Philip McCord Morse (born 6.08.1903) is an American physicist and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1955). He was born in Shreveport. He graduated from the Case Institute of Technology (2926), and in 1929 received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Princeton University. In 1931— 69 he worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (professor from 1936, and from 1953 director of the Operations Research Center). In 1946—48 he was the first director of Brookhaven National Laboratory.
His research was in nuclear physics, quantum mechanics, acoustics, thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, operations research and mathematical physics. He studied the scattering of electrons by atoms and of neutrons by protons. He calculated the wave functions of atoms and electrons by variational methods, and in particular made the first measurements of the binding energy of the deuterium nucleus. He studied acoustic impedance. A number of his works belong to operations research, the scientific method of working out quantitatively grounded recommendations for decision-making, of which he is one of the founders.
In 1972 — 73 he was president of the American Physical Society, in 1950 — 51 of the American Acoustical Society, and in 1951—52 the first president of the Operations Research Society of America.