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Digitized materials in this online collection form part of the Victor Frederick Weisskopf papers (MC-0572) in the MIT Libraries Department of Distinctive Collections. For more information about the materials, please consult the collection finding aid.

Collection scope and contents:
Victor Frederick Weisskopf’s papers include correspondence, meeting agendas, minutes, reports, papers, newspaper clippings, audio tapes and cassettes, films, research notes and calculations, draft manuscripts, lecture and reading notes, and photographs and slides. The papers document Weisskopf’s professional and personal life from the 1920s through 2002. The bulk of the collection dates from the 1960s through the early 1990s, reflecting his role as a physicist, educator, administrator, and advocate of social and political causes. While his activities before the 1960s are less fully represented, the collection includes materials from his early scientific career that provide insights into his educational background and research interests and projects. His professional collaborations and personal contacts with major people in the field of quantum physics are also documented. An extensive set of records documents Weisskopf’s relationship with CERN, mainly from the period when he served as a member of the CERN Scientific Policy Committee (1966-1977). His role as the chair of the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel - HEPAP (1967-1973) is also well covered in the collection. There are no original materials related to Weisskopf’s work at Los Alamos on the Manhattan Project. Most of the records pertaining to his administrative activities as chair of MIT’s physics department and the head of the Center for Theoretical Physics are not included here; as MIT records they remained with the department. His engagement in scientific, social, and political issues is documented mainly in materials gathered in Series 6 (Organizations and Conferences) and Series 10 (Policy, Science, and Education Working Files). Extensive sets of records, included in Series 9 (Research Working Files) and Series 11 (Writings and Presentations), pertain to his research activities and interests as they evolved over a time span of more than seventy years.

Dates:
1922 - 2002

Please note:
Materials in this collection may be under copyright. Please consult the collection finding aid or catalog record and the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy for more information.

Citation:
Please cite the source item title (dc.title), collection title and identifier, and repository.

Example: European Physical Society, 1969-1970, 1975-1976. Victor Frederick Weisskopf papers (MC-0572). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Libraries. Department of Distinctive Collections.

Repository details:
Part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Libraries. Department of Distinctive Collections Repository https://libraries.mit.edu/distinctive-collections