Physicist Robert Oppenheimer with his horse, Crisis, at his New Mexico ranch in 1940. 🐎 📷 Photo by Katherine "Kitty" Oppenheimer, wife of Robert. Courtesy of AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives

Emilio Segrè (left), namesake of our visual archives, sips tea with Homi J. Bhabha (right), who has been called the “master builder of nuclear India.” 📸AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Segrè Collection

When you do your job so well that 60 years later some poor archivist has to spend 3 hours alphabetizing your fan mail... AIP's popular Placement Service, which helped match physics jobseekers to employers, ran from 1946-1978. Collection finding aid: https://history.aip.org/ead/20250576.html

Happy International Museum Day! https://www.aip.org/library/museum-tour

In this new interview for @aiphistory.bsky.social I talked with physicist Shohini Ghose about her research on hidden histories of women in science, archival evidence, and why storytelling matters in teaching physics and astronomy. www.aip.org/library/ex-l...

Physicist Shohini Ghose reflects on the women scientists whose groundbreaking work transformed our understanding of the universe while often remaining unrecognized in the historical record in her book "Her Space, Her Time." Read our interview: https://bit.ly/4ubGXow

For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, @aiphistory.bsky.social shares reading recommendations for all ages, from memoirs of physicists and astronomers to children’s books. www.aip.org/library/ex-l...

Extremely proud to say that my new @physicstoday.aip.org feature article is live. In it, I explore the history and context of the rare interviews with J. Robert Oppenheimer recently made public by @aiphistory.bsky.social. physicstoday.aip.org/features/opp...

Ahmed Zewail (1946-2016) was a chemist known for his pioneering work on femtochemistry. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1999, making him the first Egyptian to receive a science Nobel Prize. 📷© Christian Brun / EPFL, courtesy AIP ESVA, PT Collection #ArabAmericanHeritageMonth

April 26 – May 2, 2026 is Preservation Week - an important time to reflect on our oral history interview collection! 🎤 https://www.aip.org/library/ex-libris-universum/preservation-week-a-reflection-on-interviewing-early-career-women-physicists

Maha Ashour-Abdalla (1943-2016) was a physicist and astronomer who spent much of her career teaching at UCLA. She founded UCLA’s Center for Digital Innovation in 1999, as well as the UCLA Space Plasma Simulation Group. 📷 Courtesy UCLA Newsroom. #ArabAmericanHeritageMonth #WomeninPhysics

The new open access volume "Archives of Science: Challenges and Opportunities in the 21st Century," confronts a central question: How can archives keep pace with the evolving practices of science? Check out @tjowens.bsky.social's interview with ed. Polina Ilieva: https://bit.ly/4sYPSrU

Munir Nayfeh (b. 1945) is a particle physicist best known for his pioneering work in nanotechnology. 📷 Nayfeh (right) examines the experimental setup used in the one-atom detection at Oak Ridge. ORNL, courtesy AIP ESVA #ArabAmericanHeritageMonth

Research for this post began with a sense that most celebrations of Asian and Asian American history often leave out South Asians. The author found a fascinating history of South Asian scientists not just making contributions to but often leading the way in 20th century physics. bit.ly/4mP0iJa

“If indeed no worldwide action to reduce fossil fuel use would be taken, it might be better to focus research on how best to live with the consequences rather than, like Cassandra, deliver prophecies no one believes.” - William Elliot, 1977 #EarthDay #climatechange Listen now https://bit.ly/4cnFjcV

Last week, @aiphistory.bsky.social announced it would provide open access to 3 interviews w/J. Robert Oppenheimer. In today's #histSTM & #physics lunchtime read, @wellerstein.bsky.social shares his initial reactions to these oral histories: www.aip.org/history/well... 🗃️📜

📚Celebrate National Library Week and Right to Read Day with us! This year’s theme is 🌟Find Your Joy 🌟 Learn more at https://bit.ly/43D9Dtw 📷 Mrs. Mendenhall [Susan Allan Marple] reading in garden of hotel in Lugano, Switzerland. AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives.

Digitizing the Legacy of Women in Physics: Genesis Boykin and the Gloria Lubkin Papers www.aip.org/foundation/d... ⚛️ @aiphistory.bsky.social @aip.bsky.social @physicstoday.aip.org

Mostafa El-Sayed (b. 1933 in Zifta, Egypt) is a US Medal of Science laureate known for his work in physical chemistry and nanoscience. He created the El-Sayed rule for phosphorescence and similar phenomena. 📷 Elledw - CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons #ArabAmericanHeritageMonth #HistoryofPhysics

Get a behind-the-scenes look at the materials on display at Dr. Elise Crull's Trimble Lecture on Hertha Sponer, including a newly rediscovered lecture transcript! https://bit.ly/3QtxHNb #WomeninSTEM #WomensHistory #HistoryofPhysics 📷 AIP ESVA, Lisa Lisco

Hassan Aref (1950-2011) specialized in fluid mechanics and was the Reynolds Metals Professor in the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Tech. 📷 Photograph by Joanne Ford, courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, PT Collection. #ArabAmericanHeritageMonth #HistoryofPhysics

Astronomer Kent Ford was born #OTD in 1931. He is best known for his pioneering work on imaging tubes for capturing astronomical data electronically, and for his collaborations with Vera Rubin that helped build the case for the existence of Dark Matter. 🧪 ⚛️ 🔭 Image: Michael Lucibella / APS

In 2023, AIP acquired the records of the long-time editor for Physics Today, Gloria Lubkin. This post takes a look at her seminal trip to China in 1979. https://www.aip.org/library/ex-libris-universum/into-the-gloria-lubkin-papers-a-behind-the-scenes-look-at-her-reporting-in-china-for-physics-today

