209 research outputs found
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Interview with Robert C. Perpall
Full text linkRobert C. Perpall was born and raised in Los Angeles. He entered Caltech in 1948 and earned his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 1952, and a master's in 1956. Perpall is the historian of Caltech's Gnome Club and a member of the board of SURF [Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships] program. This 29-page interview with Shirley K. Cohen covers Perpall's undergraduate years at Caltech, including his memories of Lee DuBridge, Rodman Paul and George Beadle. As well as discussing his involvement with the SURF program, Perpall's reminiscences include the history of the Gnome Club at Caltech--its early history as a fraternity (Kappa Gamma) and its later revival as a social club
Interview with Theodore Y. Wu
Full text linkAn interview in three sessions, February-March 2002, with Theodore Y. Wu, professor of engineering science, emeritus, in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science. Dr. Wu was born in China and received his BSc from Chiao-Tung University (1946), his MS from Iowa State University (1948), and his PhD from Caltech (1952).
In this interview, he recalls his boyhood and tribulations during Japan's invasion of China in World War II, his emigration and matriculation at Iowa State in 1948, and his arrival at Caltech a year later. Recollections of H. S. Tsien, R. A. Millikan, Theodore von Kármán, Julian Cole. Works with Paco Lagerstrom's aeronautics group developing asymptotic perturbation method pioneered by Ludwig Prandtl. Joins faculty as a research fellow in 1952. Interest in hydrodynamics. Origins of the department of engineering science in the mid-1950s by Tsien, Milton Plesset, and Charles De Prima.
Interest in bioengineering, beginning in 1960; studies bird flight and fish locomotion. Discusses influence of G. I. Taylor and James Lighthill, and recalls his own work on flagellar and ciliary motion of microorganisms. Caltech's 1974 pioneering symposium on Swimming and Flying in Nature; new field of biofluiddynamics. Recollections of Y. C. (Burt) Fung.
Recalls his sabbatical, 1964-65, at University of Hamburg with Georg Weinblum. Joins Advisory Committee for Reactor Safeguards. Recollections of Caltech presidents Lee DuBridge and Marvin L. Goldberger. Visit to China in 1979.
Discusses his work, since 1996 retirement, on modeling of water waves; solitons and tsunamis. Concludes with comments on good relations between Chinese and Chinese American scientists and the flood of Chinese students to US for graduate work in late 1970s, after reestablishment of diplomatic relations
Interview with Peter Goldreich
Full text linkInterview in five sessions in March, April, and November 1998 with Peter Goldreich, Lee A. DuBridge Professor of Astrophysics and Planetary Physics 1981-2003 (emeritus 2003), with joint appointments in the Division of Physics, Mathematics & Astronomy and the Division of Geological & Planetary Sciences.
He begins by discussing his family background and early education at Bronx High School of Science; engineering physics at Cornell; graduate work at Cornell with Thomas Gold on solar-system dynamics (PhD 1963). Postdoc with Donald Lynden-Bell at Cambridge; work on spiral density waves in galaxies. Friendship with Wallace Sargent. Assistant professorship at UCLA. Joins Caltech faculty 1966 as associate professor, with joint appointments in physics and geology divisions, becomes full professor 1969. Resident associate in Page House 1976-1980. Suicide of assistant professor Peter Young, 1981. 1987 presidential search committee.
Discusses his work on orbital dynamics, solar rotation, magnetospheres, pulsars, astronomical masers, circumstellar disks, solar oscillations, planetary rings, shepherd satellites, interstellar turbulence, white-dwarf pulsations.
Long discussion of LIGO [Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory] history at Caltech, including his involvement in conflict between LIGO's original leader, Ronald W. P. Drever, and Rochus (Robbie) Vogt, LIGO director 1987-1994. His support, with Sargent and Maarten Schmidt, of Drever. Comments on current state of astronomy and physics at Caltech. Closes with recollections of receiving National Medal of Science from President Clinton in 1995
Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello on LIGO
Full text linkInterview, December 2, 1998, with Thomas A. Tombrello, then chairman of the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy.
