2010-02-09T16:57:44+40:00 http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/perl/oai?verb=ListRecords&metadataPrefix=oai_dc

oai:CaltechOH:15 2002-10-21

Bonner, James All Records Biology Interview in 1980 with professor of biology James Bonner begins with his recollections of growing up in an academic family. In 1929, his father, a physical chemist at the University of Utah, was a visitor at Caltech, where Bonner enrolled as a junior. Recalls course work with X-ray crystallographer Roscoe G. Dickinson and activities of Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering under Arthur Amos Noyes; humanities courses with William B. Munro; physics with Earnest Watson, William V. Houston, and Carl Anderson; geology with John P. Buwalda; and biology with Thomas Hunt Morgan, Henry Borsook, and Theodosius Dobzhansky. Became Dobzhansky’s summer researcher and editor; switched from chemistry to biology. Graduate work with Dobzhansky on Drosophila genetics and Kenneth Thimann on plant hormone auxin. Friendship with Noyes. NRC postdoctoral fellowship to Utrecht, Leiden, and ETH, 1934-35. Joined Caltech’s Biology Division in 1936 as an instructor: recalls colleagues Frits Went, Arie J. Haagen-Smit, Johannes van Overbeek; plant labs at Caltech; coining of term phytotron. Recollections of Robert A. Millikan. War work for U.S. Emergency Rubber Project on guayule and Cryptostegia. Work on cell biology with Sam Wildman; discovery of Fraction 1, central enzyme of photosynthesis. Founding of Caltech’s Industrial Associates program in 1950. Recalls graduate student Paul Tso, discovery of plant actomycin, isolation of ribosomes. Work of Robert Holley on transfer RNAs. Consultant to Malaysian rubber industry. “Next 100 Years” project, with Harrison Brown. Studies RNA in 1960s with R. C. Huang and histone chemistry with Douglas Fambrough. Visitor at Oxford, 1963. Remarks on underdeveloped countries. Study of population growth with H. Brown. Comments on his recent work on cloning genes, and visits to Singapore and China. His hopes for genetic engineering. Stint as acting chairman of the Biology Division; comments on Robert L. Sinsheimer. [See also 1978 joint interview with Bonner, N. H. Horowitz, D. F. Poulson, and S. H. Emerson.] 1982-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Bonner_J application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/15/00/OH_Bonner_J.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Bonner_J

oai:CaltechOH:16 2002-10-21

Delbruck, Max Physics All Records Biology Interview in 1978 with Max Delbruck, professor of biology emeritus, begins with his recollections of growing up in an academic family in Berlin. Trained at Gottingen in the late 1920s as a theoretical physicist, he later switched to biology, inspired by Niels Bohr to investigate the applications of complementarity to biological phenomena. After postgraduate work at Bristol and Copenhagen, he returned to Berlin in 1932 to work for Lise Meitner and formed a "club" of theoretical physicists, biologists, and biochemists, who met for discussions at his mother's house. Recollections of the advent of the Nazis in 1933. In 1937 Delbruck left Berlin for Caltech on a Rockefeller Fellowship; he defends the decision of other German scientists, notably Heisenberg, to remain in Germany. At Caltech he began working in Drosophila genetics but quickly shifted to phage work with Emory Ellis. Moved to Vanderbilt University in 1940, where he remained for seven years; comments on Oswald Avery's identification of DNA as the "transforming principle." Recalls his association with Salvador Luria and summer phage group at Cold Spring Harbor in the 1940s; joint letter with Linus Pauling to Science in 1940 on intermolecular forces in biological processes; his reaction to 1945 publication of Erwin Schrodinger's What is Life? Returned to Caltech in 1947 as professor of biology; comments on activities of Biology Division under chairmen George W. Beadle and Ray Owen, and the psychobiology of Roger Sperry. Recalls 1953 Watson-Crick discovery of the structure of DNA; comments on Watson as director of Cold Spring Harbor and on The Double Helix. Comments on receiving (with Luria and Alfred Hershey) the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Recalls his later work on Phycomyces. The interview ends with Delbruck's overview of the history of German science and its travails under the Nazis, and recollections of his postwar visits there. 1979-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Delbruck_M application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/16/01/OH_Delbruck_M.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Delbruck_M

oai:CaltechOH:17 2002-10-22

Richter, Charles Geology All Records Interview in 1978 with Charles F. Richter, professor of seismology emeritus, in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences. A pioneer in seismology and active in the seismology and earthquake engineering fields for over fifty years, Richter’s name is known for the earthquake magnitude scale he developed in the 1930s for local earthquakes. Richter received his PhD from Caltech in 1928. In 1937 he joined the Caltech faculty and worked alongside Harry Wood in the Seismological Laboratory, which that year was transferred to Caltech from the Carnegie Institution of Washington and was situated in the San Rafael area of Pasadena. The interview covers a wide range of topics, including his graduate student years at Caltech, then headed by Robert A. Millikan; recollections of Harry Wood, Beno Gutenberg, and Hugo Benioff and their work in the early years of the Seismological Laboratory; the prospects for earthquake prediction; the role of the Bikini atomic tests in studies of the propagation of seismic waves; the tectonics of Japan; the importance of earthquake engineering; his consulting work with the L.A. Dept. of Water and Power; and his views on latter-day developments in the geology division and at Caltech. 1979-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Richter_C application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/17/00/OH_Richter_C.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Richter_C

oai:CaltechOH:18 2002-10-22

Pauling, Linus Chemistry All Records Interview in 1984 with Linus Pauling, professor of chemistry emeritus. He recalls his instructorship in quantitative analysis at Oregon Agricultural College at age 18. To Caltech for graduate study, 1922. As preparation, Arthur Amos Noyes sent him proof sheets of Noyes’s new book, Chemical Principles. Studied X-ray crystallography with Roscoe G. Dickinson. Gave seminar on Debye-Huckel theory of electrolytic solutions for visiting P. J. W. Debye. Recollections of Noyes (then chairman of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering), Dickinson, and Ralph W. G. Wyckoff. Discusses X-ray crystallography and its history. Recollections of Gilbert N. Lewis, Caltech’s rivalry with Berkeley. Paper with Richard C. Tolman on residual entropy of crystals; recalls courses with Tolman. Offer of professorship at Harvard in 1929 and MIT c. 1930. Death of Noyes (1936) and Pauling’s appointment as chairman of chemistry division (1937). Remarks on Biology Division and advent of Thomas Hunt Morgan (1928). Work on hemoglobin in mid-1930s. Remarks on Karl Landsteiner and immunology. Lectures on “complementariness” as basis of biological specificity; paper with Max Delbruck. Projected book on the molecular basis of biological specificity, to be called The Nature of Life. Recollections of Albert Tyler and George W. Beadle. Comments on relations with Warren Weaver and Rockefeller Foundation. Discusses work on protein structure and discovery of alpha helix. Discusses his reasons for leaving Caltech in 1963 and the attitude of Caltech president Lee DuBridge and John Roberts, then chair of the chemistry division. Recalls his resignation of division chairmanship in 1957; attitude of trustees toward his politics; his efforts to raise money to defend colleague Sidney Weinbaum. Recalls being badgered by Lawrence Spivak on Meet the Press in 1950s. Comments on quantum mechanical theory of resonance and the chemical bond. Comments on Center for Study of Democratic Institutions. 1984-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Pauling_L application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/18/00/OH_Pauling_L.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Pauling_L

oai:CaltechOH:19 2007-09-17

Converse, Frederick J. All Records Engineering Interview in 1978 with Frederick Converse, professor of soil mechanics emeritus, covers his family background in upper New York State, his undergraduate education in engineering at the University of Rochester, and his professional life at Caltech. At Rochester, his mentor was Frederic W. Hinrichs, who later became dean of students at Caltech in its early years. Converse was hired as an instructor in Caltech's engineering division in 1920, by the division's first chairman, Franklin Thomas. A pioneer in civil engineering and an adviser to builders, architects, and contractors, Converse taught one of the earliest courses in the country on soil mechanics and conducted research on the vibration compaction of sands and cohesive soils. He was a leader in professional organizations in his field and consulted for various firms and government agencies, including the United States Navy, the California Division of Architecture, the Kaiser Steel Mill, and Permanente Metals Corp. 1979 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Converse_F application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/19/01/OH_Converse_F.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Converse_F

oai:CaltechOH:21 2002-10-25

Bonner, James Emerson, Sterling Horowitz, Norman Poulson, Donald All Records Biology In this 1978 informal conversation, the participants recall the early days of biology at Caltech under its first chairman, Thomas Hunt Morgan, including recollections of Theodosius Dobzhansky. Poulson, a professor of biology at Yale, and Caltech professor of biology Bonner describe their undergraduate and graduate education at Caltech in the early 1930s in chemistry, biology, and physics, including a botany course taught by Emerson, professor of biology emeritus. Memories of plant physiologist Herman Dolk, killed in an auto accident in 1932, and the early humanities faculty, including Clinton Judy, Harvey Eagleson, and William B. Munro. Re-creation of Columbia fly room at Caltech with Alfred H. Sturtevant and Dobzhansky; their collaboration on Drosophila pseudoobscura and their later disagreement. Bonner’s work on plant physiology with Kenneth Thimann and H. Dolk. Norman Horowitz, chairman of the Biology Division, recalls arriving at Caltech as a graduate student in the late 1930s and being assigned by Morgan to work with embryologist Albert Tyler. Recalls visits to Caltech’s marine biological station at Corona del Mar and NRC fellowship to Stanford, where he first met George W. Beadle. Bonner and Horowitz comment on the direction of Caltech’s Biology Division in the 1930s—all experiment, no descriptive biology, and an emphasis on genetics rare among universities at that time. Comments on collaboration with chemists, including Linus Pauling. Reenergizing of the Biology Division in the late 1940s with the return of Beadle, Horowitz, Edward B. Lewis, and Max Delbrück. Beadle becomes chairman of the division; contrast between his and Morgan’s style of leadership. Growth of Biology Division under Beadle. 1981-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Joint_Biology application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/21/01/OH_Joint_Biology.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Joint_Biology

oai:CaltechOH:22 2002-10-29

Horowitz, Norman All Records Jet Propulsion Laboratory Biology Interview, 1984, with Norman Horowitz, professor of biology emeritus and former chairman of the Biology Division (1977-1980), who arrived at Caltech as a graduate student in 1936. Recollections of Thomas Hunt Morgan; embryologist Albert Tyler, with whom he did his PhD; Caltech's marine biological station at Corona del Mar. Comments on Biology Division in the late 1930s: Calvin Bridges on Drosophila salivary chromosomes; Frits Went and James Bonner in plant physiology; Henry Borsook on thermodynamics of biological compounds. Importance of genetics at Caltech. NRC fellowship, 1939, at Stanford and meeting George W. Beadle; recollections of Beadle, and Beadle’s 1941 talk at Caltech on his and Edward Tatum’s work on Neurospora. Horowitz returns to Stanford as postdoc in Beadle and Tatum’s lab, compiling evidence for the “one gene, one enzyme” theory. Returns to Caltech in 1946 as senior research fellow with Beadle, who came as division chairman. Instrumental in getting Max Delbrück back to Caltech from Vanderbilt University. Lee DuBridge arrives as Caltech’s president in 1946. 1954 work with Boris Ephrussi on Drosophila tyrosinase in Paris. Becomes chief of bioscience section, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 1965. Comments on history of Mars observations and ideas about microbial life on Mars at time of first Viking (Mars) launch, 1975. Designs Viking instruments with George Hobby and Jerry Hubbard. Comments on Roy Cameron’s search for bacteria in dry valleys of Antarctica and on spacecraft sterilization. Later work with Neurospora, Aspergillus, and Penicillium on water and iron requirements. Comments on Robert Sinsheimer, his predecessor as Biology Division chairman, and on presidencies of DuBridge, Harold Brown, and Marvin L. Goldberger. Comments on current trends in Biology Division, and on the book he is writing about the search for life on Mars, and his conviction that Earth is the only place in the solar system that supports life. 1987-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Horowitz_N application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/22/01/OH_Horowitz_N.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Horowitz_N

oai:CaltechOH:23 2002-11-01

Housner, George Engineering All Records Interview in 1984 with George W. Housner, Carl F. Braun Professor of Engineering emeritus. BS, University of Michigan in civil engineering, 1933. MS Caltech, 1934. Interest in earthquake engineering after 1933 Long Beach earthquake; 1934-39, designed schools, bridges, and dams in Los Angeles; returned to Caltech for PhD (1941) with R. R. Martel. Worked for Corps of Engineers in Los Angeles, protecting aircraft industry from possible wartime attack. Adviser to the air force in North Africa and Italy during the war. Joined Caltech faculty 1945 as asst. prof. of applied mechanics; buildup of Engineering and Applied Science Division under chairman Fred Lindvall. Comments on differences between seismologists and earthquake engineers. Recalls origins of earthquake engineering at Caltech under Martel. Chairs engineering committee on 1964 Alaska quake. With Paul Jennings, consults on earthquake design for buildings in downtown Los Angeles. Founding of Earthquake Engineering Research Institute [EERI]. Comments on liquefaction in 1964 Niigata earthquake. Recalls Theodor von Kármán’s part in designing pumps for Colorado River Aqueduct. Recalls his own involvement in Feather River Project in 1950s as president of EERI, and Ralph Nader’s misrepresentation of its earthquake safety. Comments on engineering improvements in aftermath of 1971 San Fernando earthquake. Visits China in 1978 as member of delegation on earthquake engineering. Comments on superiority of Japanese earthquake preparedness. Founding of International Association for Earthquake Engineering and Caltech Earthquake Research Affiliates. Establishment with NSF funding of a Committee on Natural Hazards, including wind damage. Sen. Alan Cranston’s part in getting NSF money in 1974 for earthquake research. Comments on his work at Palomar Observatory and Union Bank Building. Comments on demolition of Caltech’s Throop Hall following San Fernando quake, on future of engineering education, and on his stint as chairman of the faculty. Comments on Ed Simmons, inventor of a strain gauge, Simmons’s legal battle with Caltech, and Caltech’s patent policy. 1989-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Housner_G application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/23/00/OH_Housner_G.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Housner_G

oai:CaltechOH:24 2002-11-05

Borsook, Henry All Records Chemistry Biology Interview in 1978 with biochemist Henry Borsook, who joined Caltech’s newly created Biology Division in 1929 and retired from Caltech in 1968, moving his laboratory to U.C. Berkeley. Professor Borsook’s major contributions were made in the areas of protein synthesis and nutrition. He recalls Robert A. Millikan’s interest in establishing biology at Caltech and the early days of the Biology Division under Thomas Hunt Morgan; Caltech’s intellectual life in the 1930s; the establishment of a Health Center at the Institute; his relations with Linus Pauling. In the 1930s, Borsook began applying thermodynamics to the study of biological phenomena, working with bacteria and studying the production of urine and creatine. He discusses his later work on vitamins and his wartime service on the Food and Nutrition Board, including the formation of the Recommended Daily Allowances and the Dept. of Agriculture’s opposition to the RDAs in favor of Minimum Daily Requirements. In the 1940s he developed a soybean-based Multipurpose Food (MPF) and in 1946, with restaurateur Clifford Clinton, founded Meals for Millions, a nonprofit organization dedicated to combating world hunger with MPF. Recalls advent of George Beadle as division chairman in 1946 and subsequent changes in the Biology Division. Recalls his postwar work on protein synthesis with isotopes from the Atomic Energy Commission, and his work on hemoglobin and erythropoietin. Discusses his difficulties during the McCarthy era and his work on heart disease. 1981-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Borsook_H application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/24/00/OH_Borsook_H.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Borsook_H

