Documents / FOIA release
This newspaper profile by writer William Hines, preserved in a sanitized CIA release, reports that the Air Force signed a $313,000 contract with the University of Colorado for a scientific inquiry into UFOs led by physicist Dr. Edward Uhler Condon. It covers his career, the security-risk charges made against him by the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947 and 1948, and his press conference in New York. It also notes that NICAP warned the inquiry might be superficial.
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before half-a-dozen fascinated localities. Condon is using his # Sanitized Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000100910001-3 CPYRGHT 9 1966 Many years ago, in one of the great scientific coincidences of all time, Condon and a Russian scientist named George Gamow independently discovered the explanation for the strange behavior of radioactive atoms in their spontaneous "decay" and release of energy. This was in the 'tween-wars period when atomic physics was a purely intellectual exercise with no apparent useful applications. For a man whose scientific life has been closely linked to atomic energy, it was appropriate that Condon should have been born at Alamogordo, N.Mex., near where the first nuclear device was exploded in 1945. He was born March 2, 1902, and was given the middle name "Uhler" after his mother's family. Condon attributes his determination to pursue a scientific career to the influence of a well-beloved teacher. He won his degrees-bachelor of arts and doctor of philosophy-at the University of California, newspapering in the side to help pay his way. To carry the coincidence one step farther, Gamow subsequently came to the United States, and both men now live in the same pleasant town of Boulder, half an hour's drive by freeway from the center of Denver. ## Recalls Strange Firing. He recalls fondly the experience of being fired off the copy desk of the Oakland Tribune for writing an incorrect headline on an obituary of a prominent local man. Several days later the head of the copy desk encountered Condon on the street and asked why he hadn't been showing up for work. "You fired me," Condon reminded his crstwhile boss. "Oh, forget it," the slot man rejoined, "when you're fired like that you're just supposed to take the rest of the day off and come back in the next day." Despite this sort of comforting job security, Condon decided to go ahead with a life of science, which was to seem precarious indeed in later years. But if he had his ups and downs on the Washington roller-coaster, Condon never lacked the esteem of his colleagues. He has been, among many eminent things, president of the American Physical Society 1950 Approved by American Association for the Advancement of Science. But while climbing onward and upward in science, Condon has never completely lost his love for the printed page, as both producer and consumer. Condon is editor of "Reviews of Modern Physics," a scientific journal of high repute, a member of the publications board of the American Institute of Physics and chairman of the advisory board of International Science and Technology," a highbrow monthly magazine circulated among scientifically oriented business leaders. He reads avidly; reading is his principal hobby. On Friday Condon was in New York attending a meeting of the governing board of the American Institute of Physics. He took time off to hold a press conference on the new flying saucer inquiry. For more than an hour he fielded questions, some searching, some hostile, some pretty stupid, and gave every indication of relishing the experience. Some of the reporters, familiar with Condon's towering scientific reputation and knowing the background of the saucer controversy, wondered aloud why he would touch the issue with a 10-meter pole. His answer was simple: It's an intriguing mystery that hasn't really been looked into thoroughly. But considering his own adventures in the wonderland of Washington, hadn't Condon had enough traumatic experiences for one lifetime? "Not traumatic," he replied. "Unpleasant, perhaps, but not traumatic. "Anyway, I think those times have gone forever." Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000100910001-3
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 2 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.