Recalls arriving at Caltech in 1961 as postdoc with Tommy Lauritsen. Early work at Caltech on gravitational-wave detectors. Role of Kip S. Thorne, James Mercereau. 1976 committee to pursue gravitational-wave work. Arrival of Ronald W. P. Drever. MIT involvement under Rainer Weiss. Hiring of Frederick Raab and Jeff Kimble. Tombrello proposes Rochus (Robbie) Vogt as LIGO head, 1987; his relationship with Vogt. Vogt's dismissal as provost 1987 and lobbying effort for LIGO in Washington. Problems with Drever. LIGO's growing pains, late 1980s, early 1990s. President Thomas Everhart's lack of involvement. Vogt's difficulties leading an expanding LIGO. Formation of LIGO Oversight Committee under Lew Allen. National Science Foundation's involvement. NSF meeting January 1994 and dismissal of Vogt as director. Barry Barish becomes director. Earlier mishandling of Drever affair by Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee. Discussion of bad feelings on campus and within project.
Current promising outlook under Barish. How LIGO project is viewed at Caltech and at MIT. Raab's tenure problems. Tombrello as tenure committee head; role of Kenneth Libbrecht. Raab as Hanford site manager. LIGO's prospects. Fallout from dismissal of Vogt and Drever in early 1990s. Comments on new Caltech president David Baltimore, and on former presidents Marvin L. Goldberger and Harold Brown and former geology division chairman Robert Sharp. Comments on reengineering project begun under Everhart
Interview with James A. Westphal
Full text linkAn interview in six sessions in 1998 with James A. Westphal, engineer and instrument designer who became research associate and later professor of planetary science at Caltech (1961-2004); and principal investigator for the Hubble Space Telescope's original Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WFPC 1, 1977-1994). He was born in 1930 in Dubuque, Iowa, to parents of German ancestry and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Little Rock, Arkansas. Receives BS in physics from the University of Tulsa in 1954 and works for seven years in geophysical research for oil companies before coming to Caltech in 1961. He recalls early work in geology division with C. Hewitt Dix, H. Lowenstam and B. Murray; with the latter on chemical differentiation of the lunar surface, his first involvement with planetary science. Works with B. Kamb on Blue Glacier; also with M. Schmidt and J. Gunn in astronomy. Recollections of Caltech colleagues G. Neugebauer, R. Leighton, R. Feynman. Comments on history of 200-inch telescope at Cerro Tololo and Caltech's relationship with Carnegie Observatories. He recalls work in early 1970s with J. Kristian for Palomar Observatory on highly sensitive electronic detectors (silicon vidicon photometer) leading to the evolution of CCDs [charge-coupled devices]. Joins NAS's COMPLEX committee at invitation of chairman G.Wasserburg; involvement with NASA's Galileo mission. Subsequent involvement with Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging project; proposal for original wide-field and planetary camera put together with J. Gunn at JPL. He comments on early attitude of HST astronomers toward planetary scientists. Installation and testing of WFPC 1 in telescope; 1990 launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Trouble with HST's solar panels and subsequent repair efforts. Westphal receives MacArthur award, 1991, and succeeds G. Neugebauer as director of Palomar, 1994-1997. With J. Miller of Lick Observatory becomes acting co-director of the new Keck Telescope; comments on instrument building. Earlier work (1983) with former grad student S. Kieffer, of USGS, on dynamics of Old Faithful geyser resumed; builds camera to send to the bottom of the geyser. Comments on R. Leighton's contributions to X-ray and infrared observations and planetary science. Further comments on instrument building
Interview with Ward Whaling