oai:CaltechOH:25 2002-11-18

Mitchell, Herschel Biology Chemistry All Records Interview in 1997 with Herschel K. Mitchell, professor of biology, emeritus. George W. Beadle brought Mitchell to Caltech with him in 1946 from Stanford as a senior research fellow, along with Norman Horowitz, Mary Houlahan, Adrian Srb, and August Doermann. The group worked on Neurospora. Mitchell recalls teaching the biochemistry course with Henry Borsook; recalls Beadle’s style as chairman of the Division of Biology. Recalls his earlier work on pantothenic acid and folic acid as a graduate student with Roger Williams. Comments extensively (in mid-interview and again toward the end) on the dubious work done by Lawrence Burton and Frank Friedman as research fellows in the mid-1950s, their consequent dismissal from Caltech, and their later careers in highly controversial immuno-augmentative cancer therapy. Recalls instituting athletic activities at Caltech for graduate students and refers to many of his successful PhD students—among them Bruce Ames, who invented the Ames test for detecting mutagens and potential carcinogens; Mogens Westergaard, with whom he devised a medium favoring sexual reproduction in Neurospora; and Ernst Hadorn, with whom he worked on Drosophila mutants. 2000-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Mitchell_H application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/25/00/OH_Mitchell_H.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Mitchell_H

oai:CaltechOH:26 2002-11-19

Dulbecco, Renato Biology All Records Interview 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. 2001-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Dulbecco_R application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/26/00/OH_Dulbecco_R.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Dulbecco_R

oai:CaltechOH:27 2008-07-21

Benzer, Seymour Physics All Records Biology Interview conducted in eleven sessions between September 1990 and February 1991 with Seymour Benzer, James G. Boswell Professor of Neuroscience in the Division of Biology. Benzer received his PhD in physics from Purdue in 1947. His interests had already turned to biophysics, after he read Erwin Schrödinger’s What is Life? In this lengthy interview he recounts his peripatetic life visiting Oak Ridge National Laboratory (1948-49); Max Delbrück at Caltech (1949-51); the Pasteur Institute with André Lwoff, François Jacob, and Jacques Monod (1951-52); the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge, with Francis Crick and Sydney Brenner (1957-1958); Roger Sperry’s lab at Caltech (1965-67); and intermittently Woods Hole and Cold Spring Harbor—all while he was also a member first of the physics and then the biology faculty at Purdue (1945-1967). In the early 1960s, he participated for a while in the establishment of the Salk Institute. In 1967 he became a professor of biology at Caltech, meanwhile spending summers in the early 1970s at the Salk Institute; recollections of the Biology Division and of Salk during that time. He discusses the early years and flourishing of molecular biology, including recollections of such pioneers as Salvador Luria, Renato Dulbecco, Francis Crick, James Watson, Gunther Stent, and Delbrück’s phage group. He discusses his own work on r mutants of bacteriophage, genetic fine structure, behavioral mutants of Drosophila, and monoclonal antibodies. 2002-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Benzer_S application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/27/01/OH_Benzer_S.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Benzer_S

oai:CaltechOH:29 2002-12-05

Hudson, Donald Engineering All Records Interview in 1997 with Donald Ellis Hudson, professor of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics, emeritus, and a pioneer in the field of earthquake engineering. Hudson received his BS (1938), master’s (1939), and PhD (1942, mechanical engineering) from Caltech and then joined the faculty of its Division of Engineering and Applied Science. After retiring from Caltech in 1981 with emeritus status, he moved to the USC School of Engineering, where he chaired the Department of Civil Engineering from 1981 to 1985. He was also president of the International Association for Earthquake Engineering (IAEE) from 1980 to 1984. In this interview, Hudson comments on the development of earthquake engineering at Caltech; his collaboration with Caltech colleagues Frederick Lindvall, Romeo Martel, and George Housner; and his consulting work with General Petroleum Corporation in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He recalls his close association with the University of Roorkee, in India; the founding of the IAEE and the establishment of its periodic international conferences on earthquake engineering; his travels to Japan and to technical schools in South America; his consultation on the Bhakra Dam in India; and the development of civil engineering at USC. He also discusses the eccentric Caltech alumnus Edward Simmons, inventor of the strain gauge, and Simmons’s legal battle with Caltech over the patent. 1999-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Hudson_D application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/29/00/OH_Hudson_D.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Hudson_D

oai:CaltechOH:30 2002-12-05

Morgan, James Engineering All Records Interview in 1999 with James J. Morgan, Marvin L. Goldberger Professor of Environmental Engineering Science, emeritus. Born in New York City to Irish immigrant parents, Morgan was raised in County Monaghan, Ireland, during the Depression. He studied civil engineering at Manhattan College, received a master’s degree from the University of Michigan in environmental health engineering with C. J. Velz (1956), and after three years as an instructor at the University of Illinois took his PhD at Harvard in 1964 with the water chemist Werner Stumm. Morgan came to Caltech in 1965 to join the environmental engineering science program in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science, where he worked on manganese chemistry in water and the use of polyelectrolytes in water treatment. Recollections of colleagues Jack McKee, Sheldon Friedlander, Norman Brooks, and the early years of the environmental engineering science program. In 1966 he became first editor of the American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science and Technology. Recalls stint on Caltech’s Freshman Admissions Committee and as dean of students in the early 1970s. Coauthored Aquatic Chemistry with Werner Stumm. Comments on his consulting for industry and government in the 1970s. Becomes vice president for student affairs (1980-1989). Recalls postdocs and students, including François Morel, James Pankow, Alan Stone, Howard Liljestrand, Yigal Erel, Windsor Sung. Awarded 1999 Stockholm Water Prize jointly with Werner Stumm (d. April 1999). In an epilogue to this interview, Morgan describes his trip to Stockholm to accept the award on behalf of Stumm and himself and his receipt that year of the Clarke Prize of the National Water Research Institute. 2001-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Morgan_J application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/30/00/OH_Morgan_J.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Morgan_J

oai:CaltechOH:32 2002-12-12

Patterson, Clair Chemistry Geology All Records In 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. 1997-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Patterson_C application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/32/00/OH_Patterson.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Patterson_C

oai:CaltechOH:33 2002-12-19

Sinsheimer, Robert Biology Chemistry All Records Interview in 1990 and 1991 with Dr. Robert L. Sinsheimer, who served as chairman of Caltech’s Division of Biology for nine years (1968-1977) and later became chancellor of the University of California at Santa Cruz. He recalls his undergraduate education in the new biophysics program at MIT, his war work at MIT’s Radiation Laboratory, and his graduate study at MIT in biophysics (PhD 1948). After a postdoc year there, he goes to Iowa State College as associate professor of biophysics; takes six-month leave in 1953 to Caltech, works on phage genetics with Max Delbrück. Joins Caltech faculty as professor of biophysics in 1957 and continues his work on isolating the virus Phi X 174; work with Arthur Kornberg of Stanford on in vitro synthesis of DNA. Receives California Scientist of the Year Award in 1968 and is elected that year to the National Academy of Sciences. He recalls his tenure as chair of the Biology Division, the growth of molecular biology, and his awareness of potential risks involved in the new technology of recombinant DNA. He discusses his concern over low level of public understanding of science; his involvement in the Asilomar Conference of February 1975 and creation of NIH guidelines for recombinant DNA research; and his part in initiating the Human Genome Project. In 1977, Sinsheimer left Caltech to become chancellor of UC Santa Cruz, a post he held until 1987, when he moved to UC Santa Barbara, where he became professor emeritus in 1990 and where this interview takes place. 1992-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Sinsheimer_R application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/33/00/OH_Sinsheimer.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Sinsheimer_R

oai:CaltechOH:34 2003-01-06

North, Wheeler Biology Engineering All Records Interview 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. 2001-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_North_W application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/34/00/OH_North_W.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_North_W

oai:CaltechOH:39 2009-09-15

Gilbert, Horace N. Social Sciences All Records Interview in 1978 with Horace N. Gilbert, emeritus professor of economics. Gilbert joined Caltech’s Humanities Division in 1929, having previously been an instructor at his alma mater, the Harvard Business School. He specialized in business economics and industrial policy, particularly the aircraft industry, and his familiarity with aircraft manufacture led him into defense-related work during and immediately after World War II. This interview contains his recollections of Harvard Business School in the 1920s, the early years of Caltech’s Humanities Division under Clinton Judy and William Bennett Munro, the leadership of Robert A. Millikan, and Gilbert’s trips to Western Europe and Russia in the 1930s. He discusses extensively his war-related work, including a 1940-42 leave of absence to teach in Harvard Business School’s industrial mobilization program, the 1945 U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, consulting for the Air Materiel Command, and his work on the postwar Allied High Commission in Germany with John J. McCloy. Upon his return to Caltech in 1951, Professor Gilbert joined the Vista Project, a Caltech study of tactical nuclear warfare for the Defense Department. He comments on the effects of the McCarthy era at Caltech as exemplified by the cases of Tsien, Pauling, and Oppenheimer, and the responses of President Lee A. Dubridge and Dean Earnest Watson. Recalls his work on Caltech’s Committee for Foreign Students and his return visit to the U.S.S.R. in the late 1950s. Evaluates DuBridge’s presidency as contrasted with the administration of Caltech by the Executive Council under R. A. Millikan. 1978-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Gilbert_H application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/39/01/OH_Gilbert.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Gilbert_H

oai:CaltechOH:42 2003-04-14

Haagen-Smit, Zus (Maria) All Records Chemistry Biology This interview in 2000 with Zus (Maria) Haagen-Smit, widow of Caltech biologist Arie Jan Haagen-Smit (1900-1977), describes their early education at the University of Utrecht, his work on terpenes with Leopold Ruzicka, and the cooperation between Caltech and Utrecht in studies of plant hormones. In 1936, as war loomed in Europe, Arie Haagen-Smit was invited for a year to Harvard by Kenneth Thimann; in 1937, he was invited by T. H. Morgan to join the faculty of Caltech’s Biology Division, where he continued his work on terpenes and plant hormones. Recollections of Dutch group at Caltech: Frits Went, Herman Dolk, Johannes van Overbeek, and Anthonie van Harreveld. Advent of World War II; opening of butadiene plant in Los Angeles, 1943, and consequent smog problems in Los Angeles. She recalls her husband’s pioneering work in analysis of smog and measures to reduce it; and his consultancies with L.A. County Air Pollution Control District, Southern California Edison Co., auto industry, and California Air Resources Board. She reads extensively from Arnold Beckman’s tribute to him and the history of Los Angeles County’s battle to reduce air pollution. Summarizes the awards and honors he received toward the end of his life. 2003-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Haagen-Smit_Z application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/42/01/OH_Haagen-Smit_Z.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Haagen-Smit_Z

oai:CaltechOH:43 2003-04-17

Taussky-Todd, Olga Mathematics All Records This autobiographical essay was written for the Archives in 1979-80 by Olga Taussky-Todd, emeritus professor of mathematics. In it she recalls her childhood and early education in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Vienna and Linz; her early interest in mathematics; her studies at the University of Vienna; and her interest in algebraic number theory (PhD 1930). Recollections of her thesis advisor Philip Furtwängler, Hans Hahn, Kurt Gödel, Karl Menger; her appointment in Göttingen as one of the editors of Hilbert’s collected works; colleagues at Göttingen; friendship with Emmy Noether. She spends the 1934-35 academic year at Bryn Mawr, with Emmy Noether, then moves to Girton College, Cambridge. The next year she moves to London University; meets and marries fellow mathematician John (Jack) Todd. After World War II breaks out, they move to Queens University in Belfast, then back to London; their war work; their move to U.S.A. in 1947. Her interest in matrix theory; their stay at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton. Their appointment at the Institute for Numerical Analysis, UCLA. Return to London. Their work at the National Bureau of Standards, in Washington, in early 1950s. 1957 appointments at Caltech: John Todd as professor of mathematics, Olga Taussky-Todd as research associate. Recollections of her mathematical research, her colleagues, and her work with students at Caltech. 1980-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Todd_O application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/43/01/OH_Todd.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Todd_O

oai:CaltechOH:49 2003-05-07

Paul, Rodman Humanities All Records Interview in 1982 with Rodman W. Paul, Edward S. Harkness Professor of History, emeritus. A historian specializing in the American West, particularly western mining, Paul joined Caltech’s Humanities Division in 1947 and was instrumental in building up its history department. He comments in this interview on the state of the Humanities Division under its longtime chairman Hallett Smith in the 1950s and 1960s; on his efforts to build the history department; on the division’s evolution in the 1970s under Robert Huttenback (see addendum) into the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences; on the eclipse of the behavioral sciences and the weakness of the division’s literature department; on his relationship with the Huntington Library and the unsuccessful attempt by the Bancroft Library to recruit him; on the upheavals of the 1960s in the academic world; and on his service on various faculty committees, particularly the institute’s Aims and Goals Committee. The interview includes recollections of Robert A. and Greta Millikan, Lee DuBridge, Alan Sweezy, Earnest Watson, Richard Chace Tolman, and the political controversies of the 1950s (Linus Pauling, H. S. Tsien, J. Robert Oppenheimer), as well as his analysis of later campus and divisional trends. 1982-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Paul_R application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/49/01/OH_Paul_R.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Paul_R

oai:CaltechOH:50 2003-05-13

Cole, Terry All Records Jet Propulsion Laboratory Chemistry Interview in three sessions, October 1996, with Terry Cole, senior faculty associate in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and senior member of the technical staff of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Cole earned his BS in chemistry from the University of Minnesota in 1954 and his PhD from Caltech in 1958 under Don Yost, on magnetic resonance. The following year he moved to the Ford Scientific Research Laboratory, in Dearborn, Michigan, where he rose to head the departments of chemistry and chemical engineering. In 1980 he joined JPL’s Energy & Technology Applications branch; in 1982 he became JPL’s chief technologist, and he was instrumental in establishing JPL’s Microdevices Laboratory and its Center for Space Microelectronic Technology. Interview includes recollections of Lew Allen’s directorship of JPL and a discussion of the origins of the SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship) program. 2001-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Cole_T application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/50/01/OH_Cole_T.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Cole_T

oai:CaltechOH:51 2003-05-16

Greenstein, Jesse L. Astronomy All Records Interview in three sessions in 1982 with Jesse L. Greenstein, DuBridge Professor of Astrophysics, emeritus. Greenstein discusses his early career at the Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago, under Otto Struve (1937-1948), and his arrival at Caltech in 1948 to build an astronomy department in the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy. He discusses the early partnership between Caltech and the Carnegie Institution of Washington in running Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories, the interactions between observational astronomy and theoretical astrophysics, and the rise of radio astronomy. Besides his discussion of his work on stellar composition, the interview contains his recollections of such twentieth-century pioneers of astronomy and astrophysics as Struve, Grote Reber, Gerard Kuiper, Edwin Hubble, Fritz Zwicky, Walter Baade, Rudolph Minkowski, H. P. Robertson, Richard Tolman, and Fred Hoyle—and of various Caltech principals including Lee DuBridge, Earnest Watson, Arnold Beckman, and Robert Christy. He also discusses his service in the 1960s as chairman of Caltech’s Faculty Board and member of its Aims and Goals Committee. He speculates about the scarcity of women astronomers and the difficulties they face. In an addendum to his interview, he discusses in more technical detail latter-day changes in instrumentation, the impact of new and improved detectors, and their contributions to his work on white dwarfs. 1983-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Greenstein_J application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/51/01/OH_Greenstein_J.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Greenstein_J

