Department of Physics at the U of I

Physics in the 1910s

1918

Beryl Love becomes the first woman to earn a bachelor's degree in physics at the University of Illinois.

Two Physics staff members, Assistant Carl Eli Pike and Mechanician Harold C. Buchanan, die in the influenza pandemic.

1917

A bachelor's degree program in engineering physics (distinct from the standard physics curriculum) is established, although no one enrolls. Professor Carman remains optimistic, however, believing that "the war [World War I, ed.] will demonstrate the value of trained physicists to government, industry, and scholarship."

1913

Nellie Nancy Hornor becomes the first woman to earn a master of arts degree in physics at the University of Illinois. (Twenty years later, Sister Mary Hubert McCarthy will be the first woman to earn a master of science degree in physics [1933].)

1912

Physicists William F. Schulz and Jakob Kunz make their first astronomical observations using a sensitive alkali hydride photoelectric cell instead of selenium cells. They observed the star Capella.

Stebbins and Kunz begin to improve the new photoelectric photometer, which is later duplicated by the Lick Observatory (1915). [photo]

Della Mae Rogers assumes the post of department secretary and librarian, a post she will hold for nearly 50 years.

Physics faculty ca. 1912. Della Mae Rogers is standing to the right of Department Head A.P. Carman. To his left, in the white dress, is Eleanor Frances Seiler, the first woman to earn a Ph.D in physics from the University of Illinois.

1911

Head Albert Carman argues the then highly controversial notion that Physics faculty must be allowed to pursue research, in addition to their teaching responsibilities, in order to attract young, ambitious scholars and to make the University a "center of physics."

"Our instructors have not and will not be idle, and a certain amount of time to work in physics will help in instruction, as well as yield results to science."

1910

Left to right: Elmer Williams, Edward B. Stephenson

The first two Physics PhDs are granted to Elmer Williams and Edward B. Stephenson.