View source

[[Image:Condon_edward.jpg|thumb|Edward U. Condon]]
'''Edward Uhler Condon''' ([[March 2]] [[1902]] &ndash; [[March 26]] [[1974]]) was a distinguished [[nuclear physicist]], a pioneer in [[quantum mechanics]], a participant in the development of [[radar]] and [[nuclear weapons]] in [[World War II]], research director of [[Corning Glass]], director of the [[National Bureau of Standards]], and president of the [[American Physical Society]] (as well as, late in his life, professor of [[physics]] at the [[University of Colorado]], where he directed a controversial Air Force-funded scientific study of [[Unidentified flying object|UFO]]s).

He was born in  [[Alamogordo, New Mexico]], [[United States]], and earned a Ph.D. from [[University of California, Berkeley]] in [[1926]].

In 1943, Condon joined the [[Manhattan Project]]; however, within six weeks, he resigned as a result of conflicts with [[Leslie Groves|General Leslie R. Groves]], the project's military leader.

Dr. Condon was one of the physicists whose loyalty to the [[United States]] was challenged by members of [[Congress of the United States|Congress]] — including Congressman [[Richard M. Nixon]], who called for the revocation of his security clearance — in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The superpatriotic chairman of the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]] (HCUA), Rep. J. Parnell Thomas, would call the physicist "Dr. Condom," the "weakest link" in American security, and even the "missing link."

In 1948, [[U.S. President]] [[Harry Truman]] — at the Annual Meeting of the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]], and with Condon sitting beside him — denounced Rep. Thomas and HCUA on the grounds that vital scientific research "may be made impossible by the creation of an atmosphere in which no man feels safe against the public airing of unfounded rumors, gossip and vilification." He called HCUA's activities "the most un-American thing we have to contend with today. It is the climate of a [[totalitarian]] country."

Dr. [[Carl Sagan]], once a student of Condon's, documented Condon's own account of being brought up before a loyalty review board:
''"Dr. Condon, it says here that you have been at the forefront of a revolutionary movement in physics called" — and here the inquisitor read the words slowly and carefully — "quantum mechanics. It strikes this hearing that if you could be at the forefront of one revolutionary movement...you could be at the forefront of another.''

Condon replied that the accusation was unfounded, since he most emphatically was ''not'' a "revolutionary". He raised his right hand and solemnly declared, "I believe in [[Archimedes' Principle]], formulated in the third century B.C. I believe in [[Johannes Kepler|Kepler]]'s laws of planetary motion, discovered in the seventeenth century. I believe in [[Isaac Newton|Newton]]'s laws...." He continued in this vein, listing a long sequence of scientists whose work, done centuries before, was still valid and respected:  [[Bernoulli]], [[Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier|Fourier]], [[André-Marie Ampère|Ampère]], [[Ludwig Boltzmann|Boltzmann]], and [[James Clerk Maxwell|Maxwell]].  HCUA did not appreciate his sense of humor; however, fortunately for Condon, the most severe charge they could confirm was that in high school he had a paper route delivering a socialist newspaper.

From 1966 to 1968, Condon directed the [[University of Colorado]] UFO Project. Though plagued with infighting and controversy, the project's conclusion--that all [[unidentified flying object]]s had prosaic explanations--have been cited as a key factor in the generally low levels of interest in UFOs among most mainstream scientists and academics. See [[Condon Report]].  In his negative critique of the Condon Report, astronomer [[J. Allen Hynek]] hoped that Condon's reputation would not be soured by the Condon Report, writing, "It is unfortunate that, almost certainly, popular history will henceforth link Dr. Condon’s name with UFOs, and only the arcane history of physics will accord him his true place and record his brilliant career in contributing to the understanding ... of the nature of the physical world. These contributions UFOs cannot take away from him, even though his work with this problem is analogous to that of a [[Mozart]] producing an uninspired pot-boiler, unworthy of his talents." (Clark, 605)

Following his death, [[Condon (crater)|Condon crater]] on the [[Moon]] was named after him.

==References==
*http://www.nuclearfiles.org/rebios/condon.htm
*http://library.wustl.edu/units/spec/exhibits/crow/condonbio.html
*Jerome Clark; The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial; Visible Ink, 1998; ISBN 1578590299
*Sagan, Carl ([[1996]]). ''The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark'', New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-40946-9.
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7192447  Find-A-Grave profile for Edward Condon]

== Copyright ==
"Original data received from Wikipedia on April 21, 2006. Credit given to original authors can be seen [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_Condon&action=history Here]."

[[Category:People of UFOlogy|Condon, Edward]]