University Press, 1954), which has a foreword by Albert Einstein. While serving as professor at the University of Oklahoma, he was invited to teach at Bar-Ilan University in Tel-Aviv, where he later served as Rector and President. He also participated in the founding of the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Tel-Aviv University and served as president of the Israeli Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the Académie Internationale d’Histoire des Sciences and has served on the editorial boards of several scientific journals. For his publications