oai:CaltechOH:54 2003-06-17

Oliver, Robert Social Sciences All Records Interview in five sessions, 1988-1990, with Robert W. Oliver, professor of economics emeritus, who arrived at Caltech in 1959 as an assistant professor. His principal interest was in economic development, and during his years at Caltech he also worked as a consultant to the World Bank. He was also active in the city government of Pasadena. This wide-ranging interview begins with his recollections of his education at USC and war service in the South Pacific. He describes the makeup and character of the Humanities Division (then under the chairmanship of Hallett Smith) at the time of his arrival and its evolution into the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences. His interest in Africa, and the establishment of his Technical Cooperation Seminar in the early 1960s. Recollections of Smith’s retirement as chairman in “palace revolution;” roles of Lance Davis, Roger Noll, and Rodman Paul; eventual succession of Robert Huttenback. His opposition to Huttenback’s appointment and criticism of Huttenback’s division chairmanship. The battle over granting tenure to literature professor Jenijoy La Belle. Discusses his work on various faculty committees and his tenure as master of student houses, and comments on presidential styles of Lee DuBridge, Harold Brown, Marvin [Murph] Goldberger, and Thomas Everhart. Discusses the work of the World Bank, especially in the 1970s. Recalls his years on Pasadena’s city board in the latter half of the 1960s, the struggles over variances and development projects, and his unsuccessful campaign for reelection to the board in 1973. 1990-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Oliver_R application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/54/01/OH_Oliver.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Oliver_R

oai:CaltechOH:59 2003-11-12

DuBridge, Lee A. Administration Physics All Records Physicist 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. 2003-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_DuBridge_1 application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/59/01/OH_DuBridge_1.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_DuBridge_1

oai:CaltechOH:66 2003-11-17

Lowenstam, Heinz A. Biology Geology All Records Interview conducted in eight sessions in the summer of 1988 with Heinz A. Lowenstam, professor of paleoecology. Dr. Lowenstam was born in Germany and educated at the universities of Frankfurt and Munich. He emigrated to the United States in 1937 to continue his graduate studies in geology and paleontology at the University of Chicago, receiving the PhD there in 1939. After a stint at the Illinois State Museum, he joined the Chicago faculty in 1948, working with Harold C. Urey on paleotemperatures. He joined Caltech’s Geology Division in 1952 as a professor of paleoecology, pursuing research in a variety of fields. In 1962, he identified iron in chiton teeth, the first known instance of biomineralization, later found in such diverse creatures as bacteria, honeybees, and birds. In this interview, he recalls the difficulties he faced as a Jew in Nazi Germany, his graduate work in Palestine in the mid-1930s, his life as an émigré, his investigation of Silurian fossils in the Chicago area, and his interaction with such mentors and colleagues at Chicago as Urey, N. L. Bowen, Bailey Willis, Bryan Patterson, and Karl Schmidt. He discusses the evolution of the Geology Division at Caltech; its important move, under division chairman Robert P. Sharp, into geochemistry in the early 1950s; his work on the paleoecology of marine organisms; his recollections of Caltech colleagues, including Sam Epstein, Beno Gutenberg, Hugo Benioff, James Westphal, Max Delbruck, and George Rossman; and the changes that took place in the division over the decades since his arrival. 1991-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Lowenstam_H application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/66/01/OH_Lowenstam.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Lowenstam_H

oai:CaltechOH:68 2003-11-24

DuBridge, Lee A. Administration Physics All Records Physicist 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. 2003-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_DuBridge_2 application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/68/01/OH_DuBridge_2.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_DuBridge_2

oai:CaltechOH:69 2003-12-12

Oppenheimer, Frank Physics All Records The younger brother of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Frank Friedman Oppenheimer was born in 1912 in New York City. After graduating as a bachelor of science in physics from Johns Hopkins in 1933, Oppenheimer traveled to Europe where he studied at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory and Florence’s Istitudo di Arceti from 1933-35. He then entered the California Institute of Technology from where he received his doctoral degree in physics in 1939. Before joining his brother in Los Alamos in 1943, Oppenheimer held positions at Stanford, Berkeley’s Radiation Laboratory and the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Following the War, Oppenheimer returned to Berkeley but then moved to the University of Minnesota where he embarked on studies of cosmic radiation. His research ended abruptly in 1949 after he was required to give testimony to the House Committee on Un-American Activities regarding his communist activities as a graduate student at Caltech. Not until 1961 did he return to university life at the University of Colorado. There he developed a variety of innovative teaching techniques, many of which were later incorporated in his design of the Exploratorium in San Francisco where Oppenheimer served as director. He died in Sausalito, California, in 1985. Conducted at the Exploratorium, this interview focuses on Oppenheimer’s years at the California Institute of Technology. Oppenheimer describes his work on beta- and gamma-ray spectroscopy and reminisces about C. C. Lauritsen, his supervisor. He recollects the relationships he formed while working at Caltech’s Kellogg Laboratory, including his memories of Willy Fowler, Richard and Ruth Tolman, Hsue-Shen Tsien, Robert Millikan, Henry Borsook, Thomas Hunt Morgan, Fritz Zwicky and Frank Malina. He also discusses his time at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory and his recollections of Peter L. Kapitsa, John D. Cockcroft, Ernest T. S. Walton, George Gamow and Ernest Rutherford. In addition to a discussion of Oppenheimer’s communist activities in pre-war Pasadena, he recounts his memories of fascism while he was studying in Florence in 1935. 1985-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Oppenheimer_F application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/69/01/OH_Oppenheimer.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Oppenheimer_F

oai:CaltechOH:70 2003-12-19

Rasetti, Franco Biology Physics All Records Along with Enrico Fermi, Franco Rasetti played a key role in the rebirth of Italian physics in the 1920s and 1930s. In this interview he talks about experiments at Caltech on the Raman effect in 1928-1929, mountain climbing, his passion for bugs, fossils and flowers, and doing physics in Florence, Rome, Berlin-Dahlem and Quebec. Rasetti also reminisces about the Rome school of mathematics and other scientists he has known and worked with in Europe and in North America, including Robert and Glenn Millikan, Lise Meitner, and O. M. Corbino. 1982-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Rasetti_F application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/70/01/OH_Rasetti.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Rasetti_F

oai:CaltechOH:73 2004-02-04

Epstein, Paul S. Physics All Records Memoirs recorded by Paul Sophus Epstein (1883-1966) with his wife, Alice Epstein, late in 1965 and possibly into early 1966. He describes his undergraduate and graduate study in physics at Moscow University, 1901-1909, under P. N. Lebedev, and his move to Munich in early 1910 to begin his doctoral study under A. Sommerfeld. He remembers his professors in Russia: N. V. Bugaev, N. A. Umov, B. Mlodziowski, N. E. Zhukovsky, A. P. Sokolov; his Russian student colleagues T. P. Kravets, A. K. Timiryazev, P. P. Lazarev, and V. K. Arkadiev. He acknowledges P. Ehrenfest’s influence in the move to Munich and the change from experimental to theoretical physics, and he recounts aspects of Ehrenfest’s early career. Educational practices and social conditions of the turn of the century and early decades of the twentieth century in both Russia and Germany are discussed in detail, including the situation of European Jews and anti-Semitic laws and attitudes. Sommerfeld’s scientific background and connections in Königsberg, Göttingen and Aachen are described: mathematicians D. Hilbert, F. Klein, H. Minkowski; the philosopher E. Husserl. Epstein remembers his German professors: C. L. F. Lindemann (mathematics), P. H. von Groth (crystallography), W. C. Röntgen (physics); his Munich student colleagues P. Debye, M. von Laue, A. F. Ioffe, P. P. Koch, P. P. Ewald, and A. Rosenthal; and he recollects important intellectual exchanges at Munich Stammtische. Epstein notes his involvement with avant-garde Munich artists from the Blaue Reiter circle, including P. Klee, W. Kandinsky, F. Marc, and A. von Jawlensky. World War I delays the completion of his studies and creates financial hardship. He recounts leaving Munich for Zurich (1919), where he meets A. Einstein; his Habilitation thesis on the application of the Stark effect to optics creates a stir. He subsequently moves to Leiden to assist Ehrenfest and H. Lorentz (1921). During these years, Epstein marries and divorces Mina (Maria) and develops interest in psychoanalysis; he meets Freud in Switzerland ca. 1920. Epstein meets R. A. Millikan in Leiden, decides to take teaching position at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He describes his early period at Caltech and colleagues there (1920s). Epstein ends with an account of Röntgen’s career, especially his discovery of X rays; discusses Röntgen’s relations with Sommerfeld in Munich. 1991-01-01 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Epstein_P application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/73/01/OH_Epstein.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Epstein_P

oai:CaltechOH:77 2004-08-02

Press, Frank All Records Geology The following interview was conducted with Dr. Frank Press on April 15, 1983, at the National Academy of Sciences, as part of the Caltech Archives' Oral History Project. Dr. Press was director of Caltech's Seismological Laboratory from 1957 to 1965. In 1965 he left Caltech to head the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1977 to 1981, he was science adviser to President Jimmy Carter, and from 1981 to 1993 served as president of the National Academy of Sciences and chairman of the National Research Council. Since 1993, Dr. Press has been a visiting professor at Cornell, Caltech, Stanford, and Indiana University, and he is currently a principal of the Washington Advisory Group. In this interview, he recalls his work with Maurice Ewing at Columbia's Lamont Geological Observatory; his directorship of Caltech's Seismological Laboratory and colleagues Charles Richter, Beno Gutenberg, and Hugo Benioff; his work on the free oscillations of the earth; and his part in establishing the worldwide network of seismographs for the detection of nuclear weapons testing. 1983 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Press_F application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/77/01/OH_Press_F.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Press_F

oai:CaltechOH:78 2004-09-27

Beckman, Arnold O. All Records Chemistry Administration Interview in two sessions, 1978, with Arnold O. Beckman--alumnus, faculty member, and trustee of Caltech and founder of Beckman Instruments (now Beckman Coulter, Inc.)--begins with his recollections of his early interest in chemistry. He attends University High School at Illinois State Normal University. Brief stint in the Marine Corps near end of World War I. After the war, he continues his education at the University of Illinois in Urbana, where he studies with C. S. Marvel, Gerhard Dietrichson, and Richard Chace Tolman. B.S. (chemical engineering) 1922, M.S. (physical chemistry) 1923. Follows Tolman to Caltech; does his graduate work with Roscoe Dickinson. Recollections of Arthur Amos Noyes and the Chemistry Division. Leaves Caltech in 1924 before receiving his PhD, works for Walter Shewhart at Bell Laboratories on West Street in Manhattan. Noyes prompts him to return to his graduate studies; he does so in the fall of 1926; joins Caltech faculty after receiving PhD in 1928. His consultant work and development of the pH meter. Development and production of the Helipot (helical potentiometer) and the quartz (Model DU) spectrophotometer. Establishes National Technical Laboratories while still a member of the Caltech faculty; leaves Caltech in 1939 to become its president (name changed to Beckman Instruments in 1950). Use of Helipots and spectrophotometers in World War II. In 1953, he returns to Caltech as a member of the Board of Trustees (chairman 1964-1974). Comments on Linus Pauling controversy; on changes in American work ethic prompting moving of plants overseas; on admission of women to Caltech. Founds Lincoln Club of Orange County, 1962. His interest in behavioral biology and creation of Caltech's Beckman Laboratories of Behavioral Biology. Recalls his involvement in air-pollution abatement in Los Angeles in the late 1940s and early 1950s and the work of Arie Haagen-Smit. 1981 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Beckman_A application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/78/01/OH_Beckman_A.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Beckman_A

oai:CaltechOH:86 2004-10-14

Pickering, William H. Physics All Records Jet Propulsion Laboratory Astronomy Engineering Administration This 2003 interview with William H. Pickering, in two sessions, contains his further recollections of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's early involvement with the US Army and missile development, followed by JPL’s transformation into a NASA laboratory with a focus on exploration of the solar system. The interview begins with an account of his return to the small town in New Zealand where he grew up, to attend dedication of a memorial to himself and Ernest Rutherford, who attended the same primary school; he is also honored at Christchurch and Auckland. Additional recollections of JPL's collaboration with Wernher von Braun; of the first flight of Sputnik; Caltech's early work in rocketry; development and production of the Corporal missile. Awarded the National Medal of Science in 1975. Trip to Japan in 1994 to receive the Japan Prize. Further discussion of his work establishing an applied research institute in Saudi Arabia in the late 1970s; his later relationship with it. Establishment of Pickering Research, a consulting business, after retiring as director of JPL in 1976; consulting for the Electrical Power Research Institute after Three-Mile Island incident in 1979; contract in 1980s to help mainland China set up computer systems for its satellite program. The interview concludes with an account of his recent involvement in the sawdust-pellet (alternative fuels) business. 2003 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Pickering_2 application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/86/01/OH_Pickering_2.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Pickering_2

oai:CaltechOH:87 2004-10-15

Pickering, William H. Physics All Records Jet Propulsion Laboratory Astronomy Engineering Administration Interview in four sessions in 1978 with William Hayward Pickering, professor emeritus of electrical engineering at Caltech and director (1954-1976) of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, begins with recollections of his upbringing in New Zealand. He enters Caltech as an undergraduate in spring term of 1929: influence of A. A. Noyes; travels in Europe during his junior year. Remains at Caltech as a graduate student in electrical engineering and then joins the faculty. Recollections of life at Caltech during the Depression and the war years, including emphasis on power transmission in its electrical engineering department, under Royal Sorensen, and subsequent expanding into electronics. Recalls his work with H. Victor Neher and R. A. Millikan on balloon-flight studies of cosmic rays; travels with them to India and Mexico. Contrasts leadership of Millikan and Lee A. DuBridge. Comments on barrage of Japanese incendiary balloons during the war. Early history of JPL: Theodore von Karman, H. S. Tsien, Frank J. Malina. Long-range missile development for US Army; JPL's collaboration with Wernher von Braun at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Ala. Advent of Sputnik (1957); competition with Soviet Union. JPL's move into space program with Explorer 1, first US satellite; establishment of NASA (1958); JPL becomes a NASA lab, administered by Caltech. Ranger program (lunar probes); Ranger 6 video failure; success of Ranger 7 (1964). Simultaneous progress of planetary and lunar exploration programs; Mariner 2 (1962 Venus fly-by); Surveyor series (moon); Surveyor as precursor to Apollo program. His reflections on JPL directorship; JPL's relations with Caltech; advantages of being administered by Caltech instead of by NASA as a civil service laboratory. The interview concludes with his comments on his post-retirement work setting up an applied research institute at Saudi Arabia's University of Petroleum and Minerals. 1981 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Pickering_1 application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/87/01/OH_Pickering_1.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Pickering_1

