Special Events

Photos from American Physical Society Plaque Dedication Ceremony Honoring the work of Profs. Bloch and Hofstadter

Date
Wed November 8th 2017, 2:00pm
Location
Varian Physics courtyard
Photos from American Physical Society Plaque Dedication Ceremony Honoring the work of Profs. Bloch and Hofstadter

On November 8, 2017, the American Physical Society Historic Sites Committee honored our late Stanford Physics Professors Felix Bloch and Robert Hofstadter for the historic work they did at Stanford.  A ceremony was held in the courtyard of the Varian Physics building, where an historic plaque was unveiled and dedicated near their former offices in Varian Physics.  Provost Persis Drell and Senior Associate Dean for the Natural Sciences Kathryn Moler spoke, as did Laure Greene  of the American Physical Society.  We were honored to have some members of the Bloch and Hofstadter families in attendance.  A number of Physics faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends and colleagues of the Physics department attended this historic event.  The plaque reads as follows:  "In laboratories near this site, several significant events in the history of physics took place.  In 1946, Felix Bloch and his collaborators discovered nuclear magnetic resonance, a crucial tool of modern medicine and science.  During 1954-7, Robert Hofstadter and his collaborators conducted nuclear structure experiments that established the size of the proton and neutron for the first time."  A celebratory reception was held in the Physics/Astrophysics Building next door to the Physics Main Office immediately following the dedication ceremony.