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A Guide to the Papers at the Indiana University Archives

Electronic finding aid encoded by Donald C. Force

Summary Information

Repository
Indiana University Archives
1320 East Tenth Street
Herman B Wells Library E460
Bloomington, IN 47405-7000
Phone: 812-855-1127
Email: archives@indiana.edu
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/archives

Creator
Newton, Roger G.

Collection No.
C320

Extent
9 cubic feet
(9 boxes)

Language
Materials are in English.

Abstract
Roger G. Newton is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Physics at Indiana University. His primary research interests include field theory, scattering theories, nuclear and high energy physics, elementary particles, quantum mechanics, and mathematical physics. The collection consists of Newton's papers created and collected during his tenure at IU, including correspondence, files on committees and conferences, review board records and materials relating to his books. No teaching files are included in this collection.

Access Restrictions

Select files and the Reviews & evaluations series is closed to researchers at this time.

Advance notice is required for access.

Biographical Note

Roger Gerhard Newton was born in Landsberg on the Warthe, Germany, on November 30, 1924. His father, Arthur Newton, was a dentist and his mother was Margaret (Blume) Newton. He attended two engineering schools in Germany before attending the University of Berlin in 1946.

He married Ruth Gordon on June 18, 1953, while working as a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, New Jersey. The couple had their only child, a son by the name of Paul Kenneth, six years later in June of 1959.

In 1955, he came to Indiana University as an Assistant Professor, was promoted to Associate Professor in 1958, and reached the status of full Professor in 1960. While teaching at IU he also held visiting appointments at several universities and laboratories including Ohio State, University of Rome, International School of Physics, University of Montpellier in France, and the University of Geneva. He was also named director of IU’s Institute of Advanced Study. Institutes of its kind are designed to foster pure cutting-edge research by scientists and scholars in a variety of fields without the complications of teaching or funding, or the agendas of sponsorship. The Institute was the first of its kind in the U.S. to be associated with an academic institution.

Newton’s primary research interests are field theory, scattering theories, nuclear and high energy physics, elementary particles, quantum mechanics, and mathematical physics. In addition to authoring many articles and books including From Clockwork to Crapshoot: A History of Physics , Thinking about Physics , and What Makes Nature Tick?, Dr. Newton has also served as the editor of the Journal of Mathematical Physics (1992-2005), and was associate editor of the American Journal of Physics and Inverse Problems.

Currently he still writes and resides in Bloomington, Indiana.

Arrangement

The collection is organized into seven series: Correspondence; Committees and organizations; ARO (Army Research Office) files; NSF (National Science Foundation) files; Writings; Conferences; and Reviews and evaluations. The Correspondence series is further organized into External correspondence, Internal correspondence, and General correspondence.

Scope and Content Note

The collection is arranged into seven series: Correspondence; Committees and organizations; ARO (Army Research Office) files; NSF (National Science Foundation) files; Writings; Conferences; and Reviews and evaluations. The Correspondence series is further organized into External mail, Internal mail and General mail.

The Correspondence series contains records from the years 1955-2000. Following Dr. Newton’s original arrangement, the series is further organized into three subseries. The first subseries is Internal correspondence, 1969-2000. This subseries consists of Prof. Newton’s with Indiana University administrators and colleagues, such as IU President Herman B Wells and Newton’s colleagues in the physics department. The next subseries, External correspondence, 1969-1999, consists of correspondence with persons outside IU. Many of the letters are from former students and colleagues who are writing either for letters of recommendation or to ask questions about methods or theories relating to physics. The last subseries within the Correspondence series is General correspondence, 1955-1979. The letters found in this series are more personal in nature or are of a general nature, such as departmental memos. This series is arranged chronologically and closely follows Newton’s original organization. He had all of the files organized by fiscal year, but as some were quite large, they were broken down by month in order to make the files more manageable for researchers.

The next series in the collection is entitled Committees and organizations, 1975-2003, and is arranged alphabetically by folder title. The committee folders contain correspondence between committee members, memos, and minutes of some of the meetings. The folders for the organizations contain much of the same materials, although some also contain pamphlets or business cards. Newton’s records pertaining to the Indiana University Institute of Advanced Study are a prominent part of this series. Two folders in this series, "Committee to review dean of music school (Charles Webb)" and "Tenure committee," are restricted and not available for use by researchers at this time.

The third series in the Newton collection spans 1965-1975 and is the ARO (Army Research Office) files. This series includes paperwork for grants that Newton received from the Army Research Office on projects focusing on inverse scattering problems, phase transitions and critical points, lattice non-uniformities and localized magnetic moments in solids, and irreversible phenomena. Also found in the files are reports from Newton to the Army Research Office explaining his progress or any problems that he may have encountered while implementing these projects.

Records for Newton’s NSF (National Science Foundation) projects make up the next series. Spanning 1968-1992, these projects focus projects related to elementary particle interactions, particle collisions, and the complex Regge Trajectory. The series includes correspondence between Newton, his colleagues, and the NSF, as well as project proposals and outlines. Detailed account statements were pulled and shredded.

The fifth series is entitled Writings, 1960-1992. The writings include works by Newton as well as articles written by his colleagues. This series also includes proofs of two of Newton’s books, The Truth of Science and What Makes Nature Tick, complete with illustrations, notes, and corrections.

The next series is Conferences and consists of schedules, flyers, and pamphlets that Newton received from the various conferences that he attended during his career. Several folders in this series are labeled according to the name of the conference, but the bulk of the folders are simply labeled by year. It spans the years 1975-1987.

The last series in the collection is Reviews and evaluations. It is organized alphabetically by folder title and contains reviews of individuals, departments and programs both within and outside of Indiana University. At this time, this series is restricted and cannot be used by researchers.

• Indexing Terms

• The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in IUCAT, the IU Libraries' online catalog. Materials about related topics, persons or places can be found by searching the catalog using these terms.

• • Names
  • Indiana University --Dept. of Physics --Faculty --Archives.
  • Indiana University --Dept. of Physics --Faculty --Correspondence.
  • Indiana University, Bloomington --Dept. of Physics --Faculty --Archives.
  • Indiana University, Bloomington --Dept. of Physics --Faculty --Correspondence.
  • Newton, Roger G. --Archives.
  • Newton, Roger G. --Correspondence
• • Topics
  • Physicists --Indiana --Bloomington --Archives.
  • Physicists --Indiana --Bloomington --Correspondence.
  • Physics teachers --Indiana --Bloomington --Archives.
  • Physics teachers --Indiana --Bloomington --Correspondence.

Administrative Information