oai:CaltechOH:89 2004-10-15

Anderson, Carl Physics All Records This wide-ranging 1979 interview in eight sessions with Carl D. Anderson, Board of Trustees Professor of Physics, emeritus and Nobel laureate, begins with his recollections of his undergraduate years at Caltech (1923-1927), and the influence of Arthur Amos Noyes and Ira Sprague Bowen. He recalls courses with Earnest Watson, Morgan Ward, Richard Chace Tolman, J. R. Oppenheimer. He offers his early and ongoing impressions of Robert A. Millikan as chairman of physics division and head of Caltech, and of Millikan's work on cosmic rays. He recalls his own postdoctoral work at Caltech on cosmic rays, and his discovery of the positron in 1932 and the mu-meson, or muon, in 1936, and on contemporary developments in nuclear physics. He comments on his Nobel Prize (1936). He discusses his contacts with Enrico Fermi's group at Chicago in the early 1940s and Caltech's rocket projects during World War II at China Lake and Goldstone, including the contributions of Charles Lauritsen, I. S. Bowen, and Seth Neddermeyer. He offers recollections of postwar Caltech, the increase in research funds and undergraduate enrollment, the rise of particle physics and the advent of the large accelerator era. He discusses his stint as chairman of the Division of the Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy (1962-1970) and concludes by commenting on the current state of physics research. 1981 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Anderson_C application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/89/01/OH_Anderson_C.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Anderson_C

oai:CaltechOH:90 2004-10-21

Sharp, Robert P. Geology All Records Interview in three sessions in late 1979 and early 1980 with Robert P. Sharp, Sharp Professor of Geology emeritus, who chaired the Division of Geology (later the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences) at Caltech from 1952 to 1968. Begins with his recollections of growing up in Oxnard and of life during his undergraduate years [1930-1934] at Caltech, including his career as quarterback on Caltech's football team, and his one graduate year there. In 1936 he moved to Harvard for further graduate study, doing his thesis work on the Ruby/East Humboldt Range in Nevada. From 1938 to 1943 he taught at the University of Illinois; he discusses expeditions in the Grand Canyon (1937) and the Yukon (1941). After three years with the Army Air Force in Alaska, he joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota, then returned to Caltech as a professor in 1947. He discusses the early history of Caltech's geology division under J. P. Buwalda, the importance of the Seismological Laboratory, and the demise of vertebrate paleontology at Caltech after the death of Chester Stock. Discusses the expansion of the division under his chairmanship into geochemistry and planetary science and other events of his chairmanship; chairing the search committee for a new president upon the retirement of Lee DuBridge; and the advent of Harold Brown. Recalls his participation in the efforts of Eugene Shoemaker and Leon Silver to raise money for a named chair by guiding trips in the Grand Canyon, and his establishment of field trips for the division non-academic staff. The interview concludes with a discussion of his interest in current geological phenomena, such as glaciers and wind effects, and his authorship of guidebooks on Southern California geology for laypeople. 1981 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Sharp_1 application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/90/01/OH_Sharp_1.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Sharp_1

oai:CaltechOH:91 2004-10-27

Sharp, Robert P. Geology All Records This interview in two sessions in 1998 with Robert P. Sharp, Sharp Professor of Geology emeritus, begins with an account of his institution in 1984 of student field trips to Hawaii to study volcanism up close (Project Pahoehoe), thanks to the financial support of H. Dudley Wright. Recollections of alumni geology field trips that Sharp conducted over the previous two decades to Hawaii, Alaska, Yellowstone, Utah, Death Valley, Pennsylvania, New England, and Iceland, to bring alumni closer to Caltech. Discussion of the field course he has taught at Caltech since his retirement in 1979 (Geology of the Southwestern United States). Discussion of the evolution of the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at Caltech: early influence of J. C. Merriam on R. A. Millikan; evaluation of J. P. Buwalda's long chairmanship of the division; recollections of Beno Gutenberg; recollections of Chester Stock. Stock's work in vertebrate paleontology; the decision to phase out vertebrate paleontology after Stock's death in 1950; sale in 1957 of the fossil collections to the Los Angeles Natural History Museum. Recollections of the contributions of Stock's colleagues Eustace Furlong and William Otto. The interview concludes with a discussion of the new field of geobiology and the interest in ancient DNA and possible role of the division in such investigations. 2001 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Sharp_2 application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/91/01/OH_Sharp_2.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Sharp_2

oai:CaltechOH:92 2004-12-02

Wouk, Victor All Records Engineering This wide-ranging interview in May 2004 with the engineer and hybrid-automobile pioneer Victor Wouk begins with his recollections of his graduate work in electrical engineering at Caltech (1939-1942), after receiving his bachelor's degree from Columbia. Includes recollections of Robert A. Millikan, Royal Sorensen, William H. Pickering, William R. Smythe, Frederick C. Lindvall, and others. He recalls his wartime work at the Westinghouse Research Laboratories in Pittsburgh on the ignitron and the separation of uranium isotopes. Also recalls his early interest in television and work for North American Philips in Tarrytown, NY. Forms the Electronic Energy Conversion Corp. in 1959 to manufacture DC power units. Recalls work for Motorola founder Russell Feldman, who in the early 1960s asked him to design a practical electrically powered car; eventually, in consultation with Lee A. DuBridge and others at Caltech, Wouk determined that a hybrid vehicle, using both electric power and traditional combustion, was a better alternative. Studies were revealing the detrimental effects of smog in the nation’s cities, and in 1970 the Clean Air Act passed. Wouk had meanwhile sold the Electronic Energy Conversion Corp. to Gulton Industries and gone to work for them; he left, along with Gulton’s Charles Rosen, to form a new company, Petro-Electric Motors, to develop a hybrid vehicle for the Federal Clean Car Incentive Program in the early 1970s. He recalls in detail their travails and eventual success, and comments on the opposition of Eric Stork at the Environmental Protection Agency to the hybrid idea, which finally resulted in rejection of his model. He concludes the interview by commenting on the recent history, current popularity, and future of hybrid cars, and on his ideas about regenerative braking. 2004-11 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Wouk_V application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/92/01/OH_Wouk_V.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Wouk_V

oai:CaltechOH:93 2005-01-06

Bacher, Robert F. Physics All Records Administration An interview in ten sessions, 1981 and 1983, with Robert F. Bacher, chairman of the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy (1949-1962), Caltech’s first provost (1962-1969), and professor of physics, emeritus. He recalls his education at the University of Michigan and graduate work in physics at Harvard (1926-27) and Michigan, where he got to know J. R. Oppenheimer and the European physicists who joined the faculty and/or came for the summer sessions in physics: Goudsmit, Uhlenbeck, Fermi, Bohr, Ehrenfest, Dirac and others. Recalls postdoc year at Caltech (1930-31) working on atomic spectra; Oppenheimer's lectures; Millikan's cosmic-ray work. Spends 1931-1932 at MIT working with John Slater; Chadwick's discovery of the neutron. Spends the next two years as a postdoc at Michigan, working with Goudsmit. Instructorship at Columbia, 1934; association with I. I. Rabi. Moves to Cornell in 1935; recollections of Hans Bethe; cyclotron work on neutron energies. Early 1941, joins the Radiation Laboratory at MIT, of which Lee DuBridge was director. Recalls start of Manhattan Engineer District; contacts with J. R. Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves. Joins Los Alamos in June 1943 as head of experimental physics division; recollections of bomb work. Returns to Cornell in January 1946. Postwar development of high-energy physics; Acheson-Lilienthal Report on international control of atomic energy. Establishment of the Atomic Energy Commission, fall 1946; he becomes a commissioner; moves to Washington, D.C. Recalls weapons testing in the Pacific and the development of nuclear reactors. In 1949, he becomes chairman of the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy at Caltech. Called back to Washington to testify at Hickenlooper hearings; warns the British about Klaus Fuchs. Discusses the postwar buildup of physics at Caltech; comments on the mathematics and astronomy departments. Debate over tactical vs. strategic nuclear weapons. Service on President’s Science Advisory Committee; the McCarthy era; comments on his service as Caltech provost. Comments on establishment of Fermilab; participation in the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. Recalls advent of Harold Brown as Caltech president in 1969; comments on reorganization of NASA contract with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Comments on current setup of Caltech’s Faculty Board and on his own activities since his retirement. 1983 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Bacher_R application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/93/01/OH_Bacher_R.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Bacher_R

oai:CaltechOH:94 2005-07-07

Fowler, William A. Physics All Records Jet Propulsion Laboratory Astronomy Interview conducted in eight sessions between May 1983 and May 1984 with Willy Fowler, Nobel laureate and Institute Professor of Physics, emeritus. In a career in nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics that spanned more that sixty years, Fowler was primarily concerned with nucleosynthesis—that is, the creation of the heavy elements by the fusion of the nuclei of lighter elements. In 1957, with Fred Hoyle and Geoffrey and Margaret Burbidge, Fowler coauthored the seminal paper "Synthesis of the Elements in the Stars," now known as B2FH. In it, they showed that all the elements from carbon to uranium could be produced by nuclear processes in stars starting only with the light elements produced in the Big Bang. In the interview, Fowler discusses his early education as a physicist at Ohio State; his work with Charles C. and Tommy Lauritsen at Caltech's Kellogg Radiation Laboratory; the history of nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics at Caltech; and the evolution of nucleosynthesis. There are recollections of many of his mentors and colleagues, including Robert A. Millikan, Hans Bethe, J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Lauritsens, Fred Hoyle, the Burbidges, Jesse Greenstein, A. G. W. Cameron, Richard P. Feynman, and H. P. Robertson. A 1986 Supplement contains an interview on Fowler's work for the Naval Bureau of Ordnance and the Manhattan Project during the Second World War. 1986 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Fowler_W application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/94/01/OH_Fowler_W.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Fowler_W

oai:CaltechOH:95 2008-04-28

Clark, J. Kent All Records Humanities Administration An interview in three sessions, January-February 1989, with J. Kent Clark, emeritus professor of literature. Professor Clark, a specialist in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English politics and literature, received his BA at Brigham Young University in 1939 and his PhD at Stanford. In this interview, he discusses his Mormon background in Utah and his early interest in musical comedy. Graduate school at Stanford was interrupted by World War II; he eventually finished his dissertation (on Jonathan Swift) and received his PhD in 1950, by which time he had already joined Caltech’s Humanities Division (1947) as an English instructor. He recalls the intellectual character of the division in the late forties under the chairmanship of Clinton Judy and the high caliber of the literature and history courses. Recollections of colleagues Harvey Eagleson, Roger Stanton, George McMinn, Beach Langston, William Huse, Hallett Smith. He talks about the extremely popular musical comedies he wrote and produced with Elliot Davis on campus for many years, beginning in 1954. Recollections of Caltech president Lee DuBridge and of the changes in the late 1960s as the division became the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences; greater emphasis on research and specialization, as opposed to teaching and survey courses. Professor Clark also recalls his stint as Caltech's "culture czar" and the fate of the arts program instituted in the late sixties. He discusses the admission of women (1970) and the Jenijoy La Belle tenure case, and he concludes with a discussion of his work on biographies of the late-seventeenth-century figures (and brothers) Goodwin and Thomas Wharton. 1990 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Clark_K application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/95/01/OH_Clark_K.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Clark_K

oai:CaltechOH:96 2005-01-07

Bethe, Hans A. Physics All Records Two 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. 2001 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Bethe_H application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/96/01/OHO_Bethe.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Bethe_H

oai:CaltechOH:97 2005-01-20

Gutenberg, Hertha Geology All Records A 1981 interview with Hertha Gutenberg, widow of the seismologist Beno Gutenberg, who directed Caltech’s Seismological Laboratory from 1946 to 1957. Both were born in Darmstadt, Germany, and they married there just after World War I. Gutenberg, who received his PhD from Göttingen in 1911, made the first correct determination of the radius of the Earth’s core. In 1913 he joined the German University of Strasbourg, then headquarters of the International Seismological Association. He served as a meteorologist in the German Army in World War I, and after the war became a professor at the University of Frankfurt-am-Main. In 1929, he was invited to participate in a conference at Caltech on future directions for the Seismological Laboratory, then under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. In 1930, he joined the Caltech faculty and went to work at the Seismo Lab, which, under his eventual directorship, became a leading center for deep Earth and earthquake studies. In 1941, with Charles Richter, he published Seismicity of the Earth, whose earthquake patterns were later instrumental in developing the theory of plate tectonics. Gutenberg’s scientific honors include election to the National Academy of Sciences, the Bowie Medal of the American Geophysical Union, the Lagrange Prize of the Royal Belgian Academy, and the Wiechert Medal of the Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft. In this interview, his widow recalls their early years in Darmstadt during the Weimar Republic and their efforts to help friends and his former students to come to the United States during the rise of Nazism. She comments on life at Caltech in the 1930s under Robert A. Millikan and the changes that occurred with the arrival of Lee A. DuBridge as Caltech’s president in 1946. She recalls her husband’s meteorological work for the U.S. Navy during the Second World War and his visit to Japan just after the war at the navy’s behest to investigate possible atomic bomb research there. She recalls the difficulties of adjusting to life in America in the 1930s, her eventual participation in various campus volunteer activities, and her travels with her husband to Turkey and to Israel in the 1950s. The interview concludes with her memories of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Einstein, who became friends of the Gutenbergs during their visits to Caltech in the early 1930s. 1981 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Gutenberg_H application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/97/01/OH_Gutenberg_H.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Gutenberg_H

oai:CaltechOH:98 2005-02-23

Pierce, John R. Physics All Records Engineering An interview in three sessions in April 1979 with John R. Pierce, often referred to as the father of the communications satellite. A leading applied physicist, Pierce went to work for Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1936 after receiving his PhD in electrical engineering from Caltech. He spent the next thirty-five years there, where he made important contributions to the development of the traveling-wave tube and the reflex klystron, rising to become executive director of Bell's Research-Communications Principles Division. Pierce was also a pioneer in communications satellites, playing a key role in the development of two of the earliest, Echo and Telstar. In this interview he recalls his undergraduate education at Caltech in the late twenties and early thirties, the early years at Bell, radar work during the war, and the beginnings of America's satellite program. Pierce was also a prolific author of science fiction, sometimes under the pen name J. J. Coupling. In the mid-1960s, he served on the President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC). He retired from Bell Labs in 1971 and returned to Caltech as a professor in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science, and he comments on the changes (and the similarities) he found in undergraduate education at Caltech. While at Bell, Pierce developed a lifelong interest in computer-generated music and psychoacoustics, the science of consonance and dissonance; in the latter part of the interview, he discusses his work with Max Mathews on music synthesis. A year after this interview was conducted, he became professor emeritus at Caltech, and in 1983 he joined Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) as a visiting professor. Pierce died on April 2, 2002, in Mountain View, California. 1982 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Pierce_J application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/98/01/OH_Pierce_J.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Pierce_J

