Materials Research Activities

Report by an ad hoc group of the Solid State Advisory Panel of the Office of Naval Research, October 1957

Solid State Physics in 1957

Report by an ad hoc group of the Solid State Advisory Panel of the Office of Naval Research, October 1957

In October 1957, the US Office of Naval Research released a report by an ad hoc group of its Solid State Advisory Panel, entitled Solid State Physics Research, Performance and Promise. It gives an overview of the field and argues that fundamental research needs increased support for the purpose of military device development. A "major and vital part of this research is government-supported work in universities and government laboratories." The document reflects the dominance circa 1957 of the so-called linear model: that pure science lead to applied science and technology.

The entire document is reproduced here. You can browse from page to page in small, medium, or large resolution.

Appendices:

  1. Semiconductors and Research
  2. Ferrites, Magnetic Resonance, and Magnetism
  3. Dielectrics and Ferroelectrics
  4. Luminescence and Photoconductivity
  5. High Temperature Electronic Materials
  6. Annealing of the Radiation Damage of the Graphite in the Brookhaven Reactor
  7. Basic Research on Properties of Metals and Alloys at High Temperatures and Basic Research on Refractory Systems
  8. Isotopic Enrichment of Crystals and Neutron Diffraction and Growth of Very Pure Crystals
  9. Statistics on Government Support of Solid State Research
  10. Composition of the ad hoc Study Group

This page was last updated on 30 December 2002 by Arne Hessenbruch.