The Secret History of Anti-Gravity and Quantum Gravity Research

Important Known Events

1948

• Roger Babson forms the Gravity Research Foundation (GRF)

1953

• Bryce Seligman DeWitt is the first well-respected physicist to win the Gravity Research Foundation essay contest

1955

• George S Trimble, the vice president for aviation and advanced propulsion systems at the Glenn L. Martin Company, forms the Research Institute for Advanced Studies (RIAS), supervised by Welcome Bender
• July 9: Initial meeting between Bryce DeWitt and Agnew Bahnson in Raleigh, N.C
• September 7: Agnew Bahnson incorporates The Institute of Field Physics (IOFP) at UNC Chapel Hill, to be directed by Bryce DeWitt and Cécile DeWitt-Morette

1957

• January 18-23: Conference on the Role of Gravitation in Physics at UNC Chapel Hill

1973

• Mansfield Amendment terminates Department of Defense funding for anti-gravity research

Relevant People

• Roger Babson
• Agnew H. Bahnson
• Bryce Seligman DeWitt
• Cécile DeWitt-Morette
• Edward Witten
• Louis Witten
• Solomon Lefschetz
• Rudolf E. Kálmán
• Sheldon Glashow
• Peter Higgs

Notable winners of the Gravity Research Foundation essay contest

• Bryce Seligman DeWitt (1st place, 1953)
• Richard Arnowitt and Stanley Deser (1st place, 1954)
• John Archibald Wheeler (2nd place, 1957)
• Julian Schwinger (2nd place, 1975)
• Freeman Dyson (4th place, 1962)
• Roger Penrose (2nd place, 1966; 2nd place, 1968; 1st place, 1975)
• Stephen Hawking (2nd place, 1965; 3rd place, 1966; 2nd place, 1968; 5th place, 1969; 1st place, 1971; 3rd place, 1974)

Relevant Institutions

• Gravity Research Foundation (GRF)
• Institute for Field Physics (IOFP) at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Research Institute for Advanced Studies (RIAS)
• Glenn L. Martin Company
• Curtiss-Wright Corporation

Eric's Coverage

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Joe Rogan Experience #1945 (February 22, 2023)

References

• The Price of Gravity: Private Patronage and the Transformation of Gravitational Physics after World War II by David Kaiser & Dean Rickles
• The Role of Gravitation in Physics: Report from the 1957 Chapel Hill Conference
• Behind the scenes of the 1957 Chapel Hill Conference on the role of gravitation in physics by Dean Rickles