A Celebration of 60 years of condensed matter physics, and 50 years of Arny Honig,
at Syracuse University

The first doctorate in physics at Syracuse was awarded in 1951, just about sixty years ago. It was awarded during a significant expansion of the physics faculty led by the chair, Bill Fredrickson, and the chancellor, William Tolley. The department had 6 professors during WWII; it had tripled in size by 1960. Many of the degrees awarded by Syracuse have been related to condensed matter physics research. Arny Honig and Henry Levinstein advised an astonishing number of students and postdocs, but there are scores more that have been advised over the years by the other professors in the field: Charlie Bachman, Herb Berry, Nathan Ginsburg, John Trischka, Mel Lax, Gunter Wessel, Allen Miller, Harvey Kaplan, Eric Schiff, Peter Dowben, Gian Vidali, Cristina Marchetti, Alan Middleton, and Mark Bowick. Admittedly, Nathan Ginsburg's students worked on very lightly condensed matter.

On April 24, 2010, you are invited to a one-day symposium to celebrate the accomplishments and careers of our condensed matter physics graduates and to honor Arny's illustrious career. Several graduates will give morning talks on current research. The afternoon and evening program will include "open-mike" sessions for old reminiscences and new stories about research and life in Syracuse and beyond. We'll leave lots of time for informal schmoozing, but probably not enough time for you to sneak off to Danzer's for lunch.

Please save the date for this affair; you'll be assured of scientific stimulation and the great company of the Syracuse condensed matter physics community. Over the next few months we'll be building up some webpages for the CM60@Syracuse Symposium that will include some of the history of condensed matter physics at SU: see http://phy.syr.edu/CM60/ . We're also working on our e-mail directory, so we'd love a response from you that way, which is best sent to Ms. Penny Davis (davis@physics.syr.edu ).

M. Cristina Marchetti
Chair & Kenan Professor of Physics
chair@physics.syr.edu

Eric Schiff
Professor of Physics
easchiff@syr.edu