Dr. Davis began his study of Physics at Carnegie-Mellon University in 1946, after recently returning from World War II where he served on the front lines in southern Germany as an Army Scout. After earning his Bachelors of Science degree in Physics in 1949, he then entered the High Energy Physics doctoral program at Cornell University. Under the guidance of Professor Dale Corson, his doctoral dissertation focused on the study of the elastic photoproduction of pi zero mesons using one of the earlier Cornell synchrotrons. After receiving his doctorate in 1954, Dr. Davis began work at Pratt&Whitney Aircraft as a Senior Analytical Physicist, where he was charged with the development of aircraft powered by nuclear energy capable of keeping nuclear bombers afloat for months at a time – a goal that both the United States and Soviet Union were pursuing at the time. Concerned about nuclear weapons becoming too commonplace, Dr. Davis later told interviewers that he was relieved when he soon determined that the project was not going to be technically feasible. Alarmed by what he saw as the unwarranted influence of the emerging military-industrial complex on the United States’ weapons procurement policies, Dr. Davis switched his focus from applied physics to education and journalism. To this end, he started teaching at Rensselaer University in 1956 and in 1957 moved to work at McGraw-Hill in New York City, where he rose to Assistant Editor of Nucleonics, a leading nuclear science trade publication, and then later Managing Editor of Scientific Research, a leading trade publication for professional physicists, engineers, and scientists. In 1969, Dr. Davis was appointed editor-in-chief of Physics Today. His primary goal at that time was to increase the influence that physicists had on the public policy process. With this in mind, Dr. Davis redesigned the magazine so the articles were more informal and accessible to a lay audience. His editorials were often critical of U.S. policies for failing to adequately take into account input from the scientific community, especially with respect to its science education and nuclear weapons programs. In 1983, Dr. Davis’ editorial efforts were honored by the American Physical Society when it named him an APS Fellow in the Forum on Physics and Society “For his sustained championing of the cause of arms control and for his constant editorial reminders of the role physicists are obligated to play in the debate.” At the end of Dr. Davis’ tenure, then AIP director H. William Koch noted that “during Davis’ 15-year stint as editor, Physics Today became an important vehicle for communication among physicists and astronomers and reached a larger public as well. The magazine has earned its reputation as authoritative, accurate and responsive to the needs of the science community it serves.” In 1985, Dr. Davis left the American Institute of Physics altogether to pursue his longstanding interests in neurological psychoanalysis. Despite being trained as a physicist, Dr. Davis came to believe that the solutions to society’s most formidable challenges were more likely to come from better understanding the internal workings of the human mind as opposed to the physical laws of nature. To this end, he helped found numerous mental health training and research centers, where he taught and practiced for the last 25 years of his life. As founder and chairman of the Joint Council for Mental Health Services, a New York state-wide coalition of professionals and organizations devoted to improving the quality and availability of mental health services, Dr. Davis is also widely known for having championed the legislation that regulated a broad array of previously unregulated mental health professions, including psychoanalysis, resulting in significantly greater access to mental health services at reduced costs to the consumer. In his spare time, Dr. Davis was a marathon runner, avid windsurfer, and sailor off the shores of the Block Island Sound and Atlantic Ocean. He is survived by two children, two grandchildren, and wife of 55 years. Memorial contributions can be made in the memory of Harold L. Davis to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) at www.ucsusa.org/memorial.
Harold L. Davis, former editor-in-chief of Physics Today from 1970-1985, died on May 31, 2012, after a long illness in Newton, MA. He was 86 years old. The cause of death was sepsis.
