209 research outputs found
Sort by
Interview with Thayer Scudder
Full text linkAn interview in four sessions, in December 2000, and January and February 2001, with Thayer (Ted) Scudder, professor of anthropology, emeritus, in the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Dr. Scudder received his BA at Harvard College (1952) and his PhD at Harvard University (1960). He joined the Caltech faculty as an assistant professor in 1964, received tenure in 1966, and became a full professor in 1969.
In this wide-ranging interview, he recalls his upbringing as a “college brat” in Swarthmore, where his father was a professor of English; his education at The Fenn School and Phillips Exeter; his early interest in bird watching and mountaineering, and his eventual turn, in graduate school, to anthropology. He discusses the fieldwork in the Middle Zambezi Valley with Elizabeth Colson among the Gwembe Tonga that led to his dissertation, and his subsequent studies on hydro-politics and the impact of resettlement of indigenous people to make way for huge dam projects, such as the Kariba Dam and the Aswan High Dam.
He recalls Caltech in the mid-sixties, his first friendships there, and the advent of the social sciences program. He describes the Scudder theory of successful resettlement and its four stages: pre-dam planning; adaptation to new habitat accompanied by physiological, psychological, and sociocultural stress; community formation and economic development; and handing over to the succeeding generation. He discusses the impact of dams on people living downstream; his work on transboundary flood regimes; his appointment to the World Commission on Dams in 1998; and the findings in their November 2000 report and the various reactions to it
Interview with Arthur W. Galston
Full text linkInterview in one session by Shirley K. Cohen conducted in New Haven, Connecticut, with Arthur William Galston, Eaton Professor Emeritus of Botany at Yale, and formerly Associate Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology. Galston was an expert in plant physiology, specifically the chemical control of plant growth. His social concerns about the impact of science led him into bioethics and to membership in several social and political action organizations.
In his interview, Galston dates his discovery of botany to his undergraduate years at Cornell with professor Loren Petry and recounts his continuation of his studies in botany and biochemistry at the University of Illinois (PhD 1943), followed by an invitation from James Bonner to join Caltech's Division of Biology to work on guayule. After several unsettled years, including time in the navy during World War II, Galston returned to Caltech as a senior research fellow, later becoming a tenured professor in 1951. He recalls teaching and research at Caltech with colleagues in biology, including George Beadle, Norman Horowitz, Herschel Mitchell, Ray Owen, and later, Edward B. Lewis; and plant biologists Bonner, Frits Went, Robert Emerson, and Arie Haagen-Smit. Galston acknowledges his political support of Linus Pauling in the early 1950s and his admiration for Max Delbrück and Richard Feynman. He recounts briefly the origin of the phytotron under Went and the reasons for its being demolished following Went's departure from Caltech. He comments on the end of the Thomas Hunt Morgan era in biology at Caltech and the bringing in of George Beadle to run the division. His own interest in interdisciplinary work and in politics eventually lead him into bioethics. He recalls the circumstances of his leaving Caltech for Yale in 1955 and the family and professional issues that were involved in that move
Interview with Peter John Wyllie
Full text linkAn interview in four sessions, March and April 2002, with Peter John Wyllie, professor of geology, emeritus, in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences. Dr. Wyllie received his undergraduate and graduate education at the University of St Andrews, in Scotland (BSc, geology and physics, 1952; BSc, geology, 1955, honors; PhD 1958). Joined Caltech faculty 1983 as chair of the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, remaining chairman until 1987. Served as divisional academic officer 1994-1999 and became professor emeritus in 1999.
In this interview, he recalls growing up in England, his grammar school education, national service, undergraduate career at St Andrews, and participation in two British Greenland Expeditions (1950 and 1952-1954). Graduate work with Harald Drever at St Andrews, continuing under O. F. Tuttle at Penn State. Postdoc at Leeds University, U.K., 1959-1961. Returned to Penn State in 1961 as associate professor of geochemistry. Moved to the University of Chicago in 1965, remaining for eighteen years and chairing the Department of Geophysical Sciences before coming to Caltech.
