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Interview with Homer J. Stewart
Get PDFTwo interviews with Homer J. Stewart, aeronautical engineer and Caltech Professor of Aeronautics, 1942-1980, and Caltech alumnus (PhD, 1940). The interview by John L. Greenburg is in four sessions in October and November of 1982. A supplemental interview was conducted by Shirley K. Cohen in November 1993.
The first interview covers Stewart's youth and education (B.Aero.E., University of Minnesota, 1936) and his early interest in aeronautic technology. Comes to Caltech for graduate study in aeronautics, 1936-1940 (PhD, 1940); courses with faculty members W. Smythe, R. C. Tolman, E. T. Bell, M. Ward, H. Bateman. Comments on critical roles of Theodore von Kármán and Clark Millikan in establishment of graduate program known as GALCIT [Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology]; creation of GALCIT wind tunnel for testing; advancement of aeronautical engineering education; and linking of GALCIT to burgeoning California aerospace industry. Von Kármán's identification of new technologies; his bridging of industry and academe; similar integrating approach applied to founding of Jet Propulsion Laboratory [JPL]. Discusses GALCIT's role in the development of commercial aviation in the 1930s. Appointment to professorial rank (1942) and wartime teaching and research on meteorology; comments on Irving Krick at Caltech. Discusses beginnings of rocketry at Caltech and his own pioneering contributions; work of Frank Malina and H. S. Tsien. Postwar separation of Caltech and JPL and formation of NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration]; takes half-time position at JPL. 1950s top secret work for government on guided missile and satellite programs, including Atlas, Polaris, Jupiter; various controversies over competing missile designs, especially Vanguard, during space race with Soviets. Advising on Apollo lunar program. His work on windmill technology.
The 1993 interview captures in fuller detail Stewart's memories of his service to government agencies and congressional committees during World War II and the years of the Cold War. It includes further reminiscences of Von Kármán and Clark Millikan, and other Caltech colleagues Maurice Biot, Fritz Zwicky, and Howard McCoy; the Caltech wind tunnel; details of airplane design; and observations on the establishment and growth of California's aerospace industry. A list of Stewart's government and industry affiliations is included as an appendix
Interview with Peter Ward Fay
Get PDFInterview in April 1997 with Peter Ward Fay, professor of history, emeritus, in the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences. Dr. Fay, an authority on India and China, received a BA from Harvard in 1947 and from Oxford in 1949. He received his PhD from Harvard in 1954 and joined the Caltech faculty as an assistant professor in 1955.
He discusses growing up in Cambridge, Mass., in a musical family; both parents were pianists. Early education at Browne & Nichols [now Buckingham Browne & Nichols] and Deerfield. Matriculated at Harvard in 1941, where he joined ROTC; called up in June 1943; Officer Candidate School, second lieutenant in field artillery at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma. In February 1945, he was sent to the Italian front north of Florence, had six weeks of active service. He stayed in Italy for a year and then returned to Harvard as a senior, majoring in history.
Rhodes scholar, 1947 to 1949, at Balliol College in Oxford; returned for a year of graduate work at Harvard, then spent a third year on the Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford, doing research on his PhD thesis on the rural constabulary. He was an instructor at Williams College 1951-1954 before joining the Humanities Division at Caltech.
Recollections of the division chairman, Hallett Smith, his colleagues Alan Sweezy and David Elliot, and the humanities curriculum. He recalls the advent of social sciences, the friction within the division at the time, and the chairmanship of Robert Huttenback. Discusses the genesis of his research while at Williams; his interest in modern European history and in the Opium War; his visit to India, 1964-1966, resulting in publication of The Opium War 1840-1842 (1975, University of North Carolina Press; 1976, W. W. Norton). Recalls the research in India that produced The Forgotten Army: India's Armed Struggle for Independence 1942-1945 (1993, University of Michigan Press).
