Professional career

After receiving his doctorate, Rothman had hoped to work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, but was denied security clearance due to correspondence with fellow science-fiction fan and future mathematician Chandler Davis that had been intercepted by the FBI a dozen years earlier. As a result, he spent the next seven years investigating nuclear energy at the Bartol Research Foundation in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. In 1959 he joined the newly created Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (formerly Project Matterhorn), which was concerned with creating controlled nuclear fusion.^[1] In 1963, while working in the laboratory, he wrote The Laws of Physics.

After leaving PPPL in 1969, Rothman joined the faculty at Trenton State College (now the College of New Jersey). He retired from teaching in 1979.

Fandom

Rothman was an active science fiction fan from an early age. Besides co-founding the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, he also organized the first Philcon science fiction convention in October 1936. The event consisted of 9 people, including future science fiction author/editors Frederik Pohl and Donald A. Wollheim, and was held, in part, in Rothman's home.

It is often cited as the world's first science-fiction convention, although that is disputed. Rothman also published his fanzine "Milty's Mag" sporadically over a few years in the early forties. Later Rothman chaired the 1947 and 1953 Philcons. The first Hugo award was presented at the 1953 Philcon. Rothman created the design based on illustrations in Chesley Bonestell's Conquest of Space and the actual awards were produced by machinist Jack McKnight. In honor of Dr. Rothman's lifetime of work in science fiction fandom, his name was voted into the First Fandom Hall of Fame in 1998.^{[citation needed]}

Skepticism

Rothman was a member of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and published articles in the Skeptical Inquirer.^[4] In his book A Physicist's Guide to Skepticism (1988) Rothman applied the laws of physics to paranormal and pseudoscientific claims to show why they are, in fact, impossible.^[5] He wrote that proponents of pseudoscience like to claim "Anything's possible" but this claim is false as there are things which are logically impossible as they are self-contradictory and physically impossible because they violate well-established laws.^[6]