Physics in the 1970s
1970
Ralph O. Simmons, a former Rhodes scholar and one of the only two Illinois Physics PhDs on the faculty, becomes head on Gerry Almy's retirement. Assistant Professor Lorella M. Jones, who arrived at Illinois as an assistant professor in 1968, is promoted to associate professor, the first woman to receive tenure in the department.
1972
John Bardeen, former Illinois postdoc Leon Cooper, and former Illinois graduate student J. Robert Schrieffer [PhD, 1957]) win the Nobel Prize in Physics for the BCS theory of superconductivity. The prize is an unprecedented second Nobel for Bardeen.
Icko Iben, who earned his PhD in physics at Illinois in 1958, arrives as head of the Department of Astronomy, and a program in theoretical astrophysics is begun jointly with Physics. Theorists Gordon Baym, Frederick Lamb, Vijay Pandharipande, Christopher Pethick, David Pines, and D. Geoffrey Ravenhall will make important contributions to astrophysics as a result of the fertile collaborative environment between Astronomy and Physics.
1973
The department puts new emphasis on problems of society, upon communicating with nonscientists, and upon broadening the professional training offered to its students. Professor David Lazarus creates a new course, "Physics and the Modern World" for nonscience majors in an attempt to bridge the "two-culture gap" by covering basic philosophical concepts in physics that pervade all human disciplines—model-making, dynamics, ensemble behavior, and symmetry.
1977
Alumna Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (PhD, '45) receives the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones.
1978
Lorella M. Jones is promoted to full professor, the first woman to achieve that departmental distinction.
General Lew Allen, Jr. (MS '52, PhD, '54) becomes the tenth chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