Recalls his work on Caltech's Admissions Committee and his establishment of the "Introduction to Asia" course in Freshman humanities curriculum. Recruiting of historian/anthropologist Nicholas Dirks and the building up of Asian studies. Concludes by discussing the challenges in getting science students interested in history and his disapproval of the growing specialization in the Humanities and Social Sciences Division
Interview with Stanley E. Whitcomb on LIGO
Get PDFInterview in two sessions in March 1997 with Stanley Whitcomb, then deputy director of LIGO. Whitcomb talks about his upbringing and education in Denver, Colorado, his undergraduate studies in physics at Caltech, and his PhD work at the University of Chicago. He recalls being recruited onto the LIGO project as its first dedicated faculty member by his undergraduate advisor R. Vogt in 1980. He describes the politics and personnel, and technical and administrative challenges of LIGO’s start-up phase in the early 1980s, including the involvement of K. Thorne, the recruitment of R. Drever from Glasgow, and competing gravitational-wave initiatives headed by R. Weiss at MIT, and at Max Planck in Garching, Germany. He discusses the factors that prompted him to leave the project for private industry in 1985, his return as LIGO’s deputy director in 1991, and the NSF’s role in brokering an initially fraught LIGO partnership between Caltech and MIT under Vogt’s leadership. There is extensive discussion of Caltech and MIT’s divergent R&D approaches to gravitational-wave instrumentation and engineering in the 1980s and early ’90s, their respective merits and drawbacks, the challenges faced in resolving these differences, the technical advances of the 1990s, and prospects for future success
Interview with John Todd
Get PDFJohn Todd was professor of mathematics at Caltech from 1957 to 1981. This interview in two sessions in March and April of 1996, conducted by Shirley K. Cohen, briefly covers Todd's childhood in Northern Ireland and traces his educational path as an aspiring engineer to Queen's University, Belfast (bachelor's degree, 1931), where he studied mathematics under A. C. Dixon; after Queen's, to Cambridge University as a graduate student (without degree) for two years under J. E. Littlewood. After four further years teaching in Belfast, Todd was hired at King's College, University of London, where he met his wife, the mathematician Olga Taussky, then a postdoc; their marriage in 1938. War work initially involves degaussing of ships for the British navy, then evolves into establishing centralized mathematical computing for the Admiralty. Postwar immigration brings Todds to US, 1947, both to work at US Bureau of Standards; comments on McCarthy era experiences there. John and Olga accept teaching jobs at Caltech, 1957. Note on portrait of Olga, painted in Belfast by mother of crystallographer P. P. Ewald [Clara Ewald, 1939]. Relates story of saving German mathematicians from French-Moroccan troops, 1945, in Oberwolfach in the Black Forest; mathematical institute there survives today. Discussion of teaching computation at Caltech (numerical analysis, numerical algebra, matrix theory); brief mention of mathematical colleagues F. Bohnenblust, A. Erdélyi, M. Ward, and H. P. Robertson. Olga's success as a teacher, although initially barred from professorial ranks. Remarks on state of mathematics and beginnings of computer science at Caltech; mention of student H. H. Hwang
Interview with Frank E. Marble
Get PDFAn interview in seven sessions, January 1994-April 1995, with Frank E. Marble, Richard L. and Dorothy M. Hayman Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Professor of Jet Propulsion, Emeritus. Marble discusses his undergraduate and early graduate study at Case School of Applied Science, his work at the NACA Engine Research Lab in Cleveland, where he was in charge of large-engine research project for B-26 bomber, and his arrival at Caltech in 1946 to complete his doctoral degree in 1948. He discusses his graduate students, including Benoit Mandelbrot and Chuang Feng-kan, his colleagues Clark Millikan, Hans Liepmann, Duncan Rannie, and Arthur Erdélyi; and the beginning of his close and enduring friendship with Theodore von Kármán. Recalls his first visit to Europe in 1949, his meeting with Moe Berg in Switzerland, and his appointment that same year as the first new faculty member of Caltech's Jet Propulsion Center, and the group of courses in jet propulsion he developed for the Center. Besides his discussion