On 8 October 2004 DTM will celebrate its centennial anniversary with a public symposium focusing on both the history of the department and the scientific frontiers at which DTM continues to explore and innovate.

Founded in 1904 , DTM passed a major milestone in 1909 with the maiden voyage of the Carnegie, the sailing vessel that circumnavigated the globe a number of times in an effort to map the Earth’s magnetic field. Work at DTM continues to this day to involve exploration, both physical and theoretical.  Following on the successes in geomagnetism, DTM initiated work in experimental physics in the 1920s when Gregory Breit and Merle Tuve set out to prove the existence of the ionosphere and investigate its properties. Developing much of their own instrumentation, another of DTM’s strong and continuing traditions, they successfully realized this goal. Many other fields were opened by DTM staff in the years to follow, including nuclear physics and biophysics. The research agenda of the modern department was set by the initiation of research in seismology, geochronology, geochemistry, radio astronomy, observational astronomy, and, most recently, planetary physics and the origin of planetary systems.

The symposium will be free and open to the public. For more information about this event and DTM’s accomplishments during the past 100 years, please click here.