January 1996 Edition Schrieffer Focuses on Improving Communication, Science Education J. Robert Schrieffer The impact of electronic publishing on APS journals, science education reform, and improving communication between the physics community and the general public are issues of particular concern for the APS in the eyes of J. Robert Schrieffer, who begins his tenure as APS president this month. A professor of physics at the University of Florida, Schrieffer succeeds C. Kumar N. Patel of the University of California, Los Angeles. Schrieffer's interest in science developed early, with childhood interests in chemistry sets and ham radios. However, he didn't attend the standard physics class at his small high school in Illinois. The physics teacher there had minimal background in the subject, and, armed with a textbook used in MIT's introductory physics courses, he and Schrieffer pursued an independent course of study together. Ironically, Schrieffer initially intended to study electrical engineering in college, but switched his major to physics two years later. He received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois in 1957, specializing in the theory of superconductivity. After holding faculty appointments at the University of Illinois, University of Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania, he became Chancellor's Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he also served as director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics. In 1992 he was appointed University Professor at Florida State University, where he is also chief scientist of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. | |
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