He discusses his division chairmanship, teaching the introductory geology course, and the evolution of the division’s curriculum, particularly under chairman Edward M. Stolper. Recalls his involvement with various geological societies and receipt of several awards, including Wollaston Medal (1982) and Roebling Medal, Mineralogical Society of America (2001). Discusses his work on the National Academy of Sciences’ first national survey of earth sciences. Discusses high-pressure experimental petrology at Penn State, Chicago, and Caltech with various graduate students and postdocs, including Gus Koster van Groos, David Watkinson, John K. Robertson, Wuu-Liang Huang, and Who-jer Lee. Comments on the current state of the division as it moves into an era of global change and collaboration with environmental engineering
Interview with Petr Vogel
Full text linkAn interview in two sessions, December 2002 and January 2003, with Petr Vogel, Senior Research Associate in Physics, Emeritus in the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy. Born and raised in Prague, Vogel recalls his family's experiences in the concentration camp in Theresienstadt, his post-World War II experiences growing up under Communism; college preparation in the LaGuardia Gymnasium; transfer from Charles University to the Prague Institute of Technology; post-graduate work at the Nuclear Research Institute of the Academy of Sciences near Prague in the early sixties; contacts with scientists from Russia (Vadim Soloviev) and from the West at a summer school in 1962 in Slovakia and transfer to the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research in Dubna (USSR), where Vogel finished his graduate studies (1966) and returned to his job at the Prague Institute. He recalls the Prague Spring of 1968 and its collapse; postdoctoral work at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen and his interactions there with Kai Neergaard (1968-70), working on pure nuclear structure problems; and his arrival at Caltech in 1970 to work with Felix Boehm. Vogel also began collaborating with Aage Winther on the problems of mu-mesic atoms; and also with Steven Koonin and Brian Davis having to do with work done in Boehm's group on some effects that looked like time reversal. He comments on the interest in neutrino physics at the end of the seventies by Fred Reines's (at Irvine) and Boehm's group; theoretical calculations on the neutrino spectrum at nuclear reactors that led to important experimental work in the eighties; Reine's claim that he had discovered neutrino oscillations (and Richard Feynman's efforts to disprove it); and his work with Feynman on the supposed existence of a fifth force, also a wrong claim
Interview with David L. Goodstein
Full text linkAn interview in four sessions, November and December 2002, with David L. Goodstein, Gilloon Distinguished Teaching and Service Professor, emeritus, and professor of physics and applied physics, emeritus, in the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy. Dr. Goodstein received his BS from Brooklyn College (1960) and his PhD from the University of Washington (1965). He joined the Caltech faculty in 1966, serving as Caltech’s vice provost from 1987 to 2007, and became professor emeritus in 2009.
He recalls his early education; taking up experimental low-temperature physics at the University of Washington; recruitment to Caltech by James Mercereau. Six-month NSF Fellowship, University of Rome. Teaching Physics 2 at Caltech; friendship with Richard Feynman; their trip to the University of Chicago in 1967. Establishment of applied physics option.
Comments extensively on the production of the innovative 52-part TV series he conceived called The Mechanical Universe (released 1985-86).
Recollections of Caltech presidents Harold Brown and Marvin “Murph” Goldberger; Arroyo Center controversy under Goldberger; Goldberger’s difficulties with provost R. E. Vogt. His own duties as vice provost; involvement with scientific misconduct; technology transfer and patents; SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships); Campus Computing Organization (later, Information Technology Services). Describes his work on various NSF committees, the California Council on Science and Technology, and the Packard Foundation. Concludes by commenting on his love of teaching, both of undergraduate and graduate students
Interview with Nicholas W. Tschoegl
Full text linkAn interview in five sessions, April-June 2001, with Nicholas W. Tschoegl, professor of chemical engineering, emeritus, in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Dr. Tschoegl, a native of Moravia, recalls his French/Austrian background, World War II service in Hungarian Army, and postwar control of Hungary by the Communists. Leaves Hungary in October 1948, via Austria, arrving in Australia 1949. BSc from New South Wales University of Technology; PhD in rheology with A. E. Alexander, University of New South Wales, 1958. Discusses his work on dough rheology, Bread Research Institute of Australia.
Work with J. D. Ferry, University of Wisconsin, 1961-1963, on polymers. Stanford Research Institute, 1963-1965. Joins Caltech faculty, 1965, as associate professor of materials science in engineering division. Works on solid propellants for rockets, funded by air force. In 1967, becomes professor of chemical engineering in Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Discusses polymers and synthetic rubber. Recalls visiting professorships: Delft; Gutenberg University, Mainz; Imperial College, London; Centre de Recherches sur les Macromolécules, Strasbourg; ETH, Zurich.
Discusses block copolymers and spectral functions; time-dependent properties of polymers; WLF [Williams-Landel-Ferry] equation to block copolymers and other multitransition systems; development of FMT [Fillers-Moonan-Tschoegl] equation. Formation of International Congress and International Committee on Rheology. Recalls Caltech's interaction with Soviet scientists and subsequent estrangement, mid-1980s.
Discusses managing Caltech's Watson lectures; post-retirement visiting professorship at University of Ljubljana, with Igor Emri; Emri's work at Caltech with Wolfgang Knauss; founding of journal Mechanics of Time-Dependent Materials. Discusses his two books: The Phenomenological Theory of Linear Viscoelastic Behavior and Fundamentals of Equilibrium and Steady-State Thermodynamics. Recalls consultancies: with JPL's polymer section, 1960s; Phillips Petroleum, 1968-1983; Firestone Tire & Rubber, 1974-1980; Naval Weapons Center. Comments on colleagues and past Caltech presidents; recalls death of chemical engineer and Caltech vice president William Corcoran. Tschoegl concludes interview by listing his memberships in professional societies and other professional activities
Interview with Jerome Pine
Full text linkAn interview in four sessions, October-November 2001, with Jerome Pine, neuroscientist and physics professor in the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy. Recalls graduate school at Cornell (MS with Philip Morrison, PhD, 1956, with Kenneth Greisen); instructorship 1956-62 at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center; arrival at Caltech as associate professor in 1963.