oai:CaltechOH:99 2005-02-24

Sweezy, Alan R. Social Sciences All Records An interview in two sessions in February-March 1982 with Alan R. Sweezy, professor of economics in the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Professor Sweezy joined Caltech's humanities faculty in 1949, after having taught for several years at Williams College. He did his undergraduate and graduate work at Harvard. During the Depression, before joining the faculty at Williams, he worked in Washington helping to set up the new Social Security System, and later at the Federal Reserve Board. His interests in economic development led him to studies of population growth, and in the late 1960s he became active in Planned Parenthood, becoming national chairman in 1972. Along with Professor Harrison Brown, Sweezy was instrumental in launching Caltech's Population Program in 1970, sponsored by the Agency for International Development (AID). The program worked closely with the American Universities Field Staff to collect and analyze data on population growth and population policy in underdeveloped countries, and several influential conferences were held at Caltech in the early 1970s on these issues. In this interview, Sweezy recalls the genesis of the program and its demise in 1974, which he attributes largely to a change of focus in the humanities division. By then the division had shifted to a narrower and more mathematically oriented brand of social sciences; macroeconomics, with its larger studies of population, resource utilization, fiscal policy, etc., gave way to microeconomics. He also comments on the wide interests of his colleagues on the faculty and on the changes in the student body over the years. 1983 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Sweezy_A application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/99/01/OH_Sweezy_A.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Sweezy_A

oai:CaltechOH:100 2009-04-03

Gnome, Club All Records Administration 2005-03 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Gnome_C application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/100/04/GNOME_scrapbook.pdf application/octet-stream http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/100/05/GNOME_scrapbook.ppt http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Gnome_C

oai:CaltechOH:101 2005-03-11

Perpall, Robert C. All Records Humanities Engineering Administration Robert 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. 2002 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Perpall_R application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/101/01/OH_Perpall_R.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Perpall_R

oai:CaltechOH:102 2005-03-10

Klein, Arthur L. All Records Engineering Interview in four sessions, February 1979 and April 1982, with Arthur L. ("Maj") Klein, who entered Throop College, the predecessor of the California Institute of Technology, in 1916. When R. A. Millikan arrived as the institute’s head, Klein decided to change his major from mechanical engineering to physics in order to work with him, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1921 and a PhD in 1925. He stayed on as a research fellow in physics and soon become involved in the activities of the new Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at Caltech (GALCIT), along with Clark B. Millikan and the aircraft designer Arthur E. Raymond. He became an assistant professor of aeronautics in 1929. Klein designed much of GALCIT's 10-foot-diameter wind tunnel, which went into operation in 1929, and he later helped design the Southern California Cooperative Wind Tunnel (1945), which was financed by five Southern California aircraft companies and operated by Caltech. Klein was also responsible for many aspects of the design and testing of important aircraft, including Douglas Aircraft's DC series. He had begun consulting for Douglas Aircraft in 1932; by 1937, he was spending half his time there and half at Caltech, and this arrangement continued until his 1968 retirement from Caltech as a full professor in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science. 1984 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Klein_A application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/102/01/OH_Klein_A.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Klein_A

oai:CaltechOH:103 2005-03-14

Lewis, Edward B. All Records Biology A 1984 interview in two sessions with Edward B. Lewis, then the Thomas Hunt Morgan Professor of Biology at Caltech. Dr. Lewis would be awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, along with Christiane Nüsslein-Vollhard and Eric F. Wieschaus, for discoveries concerning "the genetic control of early embryonic development." In this interview, he recalls how he and a colleague, Edward Novitski (who would also receive a Caltech PhD), acquired stocks of Drosophila melanogaster while they were still high school students in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In 1939, after a year at Bucknell on a music scholarship and only two years at the University of Minnesota, Lewis received his bachelor's degree (in biostatistics), whereupon he entered Caltech as a graduate student. Working under A. H. Sturtevant, he continued his Drosophila studies, receiving his PhD in genetics in 1942. After a wartime stint as a meteorologist in the Army Air Forces, Dr. Lewis returned to Caltech as an instructor in the Division of Biology in 1946. He became a full professor in 1956 and the Morgan Professor in 1966. He recalls the early days of genetics at Caltech and offers his recollections of Thomas Hunt Morgan, chair of the division from 1928 to 1942, and of Sturtevant and Theodosius Dobzhansky. He comments on the state of the Biology Division after Morgan’s retirement and on the arrival of George W. Beadle as division chairman in 1946. He describes his work on the Drosophila bithorax complex of genes and also on the somatic effects of radiation on human beings and his part in the controversy over nuclear testing in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He recalls the visit of four geneticists from the Soviet Union in 1967. He concludes by commenting briefly on the changes in the field of genetics since the discovery of the genetic material and on his current work on the phenomenon of transvection. Dr. Lewis became emeritus in 1988 and died on July 21, 2004. 2005 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Lewis_E application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/103/01/OH_Lewis_E.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Lewis_E

oai:CaltechOH:105 2005-05-05

Veysey, Victor All Records Jet Propulsion Laboratory Engineering Administration Interview in three sessions in 1993 and 1994 with Victor V. Veysey, director of Caltech's Industrial Relations Center and lecturer in business economics, 1977-1983, and Caltech alumnus (BS, 1936). He discusses his growing up in Los Angeles and Brawley (Imperial Valley), California; education at Caltech in civil engineering, then MBA at Harvard. Joins staff of Caltech's newly established Industrial Relations Center (IRC) in 1939. After outbreak of World War II he is assigned to management duties within Caltech's rocket project under leadership of Earnest Watson; involved in retrorocket, High Velocity Aircraft Rocket (HVAR), and barrage rocket programs for the navy. Concerned in later stages of the war with transfer of Caltech wartime personnel to Aerojet Corporation, the navy, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Involvement with Project Camel (atomic bomb housing) as assistant to Trevor Gardner. In postwar period Veysey returns to ranching in Brawley and enters local and state politics; eventually elected to California legislature (1962) and the US Congress (1970). Appointed assistant secretary of the army for civil works by President Ford in 1974. Returns to Caltech as director of the IRC, 1977; recalls IRC colleagues Robert Gray and Arthur Young, their innovative projects. Further comments on living and working in Sacramento and Washington, DC. 1994 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Veysey_V application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/105/01/OHO_Veysey_V.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Veysey_V

oai:CaltechOH:106 2005-05-16

Wood, David S. All Records Engineering Administration An interview in two sessions in 1994 with David S. Wood, Caltech professor of materials science (1950-1988), associate dean of students (1968-1974), and alumnus (BS, 1941; MS, 1946; PhD, 1949). He recalls growing up in Sierra Madre, California, and attending school in Pasadena; family friendship with Russell Porter leads to application to Caltech; bachelor's in 1941. Recalls engineering program in the late 1930s: professors F. Thomas, D. Clark, R. Knapp, F. Converse, H. Clapp; employment with B. Sage and Knapp; Caltech’s Pump Lab. Develops interest in metallurgy; work with D. Clark in Impact Lab to study properties of metals. Wartime work on metals with P. Duwez; towards end of war goes to Los Alamos to work on mechanical design of uranium 235 (atomic) bomb; meets later colleagues R. Christy, R. Walker, R. Bacher, and R. Feynman. Postwar return to Caltech; graduate study and thesis on rapid load testing machine; cutaway drawing by R. Porter. Begins collaboration with Thad Vreeland; theory of dislocations in crystals. Recalls Caltech in postwar period and Lee A. DuBridge's presidency. Becomes associate dean of students (1968, under dean P. Eaton); organizes Freshman Camp; involvement with minority students program. Recalls participation with his wife Connie in campus musicals written by Kent Clark and Elliot Davis. Consulting work; work on stress analysis for industry. Remarks about improvement in pedagogy at Caltech; notes Feynman's lectures in physics as starting point of that trend. 1998 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Wood_D application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/106/01/OHO_Wood_D.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Wood_D

oai:CaltechOH:107 2005-06-08

Westphal, James A. Physics Geology All Records Jet Propulsion Laboratory Chemistry Astronomy An 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. 2002 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Westphal_J application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/107/01/OHO_Westphal_J.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Westphal_J

oai:CaltechOH:108 2005-06-23

Dreyer, William J. All Records Chemistry Biology An interview in five sessions in 1999 with William J. Dreyer, molecular immunologist and Caltech professor of biology (1963-2004). He begins with a discussion of how some people think visually, himself included—a theme to which he returns repeatedly in the interview. He speaks of his family history: childhood in Michigan and Wisconsin; his Norwegian father and possible inherited family traits including dyslexia and mental imaging. Recalls his education at Reed College in Oregon (BA chemistry, 1952) and graduate study at University of Washington (PhD in biochemistry, 1956); works under H. Neurath at UW. First occurrence of cancer while in graduate school. He goes to National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a National Polio Foundation postdoc, where he works on proteins with C. Anfinsen; becomes research scientist at NIH; assists M. Nirenberg in work on genetic code. Meets and works with G. Streisinger on genetic mapping with phage. Still at NIH begins inventing machinery for automating biochemical analyses. Recruited to Caltech and accepts appointment in biology division in 1963. Together with J. Claude Bennett writes major papers on genetic coding for protein structure, gene splicing and monoclonal antibodies. Recalls Leroy Hood’s arrival at Caltech in 1963 as grad student. Dreyer’s consulting work for Spinco division of Beckman Instruments; helps in the design of an automated protein sequencer; his continuing interest in new technologies. Work in 1960s with W. Gray on sequencing protein in a mass spectrometer for JPL; collaborates with Gray and Hood on 1967 Cold Spring Harbor symposium paper on antibody formation. Roger Sperry at Caltech; his influence on Dreyer. Work on the protein rhodopsin. Robert Sinsheimer as biology division chairman. During 1970s and 80s Caltech develops series of more and more sensitive instruments to synthesize and analyze genes and proteins. 1982 recurrence of Dreyer’s cancer. Creation of company Applied Biosystems with Hood and M. Hunkapiller; issues arise over patents and royalties. Dreyer’s work with Milton Wexler’s Hereditary Disease Foundation. Caltech’s Beckman Institute; recruitment of Scott Fraser and creation of Biology Imaging Center at Caltech. Study of olfactory receptors; “area code” hypothesis in embryogenesis. Capillary electrophoresis; the Human Genome Project. Recent experiments involving gene deletion and DNA alteration. 2005 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Dreyer_W application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/108/01/OH_Dreyer_W.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Dreyer_W

oai:CaltechOH:109 2005-09-12

Gould, Roy W. Physics All Records Engineering Oral history interview in six sessions in 1996 with Roy W. Gould, Caltech Professor of Electrical Engineering, Physics and Applied Physics, 1955-1996 (emeritus 1996); Chairman, Division of Engineering and Applied Science, 1979-1985; and Caltech alumnus (BS, 1949; PhD, 1956). Gould describes his youth and student years at Caltech, beginning in 1944; Caltech during World War II and interruption of studies, resumption in 1946; courses in engineering and physics; BS in engineering. Graduate work begins at Stanford on microwaves with Lester Field; he returns to Caltech for a PhD in physics on microwaves and solar radio noise. Discusses microwave electronics community in the 1950s; J. Pierce, A. Haeff; recalls the “Tube Conferences.” Job offers in industry but chooses Caltech, where he receives joint appointment in electrical engineering and physics. Recalls electrical engineering program at Caltech in the 1950s with C. Papas, G. McCann (analog computer), C. Wilts. Describes beginnings of his interest in plasma physics and thermonuclear fusion (late 1950s); connections with European plasma physics groups. Assumes directorship of Atomic Energy Commission [AEC] fusion program and moves to Washington; offered position of Deputy Science Advisor to President Nixon; returns instead to Caltech (1972). Builds tokamak at Caltech; fusion later becomes “Big Science.” Birth of applied physics program at Caltech; its history. He discusses engineering division at Caltech; its diversity; his tenure as chairman. Recalls the rise of computer science and roles of C. Mead, I. Sutherland and C. Seitz. Comments on Caltech presidents, especially Goldberger and Everhart; changes in Caltech over the years. Epilogue 1998: on Gould’s return to earliest interest, amateur radio. 1999 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Gould_R application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/109/01/OH_Gould_R.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Gould_R

oai:CaltechOH:111 2005-10-18

Russell, Findlay E. All Records Chemistry Biology An interview in one session in 1994 with Findlay E. Russell, MD, toxicologist, and former Caltech research fellow (1951-1953). He recalls applying for a research fellowship at Caltech under Professor Anthonie Van Harreveld in the biology division during his time as an intern at Los Angeles County General Hospital (now Los Angeles County and USC Medical Center). Comments on decision to undertake research in neurophysiology during clinical training; his early and continuing interest in venomous and poisonous animals and the effect of toxins on the nervous system. Recollects the Caltech Biology Division in the early 1950s; his colleagues Howard Teas and Richard Schweets; Max Delbrück’s influence on the students. Efforts by Russell to improve student social life include teaching students ballroom dancing and holding dances with Pasadena City College. His own research on stingray venom eventually supported by Office of Naval Research. In 1953 he moves to the Huntington Institute of Medical Research at the Henry Huntington Hospital in Pasadena. Other reminiscences of life at Caltech and in Pasadena include: R. Feynman’s defense of the local burlesque theater, the Burbank (1969); organizing a faculty volleyball team, which includes Nobelist William Shockley; memories of G. Beadle, A. Haagen-Smit, L. Pauling; treating Pauling’s dog with vitamin C injections; various pranks. His participation in and enthusiasm for Kent Clark’s musical shows on Caltech life. He leaves Huntington for professorship at USC in 1955. Consulting work for United Nations and other governmental agencies takes him all over the world. 1995 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Russell_F application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/111/01/OH_Russell_F.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Russell_F

oai:CaltechOH:112 2005-10-20

Hughes, Ruth J. All Records Chemistry Administration Born and educated in Germany, Ruth Hughes emigrated to England in 1939, just prior to the outbreak of World War II. Having been denied access to university training in medicine because she was Jewish, she had decided to study nursing and was hired as a student nurse in Birmingham, England, where she spent the war years. In her three-session interview in 1998-1999, she recalls her decision to leave England for the US (1946) and her chance meeting with Barbara Low, a crystallographer and student at Oxford under Dorothy Hodgkin; and through Low her introduction to Edward Wesley Hughes, a Caltech research associate in chemistry and a crystallographer. Ruth Hughes works in the US as a nurse in New York and Boston; she marries Edward (“Eddie”) in England during his sabbatical at Leeds (1951); his interest in car tours and motion picture photography helps in the formation of a social group. Recalls her husband’s assignment to represent Linus Pauling at the Royal Society in London, early 1952; her meeting then with Pauling’s colleague Robert Corey and his wife. The Hugheses return to Pasadena by way of South Africa and South America. Account of Caltech in the early 1950s: her early involvement with the Women’s Club and introduction to Doris DuBridge (wife of Caltech president Lee A. DuBridge); the Hugheses’ close connection with the Paulings; Mrs. Pauling (Ava Helen) and her political and social ambitions; social expectations on Caltech wives at that time; her husband’s loyalty to Pauling and the various tasks imposed on both of them as a result, especially the entertaining of visitors; the nature of the Pauling circle. Her involvement with Pauling’s petition to the UN on a nuclear test ban; her husband’s and other’s opposition to Pauling’s political work. Her interest in meeting and assisting Chinese and Japanese visitors; the Caltech Service League and Chem Wives. Circumstances of the Paulings’ departure from Caltech. Current recognition of Caltech widows by Alice Huang. 2002 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Hughes_R application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/112/01/OHO_Hughes.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Hughes_R