of his work in combustion in jet-propulsion systems, flame stabilization, and propagation of acoustic waves, the interview contains his recollections of Tsien Hsue-shen and McCarthy-era politics, the army's refusal to renew Tsien's security clearance in 1950 and Dan Kimball's role in the Tsien case, and Tsien's deportation five years later. Recalls his visiting professorship at Cornell University, spring and summer 1956; his involvement with the Advisory Group for Aeronautical Research and Development of NATO; the development of engineering at Caltech; influence of Felix Klein; and Robert Knapp and the Hydrodynamics Lab. Comments on the GALCIT complex; Homer Joe Stewart; Ed Zukoski; and Ann Karagozian, his only female PhD student. Concludes the interview with his work on compressors; development of supersonic transport and jet noise; turbulent flow; vortex-combustion theory; work in the 1980s; "The Marble Problem;" very-high-speed flight; invitation to teach in China (1982) and seeing Tsien and his family again; Lee DuBridge; and the Caltech Flying Club
Interview with Clair C. Patterson
Get PDFIn this interview in March 1995, nine months before his death, Clair C. (Pat) Patterson, professor of geochemistry, emeritus, talks about his early interest in physical chemistry; his education at Grinnell College, in Iowa; his stint on the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge; and his subsequent graduate work at the University of Chicago with Harrison Brown, where he measured the isotopic composition and concentration of minute quantities of lead with a mass spectrometer. He received his PhD at Chicago in 1951. After a year there as a postdoc, he came to Caltech with Brown, who established a geochemistry program in the Division of Geology. By 1953, having measured the isotopic composition of primordial lead in iron meteorites, Patterson was able to determine the age of the earth at 4.5 billion years. He then turned to a study of the natural levels of terrestrial lead and discovered that in the modern industrial environment, lead concentrations had greatly increased, from such sources as leaded gasoline and the solder used in food cans--with a corresponding increase in lead levels in human beings. He discusses his investigation of lead levels in seawater, oceanic sediments, and polar ice cores and his calculation of the rise in environmental lead levels beginning with the mining of lead in Greek and Roman times. At the end of the interview, he discusses his current interest in the evolution of different neuronal networks for two kinds of thinking, utilitarian and nonutilitarian--and his belief that this is illustrated by similarities in utilitarian thinking in the Old and New Worlds, while their cultural (nonutilitarian) development was dissimilar
Interview with Rudd Brown
Get PDFAn interview on January 31, 1995, with Rudd Brown, on the subject of her former husband, Harrison Brown (1917-1986), who was a professor of geochemistry in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at Caltech from 1951 to 1977, with a joint appointment in the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences as professor of science and government, from 1967. Among other policy positions, he was foreign secretary of the National Academy of Sciences from 1962 to 1974. In 1977, he left Caltech to become director of the Resource Systems Institute at the East-West Center, in Honolulu, remaining there until 1983.
Brown came to Caltech from the University of Chicago, and was shortly followed there by several other Chicago geochemists, including Clair Patterson and Samuel Epstein. He and Rudd were married c. 1950 and divorced in 1975. In this interview, she outlines his family background and childhood in Sheridan, Wyoming, and San Francisco and his wartime work at Oak Ridge. She recalls their early life together at the University of Chicago after World War II and their subsequent years at Caltech, including its social life. She discusses his interest in the problems of overpopulation, resource sustainability, agricultural productivity, and East-West relations. She recalls his help in her political campaigns for Congress in 1958 and 1960 and concludes with recollections of his involvement with the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in the 1960s
Interview with Apollo M. O. Smith
Get PDFAn interview in September 1995 with aerodynamicist Apollo M. O. (Amo) Smith. Smith received his BS (1936) and MS in mechanical and aeronautical engineering (1938) from Caltech.
