NBS Goes West: JILA and the Boulder Labs Lewis Branscomb University of California, San Diego*   Friday, Dec. 14, 2007 Special Time--1:00 p.m. Boulder Auditorium VTC to Red Auditorium in Gaithersburg

Fifty years ago Lewis Branscomb (then chief of the Atomic Physics Section at NBS) and Dick Thomas (NBS staff at CU's High Altitude Observatory) met at the IAU general assembly in Moscow. They conceived the idea of Laboratory Astrophysics—a fusion of radiative transfer theory and atomic and molecular dynamics. The idea was to build a scientific foundation for understanding all hot gases out of thermodynamic equilibrium, including astronomical bodies and lasers. The conclusion:  leave  NBS and go to a university setting.  How Allen Astin responded to their  idea of leaving NBS, how Boulder came to be the site, why the organizational structure of JILA was so scientifically successful, and how the relationship with both Boulder Labs and the University evolved will be the story in this bit of NBS history. No other scientific institution so successfully combines the best strengths of government and academia.  

*Dr. Branscomb is currently adjunct professor at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the  University of California (San Diego), a research associate at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and professor emeritus at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.  He was vice-president and chief scientist at IBM, 1972-86, and the director of NBS, 1969-72.

Anyone outside NIST wishing to attend must be sponsored by a NIST employee and receive a visitor badge. For more information, call Kum J. Ham at 301-975-4203.

Colloquia are videotaped and available in the NIST Research Library.