oai:CaltechOH:115 2006-01-10

Boehm, Felix H. Physics All Records Astronomy An oral history interview in three sessions in 1999 with Felix Hans Boehm, Caltech Research Fellow, 1953-1958, and Professor of Physics, 1958-1995 (emeritus 1995- ). Born in Basel, Switzerland, and educated at the University of Geneva and the ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule) in Zurich (diploma, 1948; PhD, 1951, in physics), Boehm recounts first coming to the US to Columbia University in 1952 to work in nuclear physics under C. S. Wu. In July 1953 he arrives at Caltech as postdoc; associations with physicists J. DuMond in Bridge Laboratory and C. C. Lauritsen and the Kellogg Lab group. Experimental work in 1950s and 1960s on aspects of nuclear structure and particle behavior, especially parity violation. Interaction with R. Feynman and M. Gell-Mann on parity violation in nonleptonic processes. He takes leave to Europe: Heidelberg 1957-58 and Copenhagen 1965-1966; meets R. Mössbauer and helps bring him to Caltech (1960-1964), where he receives Nobel Prize (1961). Reminiscences of Niels Bohr. At Caltech begins collaboration with P. Vogel (1970); developing interest in neutrino oscillations; neutrino mass and search for dark matter. Visits to Aspen Center for Physics; collaborations with French (Laue Langevin Institute, Grenoble) and Swiss scientists (Paul Scherrer Institute, Zurich) on neutrino detection; experiment set up in Gotthard Tunnel. Work at Caltech on double beta decay; building of time-projection chamber (TPC); attempts to set up neutrino detector near San Onofre nuclear plant scuttled by environmentalists; lab eventually built in Palo Verde, Arizona. Comments on Caltech presidents and future of Caltech. 2001 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Boehm_F application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/115/01/Boehm_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Boehm_F

oai:CaltechOH:116 2006-01-12

Schwarz, John H. Physics All Records An interview in two sessions, July 2000, with John H. Schwarz, Harold Brown Professor of Theoretical Physics in the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy. Dr. Schwarz majored in mathematics at Harvard (BA, 1962) and then went to UC Berkeley for graduate work in theoretical physics. He offers recollections of his advisor, Geoffrey Chew; working on S-matrix theory; sharing an office with another future string theorist, David J. Gross. After receiving his PhD in 1966, he became an instructor at Princeton, where in 1969 he began work on string theory, prompted by 1968 paper by Gabriele Veneziano. He comments on early years of string theory, his collaboration with André Neveu and Joël Scherk, Murray Gell-Mann’s interest in the work, being denied tenure at Princeton and invited to come to Caltech as a research associate. General lack of interest in string theory in 1970s. Scherk and Schwarz continue working on it and note that the graviton shows up in the theory, suggesting a way to reconcile quantum theory and general relativity; they publish in 1974 and 1975, but papers are largely ignored. In August 1979, he begins collaboration with Michael Green at CERN and later at Caltech and the Aspen Center for Physics. By now there are several string theories, but all are plagued with anomalies; he describes their breakthrough elimination of anomalies in 1984 at Aspen and his announcement of it at the Aspen physics cabaret. Comments on sudden burst of interest in string theory, especially at Princeton, and the involvement of Edward Witten. Shortly thereafter, Schwarz is made a full professor at Caltech. Comments on the antipathy of Sheldon Glashow toward string theory and on his own dislike of the phrase “theory of everything;” on the latter-day history of string theory; problem of existence of five consistent superstring theories; talk by Witten at strings conference, USC, 1995, when it was recognized that the five are part of one underlying theory; discussion of “M” theory and membranes. Comments on annual string conferences, on Witten’s visit to Caltech, on joint Caltech-USC physics institute, on prospects for the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and the development of a Supersymmetric Standard Model, on his receipt of the Dirac Medal from the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste in 1989 and his election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1997. 2002 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Schwarz_J application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/116/01/Schwarz_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Schwarz_J

oai:CaltechOH:117 2006-03-13

Bridges, William B. Physics All Records Jet Propulsion Laboratory Engineering An interview in three sessions, in May and June 2001, and an Addendum, March 2004, with William B. Bridges, Carl F. Braun Professor of Engineering in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science. Dr. Bridges received his undergraduate and graduate education at the University of California at Berkeley (BS in electrical engineering, 1956; MS, 1957; PhD, 1962). At Berkeley in graduate school, he worked with John Whinnery and Charles K. (Ned) Birdsall on microwave vacuum tubes. He recalls that work and comments on its military applications. He then went to Hughes Research Laboratories (now HRL Laboratories LLC), for which he still is a consultant. Recalls gas laser work in the early 1960s at HRL and Bell Laboratories and the development of the argon-ion laser. In 1977 he joined the Caltech faculty with a joint appointment in electrical engineering and applied physics, while continuing to consult at Hughes. At Caltech he began working on laser isotope separation and later on far-infrared lasers. He discusses his various graduate students in electrical engineering; his colleagues John Pierce, Hardy Martel, Robert Cannon, Roy Gould, and Sverre Eng; his part in developing an undergraduate option in electrical engineering and in building up that department; his work as executive officer for electrical engineering (1978-1981). Recalls his visiting professorship at the University of Göteborg, Sweden, summer 1989; technical advisor and board member of Uniphase Corporation, a fiber-optic-communications company (now JDS Uniphase) in the 1980s and 1990s. Comments on the difficulties faced by women in engineering and his establishment of a chapter of the Society of Women Engineers at Caltech. Discusses his involvement with Caltech’s Program in Advanced Technologies in partnership with TRW, Aerojet, General Motors, and GTE. Concludes the interview with his recollections of Caltech President Marvin L. (Murph) Goldberger’s attempt to set up a study center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the U.S. Army (the Arroyo Center) and his recollections of Goldberger’s successor as president, Thomas E. Everhart, whom Bridges knew from Hughes and Berkeley. The Addendum to the interview concerns Bridges’s marriage to Linda J. McManus. 2004 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Bridges_W application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/117/01/OH_Bridges_W.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Bridges_W

oai:CaltechOH:118 2006-03-22

Schmidt, Maarten All Records Astronomy An interview in three sessions in April and May of 1996 with Maarten Schmidt, Francis L. Moseley Professor of Astronomy, emeritus, in the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy. He recalls growing up in Groningen, Holland, during German occupation in World War II; his early education and friendship with Jan Borgman, with whom he built a telescope; photographing the solar eclipse of July 9, 1945. Matriculation at Groningen University in 1946. At an astronomy conference in 1949, Jan Oort asks him to become an assistant at Leiden Observatory. Graduate study at Leiden, where he works with Oort on the brightness of comets. Recalls his time in Kenya, August 1950 to December 1951, making measurements of declination on the equator with G. van Herk. Comments on 1951 discovery of 21-centimeter line and his radio observations of galactic structure with Oort and Henk van de Hulst. PhD from Leiden in 1956; thesis on the distribution of mass in Milky Way galaxy. Comes to Mount Wilson Observatory on a two-year Carnegie Fellowship. Returns to Leiden in 1958; back to Pasadena a year later, as an associate professor at Caltech, where he works in early 1960s on exchange between stars and galactic gas, and on size, mass distribution and rotation of Milky Way galaxy. At Palomar in early 1960s—working with radio astronomer Tom Matthews, who was at Owens Valley—he takes spectra of optical objects identified with radio sources, which leads to the discovery of quasars. Recalls quasar work and contributions of Jesse Greenstein, John Bolton, J. Beverly Oke, Allan Sandage, Cyril Hazard, and later Richard Green, James Gunn, and Donald Schneider. Recalls early arguments by Halton Arp, Fred Hoyle, Geoffrey Burbidge that quasars were not cosmological objects. Recalls use of CCDs in 1980s-1990s and the discovery in 1993 of a quasar with a redshift of 4.9, largest redshift on record. Comments on his work in X-ray astronomy and gamma-ray astronomy, with ROSAT [Röntgen X-ray Satellite] and the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory [GRO]. Recalls his graduate students, among them Nobel laureate Robert W. Wilson (co-discoverer of cosmic microwave background). Discusses his administrative career at Caltech, 1972-1980: three years as executive officer for astronomy, three years as PMA division chairman, two years as director of the Hale Observatories. Comments on the concurrent deterioration of relations between Caltech and the Carnegie Institution. Recalls his presidency of the American Astronomical Society, 1984-1986, and his work on behalf of VLBA [Very Large Baseline Array] of radio telescopes and National Science Foundation’s astronomy budget. Concludes with a discussion of his chairmanship of AURA [Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy] board, 1992-1995. 1999 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Schmidt_M application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/118/01/Schmidt96_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Schmidt_M

oai:CaltechOH:120 2006-08-28

Frautschi, Steven C. Physics All Records An interview in two sessions with Steven C. Frautschi, professor of theoretical physics in the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy. Dr. Frautschi discusses his family background and his early years in Madison, Wisconsin. He recalls matriculating, age 16, at Harvard, where his advisor was J. H. van Vleck; graduating in 1954 with an AB in physics, entering Stanford after a year spent bicycling around Europe on a Harvard traveling fellowship. At Stanford, under Sidney Drell, he and James Bjorken worked out the theory for an experiment being conducted by Nobel laureate Burton Richter. After receiving his PhD in 1958 he spent a postdoctoral year at Hideki Yukawa’s Institute for Theoretical Physics in Kyoto, followed by a two-year postdoctoral stint at UC Berkeley, where he worked with Geoffrey Chew on Chew’s “bootstrap” theory of strongly interacting particles and with Stanley Mandelstam on Regge poles. To Cornell in 1961. Invited to Caltech by Murray Gell-Mann; 1962 paper with Gell-Mann and Fred Zachariasen on Regge poles. Joins Caltech faculty as an assistant professor in the fall of 1962. Comments on the teaching of physics at Caltech in the early sixties; Gell-Mann and Richard P. Feynman; Gell-Mann’s interest in linguistics. Discusses his “statistical bootstrap” theory of the early 1970s for newly discovered strongly interacting particles. Discusses his 1982 paper in Science on the entropy of the observable universe. Discusses his work for The Mechanical Universe television project. Nine years as executive officer for physics, beginning in 1988; comments on the physics core curriculum and “take-home” labs. Comments on his work as master of student houses beginning in 1997, on the gradual “professionalization” of student affairs, and on his encouragement of the performing arts at Caltech. 2006-08 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Frautschi_S application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/120/01/Frautschi_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Frautschi_S

oai:CaltechOH:121 2006-08-31

Taylor, Hugh P. Geology All Records Chemistry An interview in eight sessions in the summer of 2002 with Hugh P. Taylor, Robert P. Sharp Professor of Geology, emeritus, in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences. In this wide-ranging interview, Dr. Taylor recalls his upbringing in Arizona and New Mexico, where his father was an agent for the Santa Fe Railroad; his move to Southern California; and his undergraduate education at Caltech. After receiving his BS at Caltech in geochemistry in 1954 (he was one of the first two geochemistry majors to graduate from the institute), and a master’s degree at Harvard, he returned to Caltech for his PhD, working on oxygen-isotope ratios with geochemist Samuel Epstein. He recalls their refinement of the separation technique and his application of Oxygen-18/Oxygen-16 ratios to the study of magmatic intrusions, especially Iceland’s Skaergaard intrusion—studies that led to a new understanding of hydrothermal convection and the effects of meteoric groundwater (essentially, rainwater) on basaltic intrusions. He recalls Caltech’s move into geochemistry in the early 1950s under the chairmanship of Robert P. Sharp, the advent of plate tectonics in the mid-1960s, the lunar program at Caltech, and his friendship with astronaut/geologist Harrison “Jack” Schmitt. Further recollections include the accomplishments of Gerald J. Wasserburg’s laboratory in analyzing the lunar material; Wasserburg’s feud with colleague Leon T. Silver; Silver’s reluctance to publish; Taylor’s collaboration with Silver on isotopic analysis of the Peninsula Ranges Batholith; Taylor’s collecting trip to the Skaergaard intrusion; his work with Robert Coleman of the United States Geological Survey on the Red Sea Rift Zone; his work with Bruno Turi on igneous rocks in Italy; and the discoveries made by several of his outstanding graduate students and postdocs. The latter part of the interview amounts to a history of Caltech geology, as he describes the evolution of the division from a classical, field-oriented geology department to a first-rank division incorporating geophysics, geochemistry, and planetary sciences. Along the way, Taylor gives his assessment of the various strengths and weaknesses of the division’s chairmen: Robert P. Sharp, Clarence Allen, Eugene Shoemaker, Barclay Kamb, Peter Wyllie, Gerald Wasserburg, Peter M. Goldreich, David J. Stevenson, and Edward M. Stolper. 2006-08 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Taylor_H application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/121/01/Taylor_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Taylor_H

oai:CaltechOH:122 2006-09-07

Whaling, Ward Physics All Records Astronomy An 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. 2002 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Whaling_W application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/122/01/Whaling_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Whaling_W

oai:CaltechOH:123 2006-11-27

Owen, Ray David All Records Biology Interview with Ray Owen, Professor of Biology at Caltech, conducted by Rachel Prud’homme in 1983. The interview covers Owen’s early life growing up in Wisconsin, where he attended the University of Wisconsin, studying cattle genetics with C. Stormont; his early research on chimerism in twin calves and on immunological tolerance. In 1946 he joins the biology division faculty at Caltech in genetics as a Gosney Fellow. Recollections of genetics at Caltech following World War II: concurrent arrivals include G. W. Beadle, N. Horowitz, H. Mitchell, and L. DuBridge. Recalls T. H. Morgan’s reputation and his colleagues A. H. Sturtevant and S. Emerson. Other members of the biology division at this time include C. Bridges, H. J. Muller, H. Borsook, A. Haagen-Smit, C. Wiersma, A. van Harrevelt, and F. Went. Recollections of L. Pauling. His book, General Genetics, with A. Srb published in 1952. His work with D. Lindsley on bone marrow transplantation. At Caltech, involvement with freshman admissions. In 1961 becomes biology division chair. Discusses teaching and further work in student affairs, including admission and recruitment of women, the Committee on the Freshman Year, and pass/fail grading. Appointment in 1975 to dean of students and vice-president for student affairs. Involvement with National Cancer Program (1972-1975) and continuing research on immunological tolerance. Concludes with observations on genetic engineering and safety of genetics research. 2006 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Owen_R application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/123/01/Owen_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Owen_R

