Every year, the American Physical Society (APS) recognizes a select number of sites in the United States where important events in the history of physics took place.
With your nomination, you are helping to raise public awareness about noteworthy events and illuminate the impact of scientific advancements on everyday life.
New sites are selected by the APS Historic Sites Committee. Awardees receive a plaque commemorating the site's significance to physics, and a listing in the APS Historic Sites online directory.
The nomination period for Historic Sites opens November 2, 2020 and closes January 31, 2021. Review the nomination process.
Congratulations to our newest historic sites, Morgan State University and Sanford Underground Research Facility!
Sanford Underground Research Facility
Lead, SD
From 1962 to 1994, Raymond Davis Jr. built and operated the first successful detector for solar neutrinos using John N. Bahcall’s theoretical model and working with William A. Fowler, Maurice Goldhaber, and numerous engineers and crew members on the 4850 Level of the Homestake Mine—now the Davis Campus at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. The result of Davis’s observations, just one third the theoretical expected flux, led to fundamental advances in particle physics and astrophysics. For his work, Davis received a share of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Masatoshi Koshiba for his research into the detection of cosmic neutrinos.
Each of these sites has been formally recognized for historical significance to the field of physics. New nominations for historic sites open November 2, 2020. If you would like to nominate a new historic site, please review the guidelines.
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District of Columbia
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Louisiana
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Massachusetts
Michigan
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New Jersey
New Mexico
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