Papers of Laurence E. Peterson, professor of physics, leader of the High Energy Astronomy Group, and director (1988-1997) of the UCSD Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences (CASS). Peterson was involved in the planning and design of experiments and instruments onboard such NASA spacecraft as the Orbiting Solar Observatories, the High Energy Astronomical Observatory, Apollo 15 and 16, the Space Shuttle and the Hubble Space Telescope. He was a pioneer in the exploration of hard x-ray energy radiation, and he led the CASS High Energy Astronomy Group in its development of large area phoswich scintillation x-ray and high resolution gamma-ray detectors. The papers span the dates 1954-1994 and include pre-doctoral work, teaching materials, consulting work, editorial papers, presentations, and publications. Absent from the collection are research project files, research proposals and materials documenting Peterson's directorship of CASS. The papers are arranged in seven series: 1) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS, 2) CORRESPONDENCE, 3) WRITINGS, 4) EDITING, REVIEWING AND CONSULTING, 5) UCSD MATERIALS, 6) MEETINGS, CONFERENCES AND COMMITTEES and 7) ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES. The accession processed in 2000 contains notebooks (1963-1995) and teaching materials (1989-1993).

Laurence Peterson was born in Grantsburg, Wisconsin, on July 26, 1931. He received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1954 and completed his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics at the University of Minnesota in 1956 and 1960, respectively. His dissertation was based on determining the energy spectrum of cosmic-ray protons and helium nuclei over Guam, a scientific ballooning experiment. He remained at the University of Minnesota as a research assistant until 1962, when he came to UCSD as an assistant professor of physics, working in the area of high energy astrophysics.

38.00 linear feet (81 archives boxes and 10 records cartons.)

Collection is open for research