Magnetohydrodynamics

The week of December 16, 1957, was a busy one for physicists in the Stanford area, with no less than three major meetings taking place: a symposium on magnetohydrodynamics, a conference on nuclear sizes, and, finally, the regular west coast winter meeting of the American Physical Society. Of these, the first-mentioned was sponsored by the Lockheed Missile Systems Division and took place at its Palo Alto research laboratory adjacent to the Stanford campus. About 200 delegates, many of whom attended an initial symposium held there on the same subject in December 1956, participated in the more recent meeting. Considering the growing popularity of the field and the challenging nature of the material, an annual meeting dedicated to magnetohydrodynamics may be a worthwhile venture for several years to come.