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History of Science, Technology, & Medicine

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Sample Collections in the Bancroft Library

Luis W. Alvarez Papers

The Luis W. Alvarez papers include correspondence, research files, diaries, and notes relating to his work as a Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and as a research associate at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Includes documentation on the Manhattan and Pyramid Projects, his studies of hyperon events in balloon-flown emulsions, and his research on bubble chambers. The collection includes multiple drafts of Alvarez's autobiography as well as correspondence and other materials relating to Alvarez's receipt of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968.

BANC MSS 84/82 c

 

Italian Astronomical Manuscripts

Collection of 7 unpublished anonymous working notes by two or more advanced students following a university course in astronomy. The course was probably given at Bologna, Italy, and based on the works of the Cassini family.

BANC MSS 94/206 z 

 

Ernest O. Lawrence Papers

Ernest Orlando Lawrence, Nobel prize-winning physicist, inventor of the cyclotron and the founder and first director of the University of California Radiation Laboratory. The papers relate primarily to the Radiation Laboratory, University of California; relations with the Office of Scientific Research and Development and the Atomic Energy Commission; development of cyclotron technology and establishment of cyclotrons at other institutions, etc. 

BANC MSS 72/117 c

 

Emilio Segrè Papers

This collection documents the personal and professional life of Nobel Prize-winning physicist and University of California, Berkeley professor, Emilio Segrè. Segrè's papers include personal and professional correspondence; family papers; materials related to Segrè's mentor and colleague, Enrico Fermi; articles, manuscripts, and talks; journals and notebooks; records from the Lawrence Berkeley Radiation Lab and Los Alamos National laboratory; materials related to Segrè's Nobel Prize; administrative records from the University of California Berkeley; course materials; and works by other physicists.

BANC MSS 78/72 cp