Omar Yaghi was one of three chemists awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize“for the development of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs).” (ACA) 📷 Christopher Michel - CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons #ArabAmericanHeritageMonth #HistoryofPhysics

🌈🌈 Here’s your sign to go find a rainbow today🌈🌈 📷 A rainbow over Sir Isaac Newton's home and his famous apple tree at Woolsthorpe Manor, England. Photograph by Roy Bishop, Acadia University, courtesy of AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives. #NationalFindARainbowDay #HistoryofPhysics #Archives

This is the first English language article about Irina Zaslavskaya, a Ukrainian physicist who bravely protested the KGB in the 1960s and faced dire consequences. https://www.aip.org/library/ex-libris-universum/who-was-irina-zaslavskaya

To close out Women's History Month, in today's AIP History Weekly Edition we look at The Observatory Pinafore. The satire offers a window into how women's roles at the observatory changed between its writing in 1879 and performance in 1929-30—a remarkable narrative of opportunity and frustration.

A close look at the oral history interviews of chemical engineer Paula Hammond, biomedical engineer Anjelica Gonzalez, and physicist Shirley Ann Jackson https://www.aip.org/library/ex-libris-universum/in-her-own-words-black-women-scientists-reflect-on-meaningful-accomplishments

A little #ThrowbackThursday to Thursday of last week, when we celebrated Women’s History Month with a librarian and archivist-led AIP Wikipedia edit-a-thon focusing on women in the physical sciences, with special training by Wikimedia DC!

🌟Women in Science Spotlight: Sau Lan Wu 🌟 Sau Lan Wu (1940-) is a Chinese-American particle physicist who played a part in three major discoveries: the charm quark, the gluon, and the Higgs boson. Learn more about her life & accomplishments in spite of growing up in poverty: https://bit.ly/4uwOWwG

What can a person's books tell you about their life? Quite a bit, as it turns out! Check out this blog post on our reflections on processing physicist and historian Sam Schweber's library, which is now part of the AIP Niels Bohr Library & Archives: https://www.aip.org/library/a-life-in-books

From the AIP History Weekly Newsletter: Article spotlight: Eun-Joo Ahn on the road to Mount Wilson Observatory by Rebecca Charbonneau, American Institute of Physics www.aip.org/history/arti... 🧪🔭 @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social @aiphistory.bsky.social

🌟Women in Science Spotlight: Vera Kistiakowsky 🌟 Vera Kistiakowsky was a researcher in several branches of chemistry and physics. While working at MIT in the 70s, she got fed up with the way women were treated and formed the Committee on the Status of Women in Physics: https://bit.ly/3PjRPAV

Marie Curie and 71 other women scientists will soon be honored by having their names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower. They will join the 72 men whose names are already there. #womeninscience

🌟Women in Science Spotlight: Lucy Mensing 🌟 Lucy Mensing (1901-1996) was the first person to apply quantum mechanics to diatomic molecules. Our new history guide offers an overview of her life and career. https://bit.ly/4tIdCSJ #WomeninSTEM #WomensHistory #HistoryofPhysics #HistoryofScience

In today's AIP History Weekly Edition, University of Padua PhD student Luca Campagnoni discusses his work with a newly discovered trove of materials related to cosmic ray physicist Bruno Rossi. It sheds new light on Rossi's expedition to Eritrea and his pre-World War II flight from Italy to the US.

Happy birthday to Ida Noddack! Born on February 25, 1896, Noddack was a German chemist who co-discovered the chemical element rhenium and who published a paper on the concept behind nuclear fission - nine years before its accepted discovery date.

📢The Ronald E. Mickens Collection on African-American Physicists is now online!📢 Learn more and explore some of the highlights in our blog: https://bit.ly/3OgugIL 📷 Ronald McNair/NASA.

Today, we’re honoring a Tuskegee Airman and a pioneer in the field of meteorology! ⛅ Teaching guide on the fascinating life and career of Charles E. Anderson: www.aip.org/history/teac...

In today's AIP History Weekly Edition, @tjowens.bsky.social interviews @patchenbarss.bsky.social about how he researched and wrote The Impossible Man, a biography of mathematical physicist Roger Penrose.

#DYK the Summer School at Les Houches in the French Alps has hosted 68 Nobel laureate since its inception by Cécile DeWitt-Morette (pictured here) in 1951? One of those noble students was Enrico Fermi, who took quite the field trip in 1954. https://bit.ly/3O73uTj #HistoryofPhysics #HistoryofScience

💗 Happy Valentine’s Day to all lovers of physics and physicists! 💗 📷 Marie Curie and Pierre Curie on their honeymoon, cycling through Europe in 1895. Photo from Laboratoire Curie, Institut de Physique Nucleaire, courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives

The AIP stats team has released its latest data of physics & astronomy PhD trends, with breakdown by gender. What is extraordinary to me is how clearly the overall trends exhibit an important gender dimension, and that that story is quite different between physics and astronomy.

Through oral histories, you can discover so much about how a scientist got to where they are and get a fuller picture of history: https://www.aip.org/library/ex-libris-universum/stories-from-black-physicists-in-our-collections-part-three

Online, accessible to anyone, this Wednesday February 11th at 10am Eastern!

Announcing our new guide to geophysics collections at the AIP Niels Bohr Library & Archives! https://aip.libguides.com/geophysics

We talk a lot about our collections, but how are they actually being used?

📜 News, archival collections, statistics, suggestions of people to study, books, and more, in one place, curated by historians & librarians? You bet! If you’re researching Black physicists, past and present, check out our guide: https://aip.libguides.com/blackandafricanamericanphysicists

#HBD to our visual archives’ namesake, Emilio Segrè! 🎂 Learn more about his life and collection in our blog post: https://bit.ly/4pR7i80 📷AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Segrè Collection.