Full text linkAn interview in four sessions, in April and May 1999, with Ward Whaling, professor of physics, emeritus, in the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy. He recalls growing up outside Dallas and later Houston, Texas. Entered Rice University in 1941 and joined Army Signal Corps. Graduated with a BS in physics in February '44, and spent three months in the Signal Corps Officer Candidate School, Fort Monmouth, NJ, where he studied advanced radar techniques. Recalls his stint with the U.S. occupation forces in Bremen. Discharged in September 1946, he returned to Rice for graduate work, where he became a teaching assistant for William V. Houston; PhD 1947, with Thomas W. Bonner, thesis on the reactions of lithium-6 with deuterium. He recalls work with early Van de Graaff accelerators. Dr. Whaling became a research fellow at Caltech in 1949 (he joined the faculty as an assistant professor in 1952). At Rice, he had been working on energy levels of beryllium-7, which was of interest to a group at Caltech's Kellogg Radiation Laboratory. He joined the Kellogg group and helped build a magnetic spectrometer. He recalls that work and his colleagues Alvin Tollestrup, William A. Fowler, Charles C. and Thomas Lauritsen, and later Fay Ajzenberg-Selove, Charles A. Barnes, Ralph Kavanagh, Robert King. Discusses Caltech's postwar military projects. Recalls Fred Hoyle's work on nucleogenesis at Caltech and Hoyle's interactions with Kellogg group and Caltech astronomers. Offers his recollections of social life at Caltech, and of Robert Bacher's tenure as division chairman [1948-1962]. Recalls the musical shows that J. Kent Clark [professor of English 1947-1986] and Elliot Davis put together, and the Apicians, a dining club at the Athenaeum. There is an extensive discussion of the early days of astrophysics and nucleosynthesis at Caltech. Describes his duties as secretary for the Faculty Board (a post he has held since 1984) and the work of the Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee. Discusses his unrewarding year as RA [resident associate] in Fleming House in the mid-1950s and the undergraduate culture at Caltech. Became emeritus in 1993. Reflects on how much he has enjoyed teaching at Caltech, especially the laboratories. He concludes the interview with a discussion of his work on the scanning interferometer for the McMath solar telescope at Kitt Peak to measure atomic branching ratios
Interview with Renato Dulbecco
Full text linkInterview in 1998 with Italian-American virologist Renato Dulbecco, who came to Caltech in 1949 as a senior research fellow at the invitation of Max Delbrück, joined the faculty of the Biology Division, and remained at Caltech until 1962. In this interview, he recalls his education at the University of Turin (MD 1936) in his native Italy, working with Giuseppe Levi and Rita Levi-Montalcini; his experiences during the war years in Italy; his arrival in the United States in 1947 to work with Salvador Luria on phage at Indiana University, where James Watson was a colleague; his meeting with Delbrück at Cold Spring Harbor; and his arrival at Caltech and eventual switch to the study of animal viruses. Discusses his work with western equine encephalitis virus, polio virus, Rous sarcoma virus, and his collaborations with postdoc Harry Rubin and student Howard Temin. Leaves Caltech in 1962 to join Michael Stoker at Glasgow University for a year, thence to Salk Institute for Biological Research, in La Jolla. Moves in 1972 to Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories in London and works with Yoshi Ito. Focuses on breast cancer. Receives Nobel Prize in 1975 (with Howard Temin and David Baltimore). Returns to Salk in 1977. Recollections of Jonas Salk, David Baltimore, and Jacob Bronowski. In 1988, he succeeds Fred De Hoffmann as president of Salk. Resigns in 1992 and divides his time between La Jolla and the Milan laboratory of Italy's National Research Council, working on breast cancer
Interview with Gary H. Sanders
Full text linkInterview October 16, 1998, with Gary H. Sanders, then project manager for LIGO; currently (2010) project manager for the Thirty-Meter Telescope.
Recalls building cyclotron, Stuyvesant High School. Physics major, Columbia University (BA 1967): Mel Schwartz, Leon Lederman, Jack Steinberger, T. D. Lee; politically active. PhD, high-energy physics (MIT, 1971). Three years with Samuel C. C. Ting at DESY in Germany. Princeton postdoc with A. J. S. Smith. Brookhaven and Fermilab. Leaves for Los Alamos, 1978. To Brookhaven, 1984, kaon decay experiment.