oai:CaltechOH:124 2006-12-20

Ingersoll, Andrew P. Geology All Records Jet Propulsion Laboratory Astronomy Interview in two sessions conducted by Sara Lippincott in 2004 with Andrew P. Ingersoll, Earle C. Anthony Professor of Planetary Science at the California Institute of Technology. Discusses parents’ social activism in the 1930s. His youth and education at Amherst College (B.A. physics, 1960) and Harvard University (M.A. physics, 1961; PhD 1966); his early interest in atmospheres, oceans and meteorology; working with A. Arons and H. Stommel at Woods Hole on ocean acoustics. Recruited to Caltech in 1966 in planetary science; early atmospheric studies of Venus, Jupiter (Great Red Spot) and Mars; collaborates with G. Munch and G. Neugebauer. Involvement with NASA’s Pioneer 11 and Voyager imaging team at JPL; results of Voyager’s “Grand Tour” of Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; his theories on winds and turbulence in outer space. The Shoemaker-Levy comet, Hubble Space Telescope observations, and Jupiter’s effect on protecting the Earth from comets. Works with the Soviet Venera space program on Venus’ atmosphere; visit to the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Galileo and photographing Jupiter’s atmosphere; Europa lander to study its subterranean ocean. Discusses recent evidence of water on Mars, terraforming Mars, and colonizing planets. Concludes with administrative work at Caltech: Executive officer for planetary sciences (1987-1994); G. Wasserburg as division head (1987-1988); Caltech committees; Caltech’s core curriculum and the need for greater emphasis on research time. Teaching atmospheric dynamics; discussion of global warming; research in oceanography and the precession of the equinoxes. 2006 Oral History NonPeerReviewed ttp://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Ingersoll_A application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/124/01/Ingersoll_OHO.pdf ttp://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Ingersoll_A

oai:CaltechOH:125 2007-05-07

Acosta, Allan J. All Records Engineering An interview in four sessions, in April and May 1994, with Allan James Acosta, Richard L. and Dorothy M. Hayman Professor of Mechanical Engineering, emeritus, in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science. Acosta received his undergraduate and graduate education at Caltech (BS, 1945; MS, 1949; PhD, 1952). He joined the Caltech faculty in 1954 and became a full professor in 1966 and Hayman Professor in 1990. In this interview, he discusses growing up in Southern California during the depression and his early interest in science and engineering; his war service in the U.S. navy, including the navy’s V-12 program at Caltech, and his observation of the first A-bomb blasts at Bikini Atoll. After his discharge from the service in September 1946, Acosta returned to Caltech and was hired as an engineer by R.T. Knapp, head of Caltech’s Hydraulic Machinery Laboratory, which was then testing pumps developed by the Byron Jackson Co. of Los Angeles for Washington State’s Grand Coulee Irrigation District. After a year, he became a graduate student. He discusses the Hydraulic Machinery Laboratory, established by Knapp in the early 1930s, the establishment of the related Hydrodynamics Laboratory during the war, its evolution under Milton Plesset, and its connections with the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory (GALCIT). He discusses his work in fluid mechanics and heat transfer and his association with mechanical engineering colleagues Rolf Sabersky, Duncan Rannie, Frank Marble, and Edward Zukoski, and later with Christopher E. Brennen. He discusses the history of GALCIT, and his work for the Fluids Engineering Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers [ASME]. He comments on the evolution of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at Caltech. The interview closes with reminiscences of some of his PhD students. 1998 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Acosta_A application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/125/01/OH_Acosta.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Acosta_A

oai:CaltechOH:127 2007-06-07

Plesset, Milton S. Physics All Records Engineering Interview in 1981 with Milton S. Plesset (1908-1991), Professor of Engineering Science, Emeritus. Begins with Plesset’s decision to study physics at the U. of Pittsburgh; PhD in physics at Yale [1932] on Dirac electron theory. Postdoctoral fellowship brings him to Caltech that year to work under P. Epstein. Recalls giving theoretical physics seminar which Einstein attended on day of Long Beach earthquake [March 10, 1933]; records story of Einstein and B. Gutenberg in conversation and unaware of the quaking. Importance of J. R. Oppenheimer to American theoretical physics in early 1930s; his early collaboration with Oppenheimer on Dirac electron theory. R. A. Millikan’s interest in this work in connection with cosmic rays. Year spent in Copenhagen at Niels Bohr Institute as National Research Council fellow [1933-1934]. Returns to U.S. to teach at U. of Rochester; meets L. A. DuBridge there. Returns to California 1941 to do wartime work at Douglas Aircraft Co.; beginning of interest in fluid mechanics. Sent by Douglas to Europe following German surrender to investigate German rocketry [1945]. Return to Pasadena to work on torpedo hydrodynamics at Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS). Hired at Caltech [1948] as associate professor of applied mechanics; begins research in hydrodynamics and cavitation. Serves on Air Force Science Advisory Board (started by T. von Kármán). Recalls McCarthy era at Caltech; cases of H-S. Tsien, Oppenheimer. Interest in nuclear energy leads to 1959 advisory appointment to California Atomic Energy Development and Radiation Protection Program; also membership on Advisory Committee on Reactor Safety for U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission; discussion of nuclear safety in connection with Three Mile Island reactor incident. Becomes professor of engineering science [1963]. In closing notes special admiration for Epstein, along with Oppenheimer and R. Tolman; cultural value of Epstein’s “stammtisch.” 1984 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Plesset_M application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/127/01/OH_Plesset.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Plesset_M

oai:CaltechOH:128 2008-07-08

MacCready, Paul B. All Records Engineering An interview in three sessions with Paul B. MacCready, Caltech graduate (MS physics, 1948; PhD aeronautics, 1952) and inventor and entrepreneur who became internationally known in 1977 as the “father of human-powered flight.” Conducted by Sara Lippincott, the oral history covers MacCready’s scientific and entrepreneurial career, including biographical details. MacCready discusses his family life, early education and aeronautical interests in New Haven, CT. During his youth he progressed from the construction of model airplanes to the flying of motor-propelled aircraft and gliders. MacCready recounts his soaring competitions along with his education at Yale in the 1940s; he continues by describing his graduate work at Caltech from 1947 to 1952 and his high altitude soaring in the Sierras and Europe; he relates this to his interest in weather modification and his entrepreneurial work in cloud seeding. In 1971 MacCready founded AeroVironment with his associates Peter Lissaman and Ivar Tombach; he discusses his early clients and research. Beginning in the mid-1970s MacCready began work on the celebrated Gossamer aircraft series; the interview includes discussion concerning the advent of the Gossamer Condor in 1976-1977 and the flight of the Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel in 1979. The interview also includes his continued interest in human-powered flight and environmental issues, as well as unmanned solar-powered flight. 2006 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_MacCready_P application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/128/01/OH_MacCready.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_MacCready_P

oai:CaltechOH:129 2007-06-12

Christy, Robert F. Physics All Records Jet Propulsion Laboratory Astronomy Administration Robert F. Christy was born in Vancouver in 1916, received his undergraduate education at the University of British Columbia, and took his Ph.D. degree with J. Robert Oppenheimer at Berkeley in 1941. He was an early participant on the Manhattan Project, working with Enrico Fermi at the Metallurgical Laboratory of the University of Chicago on the first atomic pile. In 1943 he went to Los Alamos as a member of the Theoretical Division under Hans Bethe, where he devised what came to be known as the Christy bomb, or the Christy gadget—the plutonium implosion device tested at Alamogordo on July 16, 1945. After the war he returned briefly to the University of Chicago, where he and his wife shared living quarters for a time with Edward Teller and his wife. Caltech was then seeking to build up its theoretical physics faculty, and Oppenheimer, who was teaching there part time, recommended that the institute hire Christy. In 1946 Christy accepted Caltech’s offer of an associate professorship. He worked chiefly on the application of theory to cosmic-ray experiments in particle physics, later moving into nuclear physics and astrophysics, including important work in the 1960s on the pulsations of RR Lyrae stars, which are similar to but smaller than the Cepheid variables used as cosmic yardsticks. In 1967 this work earned Christy the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1970, Christy became Caltech’s provost, a post he held for the next ten years. After Caltech president Harold Brown left to join the Carter Administration as Secretary of Defense in 1977, Christy was also acting president of the institute, until the advent of Marvin L. (Murph) Goldberger a year later. In the mid-1980s he became a member of the National Research Council’s Committee on Dosimetry, which investigated the radiation effects of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. In the interview Christy recalls his childhood in British Columbia; his undergraduate years at the University of British Columbia; his graduate work with J. Robert Oppenheimer at Berkeley; and his work on the Manhattan Project, first with Enrico Fermi at the Metallurgical Laboratory of the University of Chicago and then as a member of the Theoretical Division at Los Alamos. He recounts his wartime work on the critical assembly for the plutonium bomb (“the Christy bomb”); the Alamogordo test, July 16, 1945; the postwar concerns of ALAS (Association of Los Alamos Scientists); his brief return to the University of Chicago and move to Caltech; friendship with and later alienation from Edward Teller; work with Charles and Tommy Lauritsen and William A. Fowler in Caltech’s Kellogg Radiation Laboratory; Freeman Dyson’s Orion Project; work on the meson and RR Lyrae stars; fellowship at Cambridge University; 1950s Vista Project at Caltech; his opposition to the Strategic Defense Initiative; and his post-retirement work for the National Research Council’s Committee on Dosimetry and on inertial-confinement fusion. 1998 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Christy_R application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/129/01/OH_Christy_R.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Christy_R

oai:CaltechOH:131 2007-07-30

Sabersky, R. H. All Records Engineering An interview in two sessions, in April 1990, with Rolf Heinrich Sabersky, professor of mechanical engineering, emeritus, in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science. Dr. Sabersky received his undergraduate and graduate education at Caltech (BS, 1942; MS, 1943; PhD, 1949). He joined the Caltech faculty in 1949 and became a full professor in 1961 and emeritus professor in 1988. In this interview, he discusses his early education in Berlin and his family’s flight from Germany in 1938 to Switzerland and thence to Los Angeles. He entered Caltech in 1939 as a sophomore; recalls his professors there: Donald S. Clark, Frederic W. Hinrichs, Robert L. Daugherty, Robert T. Knapp, Franklin Thomas, William H. Pickering, Romeo R. Martel, William B. Munro, and James W. Daily. Recollections of Thomas Mann. Pearl Harbor and Caltech campus in wartime; restrictions applying to him as an “enemy alien.” He discusses his work on the Southern California Cooperative Wind Tunnel under Mark Serrurier; recalls visits to that project by Arthur (Maj.) Klein. Becomes a graduate student; lives in the Old Dorm and joins the campus fire brigade. Courses from Donald E. Hudson, Robert C. Bromfield, Peter Kyropoulos. After the MS degree, he goes to work at Aerojet Engineering Corp. at invitation of A.M.O. Smith; works with Martin Summerfield on sustained-duration liquid rocket engines. Recollections of Theodore von Kármán, Clark B. Millikan. Guggenheim Jet Propulsion Center and H. S. Tsien. Recollections of Fritz Zwicky in his Aerojet days. The influence of Aerojet’s William E. Zisch. Becomes acquainted with James Van Allen in early 1946, at Applied Physics Lab, Johns Hopkins; their work together on the Aerobee rocket. Back to Caltech for the PhD; comments on advent of Frederick C. Lindvall and changes in the engineering division. Recalls his work with Duncan Rannie on axial flow compressors. Courses with Carl Anderson, H. Victor Neher, Charles Lauritsen. Receives his PhD, joins the faculty; consults for Aerojet. Comments on changes in engineering curriculum, drop in engineering enrollment in the late 1950s, the rise of environmental engineering. He discusses division problems with accreditation; assesses student quality and effect of the admission of women. Comments on increasingly cumbersome process of faculty recruitment. He discusses his work on boiling heat transfer, on fluids near the critical point, on fluid flow in rough tubes, on polymer solutions and non-Newtonian fluids, on flowing granular material. Talks about his “extracurricular” research on indoor pollution with Frederic Shair. He concludes with an assessment of current prospects facing graduating engineers. 1992 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Sabersky_R application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/131/01/OH_Sabersky.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Sabersky_R

oai:CaltechOH:132 2007-08-15

Todd, John Mathematics All Records John 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. 1997 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Todd_J application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/132/01/Todd_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Todd_J

oai:CaltechOH:133 2007-08-15

Mead, Carver A. All Records Engineering An interview in July 1996 with Carver Andress Mead, Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Engineering and Applied Science (as of 1999, Moore Professor emeritus). Dr. Mead received his undergraduate and graduate education at Caltech (BS, 1956; MS, 1957; PhD, 1960). He joined the Caltech faculty in 1958, becoming a full professor in 1967. In this interview, he recalls growing up in the mountains east of Fresno, father’s work for the Southern California Edison Company; early education in a one-room schoolhouse, then high school in Fresno. Early interest in electronics. Enters Caltech in 1952. Freshman courses with Linus Pauling, Richard Feynman, Frederic Bohnenblust; junior year focuses on electrical engineering. Stays on for a master’s degree with the encouragement of Hardy C. Martel. PhD student with R. David Middlebrook and Robert V. Langmuir. Work on electron tunneling; grants from the Office of Naval Research and General Electric. Helps establish applied physics in the 1960s with Amnon Yariv and Charles Wilts. Discusses his friendship with Gordon Moore and work on design of semiconductors. Discusses the establishment of a computer science department at Caltech in the mid-1970s and the arrival of Ivan Sutherland: the Silicon Structures Project. Departure of Sutherland in 1978 and decline of computer science under Pres. Marvin L. (Murph) Goldberger. MOSIS [Metal Oxide Semiconductor Implementation Service] program. Teaching at Bell Labs, 1980; startup of fabless semiconductor companies. Discussion of Caltech’s attitudes toward investment in small technology companies and licensing arrangements. His own consulting for Silicon Valley companies. MESFET [Metal Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor]. Formation of CNS [Computation and Neural Systems] program at Caltech with John Hopfield, early 1980s. Caltech’s Center for Neuromorphic Systems Engineering; help from National Science Foundation; involvement of Christof Koch, Demetri Psaltis, Rodney M. Goodman, Pietro Perona, and Yaser Abu-Mostafa. The interview concludes with a discussion of his interest in the freshman and sophomore physics courses and his advocacy of greater flexibility in the curriculum. 2000 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Mead_C application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/133/02/OH_Mead.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Mead_C

oai:CaltechOH:134 2007-09-07

Ellersieck, Heinz E. All Records Humanities A February 25, 2004, interview with Heinz E. Ellersieck, associate professor of history, emeritus, in the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences. Dr. Ellersieck received his undergraduate and graduate education at UCLA (AB 1942, MA 1948, PhD 1955). His father was German violinmaker Hellmuth Ellersieck, who emigrated to Denmark before the outbreak of World War I, where he met and married Dr. Ellersieck’s mother. In 1914, to avoid extradition to Germany to serve in the Kaiser’s army, he and his wife moved to Norway, where their children were born. In 1926 the family emigrated to Los Angeles. Dr. Ellersieck attended Alta Loma Elementary School and Los Angeles High School. After his graduation from UCLA in 1942, he joined the army, spending almost a year in the infantry in Fort Meade, Md., before joining the ASTP [Army Specialized Training Program] and studying Russian at Cornell. He attended intelligence school at Fort Meade and in 1945 was sent to England, to the air force intelligence branch. He was discharged in the summer of 1946 and returned to UCLA, where he studied Russian history with Waldemar Westergaard and Raymond H. Fisher. After receiving his MA, Dr. Ellersieck spent fourteen months in European archives gathering material for his dissertation on the 17th century czars Alexei Mikhailovich and Feodor Alexeevich. In 1950, he was recruited as an instructor in Caltech’s Humanities Division by Professor Rodman W. Paul and the division’s new chairman, Hallett Smith, and he discusses their efforts to turn it from a teaching division into a division emphasizing research and scholarship, on a par with the institute’s science divisions. He also recalls joining, soon after his arrival, Caltech’s Project Vista, which the air force had asked the institute to undertake in preparation for a possible Soviet invasion of Western Europe. (Ellersieck was recruited because of his military and intelligence experience and his knowledge of Russian history and language.) He comments on the report that resulted and the air force’s unhappiness with its recommendations against the use of tactical atomic weapons. He comments on his further studies of the Soviet Union during the years of the cold war. His retirement in 1988 coincided with the end of that war. He also discusses his continuing interest in Pasadena civic affairs, especially his involvement with Pasadena preservationists and with police community relations. 2007 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Ellersieck_H application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/134/01/OH_Ellersieck.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Ellersieck_H