In this brief interview, he recalls his early experience building and flying gliders with John R. Pierce; his undergraduate years at Caltech; the testing of various aircraft in the ten-foot wind tunnel at GALCIT [Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology] as a graduate student; working on rocketry with Frank J. Malina, Edward S. Forman, and John W. (Jack) Parsons; his employment at the Douglas Aircraft Company, beginning in 1938 in its El Segundo division; and his two years of work (on leave from Douglas) as chief engineer of the newly formed Aerojet Engineering Corporation (1942-1944), developing the JATO [jet-assisted takeoff] rocket
Interview with Rudolph A. Marcus
Get PDFAn interview in three sessions in 1993 with Rudolph A. Marcus, Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry at Caltech and Nobel laureate in chemistry, 1992, conducted by Shirley K. Cohen. Marcus recalls growing up in Montreal and Detroit, his undergraduate and graduate student days in chemistry at McGill University (BSc 1943, PhD 1946); Canadian anti-Semitism and quota on Jewish students; recollections of advisor Carl Winkler and other teachers Raymond Boyer, Otto Maass, and Bob McIntosh; fellow students Louis Nirenberg, Lazar Novak, Sam Epstein; research on chemical reaction rates. He then went to the National Research Council of Canada to do postdoctoral work under Edgar Steacie and Basil Darwent. Marcus discusses his interactions with Nathan Rosen and Wayne Bowers; the "Anomalies in Reaction Kinetics" 1951 symposium at the University of Minnesota where he first presented his work on the theory of unimolecular reactions (the RRKM theory); and his quest for a faculty appointment. In 1951 Marcus joined the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn faculty as assistant professor of chemistry. He recalls early experimental work there with gases, high-vacuum equipment, and rates of various chemical and photochemical reactions; his colleagues Herman Mark, Frank Collins, Paul Doty, Ernest Loebl, Herbert Morawetz, Bruno Zimm, and Paul Ewald; and his key paper in 1956 in electron transfer theory. Sabbatical year (1960-1961) spent at Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University; Dick Bernstein's role in Marcus's decision to wind down his experimental program around 1960; professor of chemistry at University of Illinois (1964-1978) and head, division of physical chemistry (1967-1968). Oxford and Munich sabbatical, 1975-1976. Consultant at Brookhaven National Laboratory and Norman Sutin's influence. Faculty years at Caltech (1978-present) and interactions with Harry Gray, Fred Anson, Jackie Barton, Ahmed Zewail, and other colleagues. Concludes the interview with his approach to theoretical research and getting students to focus on experimental phenomena; honors; post-Nobel life; opinions on "hype" and the role of chance in research
Interview with Robert B. Leighton
Get PDFAn interview in seven sessions in October and November 1986 and January and February 1987 with Robert B. Leighton, William L. Valentine Professor of Physics, emeritus, in the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy. Dr. Leighton received his BS in electrical engineering from Caltech in 1941, then switched to physics (MS 1944; PhD 1947). He joined the Caltech faculty in 1949, becoming a full professor in 1959 and Valentine Professor in 1984.
He recalls growing up in Los Angeles during the Depression; his early interest in mechanical things; his undergraduate and graduate years at Caltech; influence of W. V. Houston and W. R. Smythe; work on aircraft rocket launchers. Recollections of Willy Fowler, Charles Wilts, Paul Epstein, Carl Anderson, Fred Hoyle. Discusses his work on the mesotron (muon); cloud chamber experiments on strange particles; writing Principles of Modern Physics. Postwar rebuilding of Caltech physics: Robert Bacher; R. A. Millikan’s attitude toward theoretical physicists; Robert F. Christy; J. R. Oppenheimer; Richard P. Feynman’s first visit to Caltech.
Photographing the sun and planets with Mount Wilson 60-inch telescope; Fritz Zwicky’s differential photography method; study of Zeeman and Doppler effects; discoveries of solar oscillations and supergranulation; search for a new solar observatory site; choice of Big Bear. Collaboration with Gerry Neugebauer on infrared sky survey; discovery of “dark brown” stars; work on Mariner Mars missions. Recalls his teaching; editing the Feynman lectures with Matt Sands; Feynman as lecturer; difficulties in editing Feynman’s lectures; recollections of Feynman.
Discusses his instrumentation for millimeter and submillimeter astronomy; establishing Caltech Submillimeter Observatory at Mauna Kea; Owens Valley Radio Observatory. Concludes by commenting on his plans for improvements on Mauna Kea