Whatever Happened to Solid State Physics?

Subfields of physics are born, expand, and develop in intellectual scope, then can spawn new offspring by subdividing, can disappear by being absorbed in new definitions of the fields of physics, or may merely decline in vigor and membership. Textbooks, seminar programs, graduate courses, and the chosen structure of industrial laboratories all contributed to making solid state physics a vibrant subfield for 30 years, to ultimately disappear into regroupings with names such as condensed matter, materials science, biological physics, complexity, and quantum optics. This review traces the trajectory of the subfield solid state physics through the experiences of the author in relationship to major university departments and Bell Labs, with digressions into how he became a physicist, physics education, and choosing research problems.