Creativity and Funding Reality in Physics

This talk has three parts. In the first part I recount some of the early history of the APS Forum on Physics and Society. In the second part I discuss aspects of creativity in physics: ability to visualize, ability to go from imagination to reality, mathematical skills, laboratory skills. I point out that creativity in science is constrained by the reality of natural laws and by the reality of funding. In the third part I discuss what the individual researcher can do to remain creative as the present funding level for physics research in the United States is mostly static or slowly decreasing.