Member of Caltech high-energy physics user group at SLAC and Fermilab; early involvement in science education; takes up neuroscience; 1978-79 sabbatical, Washington University Medical School with W. Maxwell Cowan; neurobiology workshop, Woods Hole, summer 1978; summer course with John Nicholls, Cold Spring Harbor, 1979; invents multi-electrode device to record action potentials from cultured neurons; sets up Pinelab; prevalence of physicists in neurobiology. Recalls graduate students; discusses his neurobiology course.
1987-88 sabbatical in U.K. at Medical Research Council Laboratory with Dennis Bray and Kings College-Chelsea on science assessment in schools; NSF grant to study science assessment in elementary schools. Works on elementary-school science education with James M. Bower in Pasadena school district; with Bower and Jennifer Yuré, visits Mesa, AZ, school district. Pilot program, Field School, later expansion; partnership with Apple; establishment of Project SEED (Science for Early Educational Development). Involvement of Georges Charpak; program in France. Establishment of CAPSI (Caltech Precollege Science Initiative); developing content modules for teacher education; grant from NSF Centers for Teacher Enhancement.
His innovations in Caltech undergraduate physics; two-track Physics 1 course; take-home physics kits. Freshman seminars; teaching atomic physics to juniors. Caltech’s lack of interest in CAPSI; CAPSI’s research division; Caltech’s promotion of student diversity; Lee Browne’s minority-students program. Concludes by discussing spread of his science-education programs to Colombia, Estonia, and Sweden
Interview with Lee A. DuBridge, Part I
Full text linkPhysicist Lee A. DuBridge became president of the California Institute of Technology in 1946. In this interview he recalls the immediate problems he faced, including his dealings with Robert A. Millikan, whom he replaced as chief administrator of the institute; institute financing and inadequate salaries. DuBridge also talks about the advent of federal support for peacetime science and Millikan's distaste for it; his close working relationship with Robert F. Bacher, who came to the institute in 1949 as chairman of the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy; his recollections of the meteorologist Irving P. Krick, the physicist Alexander Goetz, and the chemist Linus Pauling; and his attempts to build up the Humanities Division
Interview with Lee A. DuBridge, Part II
Full text linkPhysicist Lee A. DuBridge became president of the California Institute of Technology in 1946. In this interview he recalls his dealings at Caltech with Linus Pauling; his memories of George W. Beadle, Theodore von Kármán, and J. Robert Oppenheimer; the military Vista Project at Caltech; and the difficulties surrounding the deportation of Hsue-shen Tsien, Caltech's Goddard Professor of Jet Propulsion
Interview with Amnon Yariv
Full text linkInterview in three sessions in November and December 1999 with Amnon Yariv, Martin and Eileen Summerfield Professor of Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science. Dr. Yariv received his BS (1954), MS (1956), and PhD (1958) from UC Berkeley.
He recalls his childhood in Tel Aviv in the British Mandate of Palestine, his parents' Polish background, and his early education, which included military training. In 1948, British occupation ends; he participates in the Israeli-Arab conflict; in 1950, leaves Israeli Army to attend the Technion, a technical university in Haifa.
Emigrates to U.S. in 1951; matriculates at San Mateo Junior College; transfers to Berkeley, studies electrical engineering (control theory); switches to radio engineering, under John Whinnery, for MS; enters new field of masers for PhD. In 1959, joins group at Bell Labs under James P. Gordon working on making the first laser. Visits T. H. Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories after Maiman produces first laser using another approach. Leaves Bell Labs to work on lasers for Watkins-Johnson. Joins Caltech September 1964 as associate professor of electrical engineering; sets up laboratory on semiconductor lasers and another on nonlinear optics. Contacts with Roy Gould; laser work of Nicholas George. Teaches course in solid-state physics and one in laser physics called Quantum Electronics. Publishes Quantum Electronics in 1967, first text in the field. Starts applied physics program in 1970, which includes Professors Thomas C. McGill, Roy Gould, Marc-Aurele Nicolet, William B. Bridges, Ahmed Zewail, William A. Goddard, Kerry Vahala, Harry Atwater, Paul Bellan, Noel Corngold, and Axel Scherer.
In late 1970s, invited by Tel Aviv University to join Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies. 1967 paper proposes optoelectronic integrated circuits using gallium arsenide crystals. Discusses ideas of Charles Kao on enabling fiberoptics with laser light; pioneer work at Corning on fiberoptics; work of his graduate student Kam Lau on modulation speeds; history of optical communication field. Starts fiberoptics company Ortel.
Discussion of the science of nonlinear optics and phase conjugate optics. Consultant for Arroyo Optics. Collaboration with Scherer on micro-optics; air force grant to study artificial periodic optical materials (photonic band-gap materials). Discussion of companies started by his former students. Concludes by commenting on his service in 1980s on committee formed to restructure LIGO and on his frequent visits to Japan and collaboration with Hitachi Labs