Proposes neutrino experiment, Los Alamos. Meets Barry Barish, member DOE review committee. Discusses neutrino oscillation experiments. Involved with SSC [Superconducting Super Collider] in 1989 through Ting, who builds a detector for it. Troubles between Ting and Roy Schwitters, SSC director. Barish as co-leader of U.S. groups with Ting. Ting detector project falls through; Sanders and Barish pick it up. 1993, Congress cancels SSC. Barish returns to Caltech; Sanders to Los Alamos to GLAST [Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope]; investigates WWII human radiation experiments at Los Alamos.
Rochus (Robbie) Vogt removed as LIGO director, replaced by Barish (1994), who brings Sanders in as project manager. His first impressions of LIGO. Comments on Kip Thorne, Rainer Weiss, Vogt, and Ronald W. P. Drever. NSB review of LIGO, fall 1994. Many LIGO scientists left. Caltech as ideal LIGO venue.
Collaboration with foreign gravity-wave groups. Common data format. LIGO Scientific Collaboration. LIGO origins at Caltech in 1970s. Discusses need for openness in LIGO
Interview with Wheeler J. North
Full text linkInterview in 1998 with Wheeler North, professor of environmental science, emeritus, in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science. North received a BS in electrical engineering (1944) and biology (1950) from Caltech, and PhD (1953) from the University of California, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. His principal research interest is marine ecology, specifically the kelp beds off Southern California and the sea urchin population. He discusses effects of sewage outfalls and El Niño on kelp beds, the predations of sea urchins, and consulting for California's kelp-harvesting industry. Recalls diving and experiments with early scuba equipment as student at Caltech. At Scripps, he worked with group studying the physiology of diving. Postgraduate work with NSF fellowship at Cambridge. Returned to Scripps with fellowship from Rockefeller Foundation, worked on photoreception in Metridium, taught diving course. In 1963, he joined Jack McKee's environmental engineering science program at Caltech. Comments on early days of the program; his work at Caltech's Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory at Corona del Mar; growing interest in the environment in 1970s and popularity of his ecology course among undergraduates and graduate students in various disciplines. Discusses 1969 oil-well blowout off Santa Barbara; contrast with Tampico oil spill off Baja in 1957. Discusses funding from National Science Foundation, after 1973 oil crisis, for kelp farms to produce biomass as an alternative fuel; later funding by General Electric, Department of Energy, and Gas Research Institute. Discusses kelp farming in China. Discusses work as consultant for Southern Cal Edison at San Onofre and Pacific Gas & Electric at Humboldt Bay and Diablo Canyon, on ecological effects of warm-water discharges from nuclear power plants. Discusses project funded by Electric Power Research Institute in early 1990s to reduce atmospheric CO2 using marine biomass and hydrates
Interview with Hans A. Bethe
Full text linkTwo interviews conducted at Caltech in 1982 and 1993 with theoretical physicist Hans Bethe. The recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics in 1967 for his work on nuclear reactions in stars, Bethe was born in Strasbourg and educated at the University of Frankfurt and at the University of Munich, where he earned a PhD in 1928 under A. Sommerfeld at the Institute for Theoretical Physics. From 1928 to 1933, Bethe held a variety of teaching positions in Germany, also visiting the Physics Institute of the University of Rome in Via Panisperna 89A in 1931 and 1932. Hitler's rise to power forced Bethe from the University of Tubingen in 1933. Two years later he became an assistant professor at Cornell University, garnering a full professorship there in 1937. In the 1982 interview Bethe speaks principally about his contacts at Caltech, including L. Pauling, R. Millikan, T. von Karman, F. Zwicky, C. C. Lauritsen, W. A. Fowler, R. Feynman and R. F. Bacher. He discusses his relations with other prominent physicists, including E. Teller, N. Bohr and J. R. Oppenheimer. He also describes his first impressions of nuclear physics, the political climate in Italy in the 1930s, and the Rome school of physics, including E. Fermi, F. Rasetti, and E. Segre. The 1993 interview concerns R. Bacher at Cornell and at work on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos during World War II