The Cyclotron Float and Ernest Orlando Lawrence

The University of South Dakota (USD) Photography Collections contains hundreds of images depicting floats, bands, celebrities, politicians, and USD presidents during Dakota Day parades. In the 1950s elaborate Dakota Day floats constructed by fraternities, sororities, independent student groups, and clubs took considerable effort to build and used that year’s theme to convey a message, usually a nasty way to defeat the opposing football team.

In the 1957 parade, the Chemistry Club float highlighted the cyclotron, a device that produced high energy to smash atoms. The inventor of the cyclotron was South Dakota native Ernest O. Lawrence, a 1922 chemistry major alum of USD who went on to obtain a master’s degree at the University of Minnesota and a doctorate at Yale in physics. This “American Genius” received the Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of the cyclotron that not only smashed atoms but was also instrumental in developing chemicals used in the treatment of cancer. During his illustrative career as noted in the book by Herbert Child (An American Genius; the Life of Ernest Orlando Lawrence. Dutton, 1968), Lawrence went on to receive many honors.

Lawrence’s mentor at USD was Lewis Akeley, Professor and Chairman of Physics and Dean of the College of Engineering. Akeley saw the talent in Lawrence and helped him develop a wireless radio station (that became KUSD), persuaded him to study physics, and taught him how to teach. All these abilities stood him in good stead when he became the youngest professor at the University of California, at Berkeley where he spent most of his academic career.  Lawrence was also a master of cultivating networks of scientists that helped develop his research program and secure funding. At Berkeley one of his best friends was Dr. Robert Oppenheimer who also became director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II where Lawrence was involved in the development of the atomic bomb by producing uranium 235.

Two buildings at USD were named in honor of Lawrence, the E. O Lawrence Telecommunication Center (now the Neuharth Media Center) and the Akeley – Lawrence Science Center. Lawrence also received an honorary doctorate from USD in 1936.

Thus, the 1957 Chemistry Club float paid homage to Ernest O. Lawrence. Less than one year, Lawrence’s untimely death occurred on August 18, 1958.  

Cummins, C., Hilderbrand, R. C. and Ward, S. R. The College of Arts and Sciences 1882-1982; University of South Dakota, 1982.

A cyclotron on the 1957 Dakota Day Float. University of South Dakota (USD) Photography Collections, Series 10, Box 29, #4967.1.

 E. O. Lawrence senior picture, 1923 Coyote.