Inside This Issue

Einstein as Citizen: Addressing Race and Racism

SPS at Meetings

Music Inspired by Astronomy: A Selected Listing for the International Year of Astronomy

Special Pull-Out Section: Research and Funding Opportunities

The History of Cosmology as I Have Lived Through It

Elegant Connections in Physics: History of Big Bang Cosmology, Part 6: Nucleosynthesis After Alpher

Spotlight on SPS Outreach

The Galileoscope

About the Cover
Albert Einstein discusses relativity with students at Lincoln University of Pennsylvania during his 1946 visit.

Photo courtesy of Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, Special Collections and Archives, Langston Hughes Memorial Library

Editor
Dwight E. Neuenschwander Southern Nazarene University

Editorial Assistants
Tracy Schwab
Kendra Rand

Art Director
Phillip Payette

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Society of Physics Students
One Physics Ellipse
College Park, MD 20740

Tel: (301) 209-3007
Fax: (301) 209-0839

Email: sps@aip.org
Web: www.spsnational.org


SPS President
Toni Sauncy
Angelo State University

SPS/Sigma Pi Sigma Director
Gary D. White

SPS/Sigma Pi Sigma Assistant Director
Thomas Olsen

AIP Member Societies:
American Physical Society
Optical Society of America
Acoustical Society of America
The Society of Rheology
American Association of
      Physics Teachers
American Crystallographic
      Association
American Astronomical
      Society
American Association of
      Physicists in Medicine
AVS, The Science and
      Technology Society
American Geophysical Union

Other Member Organizations:
Sigma Pi Sigma
Society of Physics Students
Corporate Associates

SPS 

Sixty years ago Einstein ... called racism “America’s worst disease.” More...


The History of Cosmology as I Have Lived Through It

Ralph A. Alpher

Ralph A. Alpher (1921-2007) was a founder of Big Bang cosmology. His 1948 dissertation on primordial element abundances by neutron capture laid the foundation for modern big bang nucleosynthesis calculations, and led that same year to the prediction by Alpher and Robert Herman of the existence and present temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation. The CMBR forms the crucial signature of a universe that began with a “Big Bang,” and its power spectrum has opened the era of “precision cosmology.”

We have been privileged to publish a three-part biography of Ralph Alpher, written by his son, Dr. Victor Alpher. We trust you will enjoy this glimpse into the life and work of Ralph A. Alpher.

Ralph Alpher Big Bang Cosmology Series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3


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