AIP Receives $3 Million Grant

Establishes endowment fund for directorship of the Niels Bohr Library and Archives

College Park, Md., Nov. 7, 2012 — The American Institute of Physics (AIP) has received a $3 million donation from the Avenir Foundation to establish the Endowment Fund for the R. Joseph Anderson Directorship of the Niels Bohr Library and Archives. This endowment will honor Anderson’s two decades of service to AIP’s history programs and provide vital resources to support AIP’s leadership in preserving the heritage of modern physics. This marks the Foundation’s third endowment to AIP, in support of its history programs.

“The Foundation is deeply interested in preserving and making known the history of physics and allied fields,” said AIP Executive Director and CEO H. Frederick Dylla. “AIP is grateful for their generous support.” The Foundation’s first gift in May 2005 created an oral history endowment. In 2008, the Foundation endowed the Spencer R. Weart Directorship of the Center for History of Physics.

Joseph “Joe” Anderson, for whom the newest endowment is named, is current director of AIP’s Niels Bohr Library and Archives and associate director of the Center for History of Physics. During the past 20 years, he has dedicated himself to the preservation, documentation, and study of the history of physics. Anderson served previously as director of the Library and Archives at the Balch Institute in Philadelphia and as an archivist at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. He has published on a variety of archival topics and was elected a fellow of the Society of American Archivists in 2007.

In 1962, J. Robert Oppenheimer dedicated AIP’s Niels Bohr Library and Archives, and over the past 50 years, AIP’s history programs have become a significant resource for science historians around the world. In addition to preserving the history of modern physics, the library houses exemplary book, oral history, and photograph collections, and preserves the historical records of AIP and its Member Societies. The library also works to preserve the papers of physicists at their home institution archives and serves as a clearinghouse for information on collections worldwide. In addition, The Center for History of Physics presents lectures, symposia, and workshops, and creates popular web exhibitions that receive millions of visits each year. (See aip.org/history .)

Anderson remarked, “Major gifts from the Avenir Foundation and other donors are helping to build an endowment to ensure that the rich history of physics can be preserved and made available to the public and the physics community as an enduring resource.”

About AIP
The American Institute of Physics (AIP) is an organization of 10 physical science societies, representing more than 135,000 scientists, engineers, and educators. As one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific information in physics, AIP employs innovative publishing technologies and offers publishing services for its Member Societies. AIP’s suite of publications includes 15 journals, three of which are published in partnership with other organizations; magazines, including its flagship publication Physics Today; and the AIP Conference Proceedings series. Through its Physics Resources Center, AIP also delivers valuable services and expertise in education and student programs, science communications, government relations, career services for science and engineering professionals, statistical research, industrial outreach, and the history of physics and other sciences.

Contact:
Charles E. Blue
American Institute of Physics
+1 301-209-3091 (office)
+1 202-236-6324 (cell)
cblue@aip.org