In 1934, geophysicist
Merle Tuve of Carnegie Institution, proposed the president of
George Washington University (GWU),
Cloyd H. Marvin, to open a professorship in theoretical physics to make a bridge between the two institutions.
George Gamow was invited and took the position the same year.
Major events The first conference was held on 1935 on the topic of nuclear physics. The discussion was around the differences between the
nucleon magnetic moment and the
electron magnetic moment, as well as theories of
gamma rays and of
beta decay. The 4th conference in 1938 was on stellar energy and nuclear processes.
Hans Bethe inspired by the discussions during the conference, developed in 1939 a theory of stellar nuclear processes, including the theory of the
CNO cycle. He received the 1967
Nobel Prize in Physics for this work. Teller reports that Tuve reproduced the experiment overnight and invited the participants the next day to observe the fission events in his lab with the aid of a
Geiger counter. Scientists rapidly raised concerns that such a discovery could enable
Nazi Germany to develop a
nuclear weapon. During 1942, the conferences were postponed due to United States involvement in
World War II. During this time, Teller went to work in the
Manhattan Project. The project led to the creation of the first atomic bomb.
Dissolution After the 10th conference in 1947, the conferences were discontinued due to a variety of reasons: Gamow had turned his interest into cosmology, Teller had left after the war to work at the
University of Chicago and Fleming, co-organizer had stepped down from his position of chief of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at Carnegie Institution. == Legacy ==