oai:CaltechOH:135 2007-09-13

Stewart, Homer J. All Records Engineering Two 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. 1998 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Stewart_H application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/135/01/Stewart,_H._J._OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Stewart_H

oai:CaltechOH:136 2007-09-21

Anderson, Don L. Geology All Records An interview in three sessions with Don L. Anderson, Eleanor and John R. McMillan Professor of Geophysics. Integrating seismology, solid state physics and geochemistry, Anderson is recognized for his work on the origin, evolution, structure and composition of Earth and other planets. He is a member of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, and has won numerous awards including the National Medal of Science (1998), the Crafoord Prize (1998) and the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1988). Conducted by Shirley Cohen, the interview covers many aspects of Anderson’s personal and professional life from his childhood onwards. Session 1 includes discussion of Anderson’s education in Maryland and his early interest in geology. He reminisces about his time in the air force, including his research on the properties of polar ice, as well as his subsequent work for Chevron. Anderson also discusses the circumstances enabling him to come to Caltech and the difficult living conditions in California; he recalls his graduate work with Frank Press and reminisces about Caltech faculty, including Arden Albee, Robert Sharp, C. Hewitt Dix, Charles Richter, and Gerald Wasserburg. The second session continues with Anderson’s various appointments at the institute and the culture of the Seismology Laboratory in the San Rafael hills. He discusses his work on floating anisotropic plates and other geophysical research, as well as the attempt to maintain the collegial atmosphere of the seismo lab with its move to campus. The final session includes further reminiscences of Charles Richter and Anderson’s attempt to understand the Earth’s mantle with respect to geochemistry and helium 3; and recent research in surface geology, bathymetry, and plate boundaries. The interview concludes with the events surrounding the Crafoord Prize and the President’s medal, along with Anderson’s research philosophy and the importance of Caltech seismology. 2001 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Anderson_D application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/136/01/Anderson_D_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Anderson_D

oai:CaltechOH:137 2008-05-27

Silver, Leon T. Geology All Records Interview in six sessions, in December 1994-January 1995 and February 2000, conducted by Shirley K. Cohen with Leon T. Silver, W. M. Keck Foundation Professor for Resource Geology, emeritus, at Caltech. This lengthy interview begins with discussion of family background in Russia and Poland, youth in New York and Connecticut, and beginning of higher education at Colorado School of Mines, 1942. Recalls participation in navy V-12 program at U. of Colorado; degree in civil engineering and entry into Naval Civil Engineer Corps; decision to resume work in geology at U. of New Mexico after discharge in 1946; master’s degree 1948; entry into PhD program in geology at Caltech, fall 1948. Recalls Caltech geology division in 1948; its history and personnel to that time. Changes following WWII: Robert P. Sharp becomes chairman; recruitment of Harrison Brown to Caltech; beginning of geochemistry studies; Silver assigned to Brown’s group; group members Samuel Epstein, Clair Patterson and Charles McKinney; Patterson’s work on age of the Earth. Funding for new state-of-the-art geochemistry labs; McKinney builds new mass spectrometers. Interlude concerning personal history. Continues on work with Harrison Brown group, 1950s; recruitment of Gerald Wasserburg, 1955; appointments of Clarence Allen and Frank Press. Silver’s work on radiogenic lead systems. Beginnings of planetary science at Caltech; Brown’s study of meteorites; appointment of Bruce Murray. Decision to choose planetary science over marine sciences; subsequent loss of Frank Press. US decision to put a man on the moon; proposals to NASA to do lunar-sample analysis; Caltech dominates first lunar science conference (Houston, January 1970); Silver’s training of Apollo astronauts in geology, especially Harrison “Jack” Schmitt (Caltech BS, 1957). Recalls 1971 San Fernando earthquake’s impact on geology. Describes Grand Canyon trips for Caltech Associates and trustees involving Eugene Shoemaker and Silver; other alumni trips; establishing the R. P. Sharp divisional chair. Notes work outside of Caltech: USGS, NASA, Geological Society of America, National Research Council. Election to National Academy of Sciences, 1974; other awards. Comments on Caltech presidents DuBridge, Brown, Goldberger, Everhart; provosts Bacher, Christy, Vogt. Remarks on LIGO [Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory] and projects of special status. Comments on geology division chairmen. In final session, Silver describes expedition with Gene Shoemaker to find Indian Sipapu [hole where the Hopi people emerged onto Earth] on the Little Colorado River; description of geological feature housing Sipapu; obtaining and bringing sample of Sipapu water back to Caltech’s geology division. 2001 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Silver_L application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/137/01/Silver_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Silver_L

oai:CaltechOH:138 2007-09-21

Marble, Frank E. All Records Engineering An 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. 1997 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Marble_F application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/138/01/Marble_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Marble_F

oai:CaltechOH:139 2007-09-27

Marcus, Rudolph A. All Records Chemistry An 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. 1995 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Marcus_R application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/139/01/Marcus_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Marcus_R

oai:CaltechOH:141 2007-11-15

Osterbrock, Donald E. All Records Astronomy In this brief interview, the American astronomer Donald Osterbrock, who died on January 11, 2007, offers recollections of Enrico Fermi and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar in the early 1950s at the University of Chicago. He recalls the atmosphere at Yerkes Observatory, where he got his PhD (1952); his postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton (1952-1953); and the five years he spent at Caltech, first as an instructor (1953-1955) and then as an assistant professor (1955-1958). At Caltech, he worked on gaseous nebulae. He recalls that work and comments on Jesse Greenstein’s style as head of the astronomy department. He discusses his various colleagues affiliated with the Carnegie Observatories on Santa Barbara Street in Pasadena, including Walter Baade, Rudolph Minkowski, Armin Deutsch and Maarten Schmidt; his Caltech colleagues Guido Münch, Art Code, and Fritz Zwicky; his two graduate students, George Abell and John Mathis; his decision to leave Caltech in 1958 and help Art Code develop a graduate program in astronomy at the University of Wisconsin. 2004 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Osterbrock_D application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/141/01/Osterbrock_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Osterbrock_D

oai:CaltechOH:142 2007-12-13

Caughey, Thomas K. All Records Engineering Interview in two sessions in 1987 by Carol Bugé with Thomas Kirk Caughey, Professor of Applied Mechanics and Caltech alumnus (PhD, 1954). Caughey was born and educated in Scotland (bachelor's degree, University of Glasgow, 1948.) Comes to the U.S. with Fulbright to Cornell, where he completes his master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1952. He then earns his PhD at Caltech in 1954. He recalls Caltech’s engineering and physics faculty in the 1950s: H. Frederic Bohnenblust, Arthur Erdelyi, Richard P. Feynman, Tsien Hsue-shen. Begins teaching at Caltech in 1955; recalls Caltech’s Engineering Division under Frederick Lindvall; other engineers and physicists; compares engineering to other disciplines. Return to Cornell and earlier period: outstanding Cornell professors Feynman, Hans Bethe, Barney Rosser, Ed Gunder, Harry Conway; recalls grad student Ross Evan Iwanowski. Problems of physics degree program at Cornell. Professors Gray and Bernard Hague at Glasgow University. Comparison between American and European educational systems. His research in dynamics. Earthquake research at Caltech: George Housner and Donald Hudson. Discusses physics and engineering entering a decade of decline; coming fields of genetic engineering, cognitive science and computing, neural networks, and artificial intelligence. Anecdotes about Fritz Zwicky and Charles Richter. Comments on coeducation at Caltech. Caltech personalities: Robert Millikan in his late years; Paul Epstein; Edward Simmons, Richard Gerke; William A. Fowler; further on Zwicky, Hudson; engineers Donald Clark, Alfred Ingersoll; early memories of Earnest Watson. Views on Caltech's future. 1992 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Caughey_T application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/142/01/OH_Caughey.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Caughey_T

oai:CaltechOH:144 2008-02-07

Elliot, David C. All Records Humanities Interview conducted in five sessions, April and May 1986, by Carol Bugé with David Clephan Elliot, professor of history, emeritus, who arrived at Caltech in 1950 as an assistant professor, was appointed full professor by 1960, and served as the humanities and social sciences division’s executive officer from 1967 to 1971, as well as the secretary of the faculty from 1973-1985. Born and raised in Scotland, he received his MA in 1939 from the University of St. Andrews. In 1940 the British government sent Elliot to India, where he spent six years in the Punjab region working for the Indian Civil Service. In 1947, Elliot entered Harvard University, where he received an AM in 1948 and a PhD in 1951; later, in 1956, he also received an MA from Oxford University, where he studied international organizational law. The interview begins with Elliot discussing his early years in Scotland, the outbreak of World War II, meeting his future wife Nancy, and his experiences in India. He then goes on to discuss his decision to settle in the U.S., and more specifically his arrival in California in 1950. His recollections of the 1950s and 1960s at Caltech include descriptions of the makeup and character of the campus and the students; the humanities division under the chairmanship of Hallett Smith; and later, with the addition of the social sciences to the division, the gradual shift in emphasis from teaching and survey courses to research and specialization, which took place under the helm of Robert Huttenback. Elliot discusses History 5 and the eventual development of the California Seminar on Arms Control and Foreign Policy. He recounts the visit of Alexander Topchev and other Soviet scientists to Caltech in the early sixties. Elliot compares and contrasts the Caltech presidencies of Lee DuBridge, Harold Brown, and Marvin Goldberger: the men, their respective policies, and their influences on the campus. This includes recollections of: Linus Pauling’s political activities, the Honker Group, the La Belle tenure case, the Arroyo Center, and Caltech’s seventy-fifth anniversary. Throughout the interview there are interesting anecdotes regarding a wide variety of individuals: Dr. and Mrs. Robert A. Millikan, Hallett Smith, Alan Sweezy, Matthew Meselson, Carl Rogers, Robert Huttenback, Robert Christy, Harold Brown, Roger Noll, Rochus Vogt, Marvin Goldberger, Phillips Talbot, Matthew Sands, Dean Acheson, General Lauris Norstad, Charles Lauritsen, Albert Hibbs. Elliot concludes the interview discussing his retirement, his years as secretary of the faculty and a member of the steering committee; offers from other institutions; his association with trustees; consulting work for RAND, NASA, and the Ford Foundation; and his research on London during the English Restoration as well as the Vista Project. 1988 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Elliot_D application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/144/01/David_Elliot_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Elliot_D

oai:CaltechOH:146 2008-04-28

Telegdi, Valentine L. Physics All Records Valentine Louis Telegdi was born in Budapest in 1922 and grew up in Bulgaria. He took his Master of Science degree in chemical engineering at Lausanne University in 1946 and received his PhD in 1950 from the ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Victor Weisskopf and Gregor Wentzel were instrumental in his appointment as an instructor at the University of Chicago in 1951, where he worked with Murray Gell-Mann. In 1954, after Enrico Fermi’s death, Telegdi became the head of Fermi’s Nuclear Emulsion Group there. In 1956, he went to the Institute for Advanced Study for three months. Later that year, back in Chicago, he and Jerome I. Friedman found parity violation in muon decay, in parallel with the work of Chien-Shiung Wu at Columbia and her collaborators at the National Bureau of Standards, and that of Richard L. Garwin, Leon M. Lederman, and Marcel Weinrich at Columbia. In 1959-1960, on leave from Chicago, Telegdi worked with Garwin at CERN on the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. In 1966, again on leave from Chicago, he had a visiting lectureship at Harvard. In 1968, Telegdi was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and in 1972 he became the Enrico Fermi Distinguished Service Professor of Physics at Chicago. He left the university four years later—discouraged at what he called the “decay” of the Enrico Fermi Institute since Fermi’s death and the increasingly cumbersome grants process—and returned to Switzerland, where he headed a group at the ETH doing atomic physics; he also took up a joint appointment at CERN, heading a particle physics group. In 1981, he began coming regularly as a visiting professor to Caltech, where he worked with (among others) Gell-Mann, Richard Feynman, and Felix Boehm. In 1991 he was awarded (along with Maurice Goldhaber) the Wolf Prize for his work on the weak interactions and in 1995 the American Physics Society’s Julius Lilienfeld Prize. In 2003, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society. He died in Pasadena, California, on April 8, 2006, at the age of eighty-four. 2008 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Telegdi_V application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/146/01/Telegdi_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Telegdi_V

oai:CaltechOH:149 2008-07-08

Malina, Frank J. All Records Jet Propulsion Laboratory Engineering Interview in one session with Mary Terrell, December 14, 1978. Frank J. Malina was research fellow (1940-1942) and assistant professor of aeronautics (1942-1946) at the California Institute of Technology. The interview begins with his arrival at Caltech as a graduate student in 1934 to begin a master’s degree in mechanical engineering (MS, 1935). He then undertook a second master’s in the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory, known as GALCIT and then under the direction of Theodore von Kármán. Writes PhD dissertation (“Characteristics of the rocket motor and flight analyses of the sounding rocket,” 1940) on rocket propulsion under Von Kármán, marking the beginning of a long-term relationship with Kármán, who became “a second father.” Formation of rocket propulsion research group with William Bollay of Caltech and two men outside Caltech, Jack (John) Parsons and Edward Forman; later involvement of others at Caltech. Early rocket experiments on campus in Guggenheim create hazard, resulting in move to Pasadena’s Arroyo Seco; group named “the suicide squad.” Early funding provided by Army Air Corps, 1939. Malina recalls open, permissive atmosphere in GALCIT. Support of Robert A. Millikan and Irving P. Krick for rocket development for meteorological research; skepticism of Clark B. Millikan, who later becomes more supportive. Rocket group becomes known as Jet Propulsion Laboratory, GALCIT. Malina comments on relationship of the group, later known as JPL, to Caltech; administrative changes and tensions upon Von Kármán’s departure and promotion of Clark Millikan to GALCIT leadership; Malina makes day-to-day decisions at the lab. Establishment in 1942 of Aerojet Engineering Corporation to engage with aerospace industry; resistance of both Caltech and Army Air Corps to this venture. Success of Aerojet; Malina’s financial gain. Christmas, 1946, Malina departs for initial leave of absence to work for UNESCO in Paris; never returns to Caltech. Discusses reasons for change; eventual decision to pursue artistic career; interest in kinetic art. Founding of art journal Leonardo. After launch of Sputnik, founding with Von Kármán of International Academy of Astronautics. Discusses international cooperation in science. Comments on early skepticism about intercontinental missiles and satellites; key paper 1946 with Martin Summerfield on rocket escape from Earth’s atmosphere. Failure of Americans to think creatively about space at that time, despite technology at hand; Russian thinking different, leading to 1957 launch of first satellite. Concluding comments on living in Paris, travel, the relationship of art and science. 1980 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Malina_F application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/149/01/Malina.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Malina_F

oai:CaltechOH:150 2008-07-08

Galston, Arthur W. All Records Biology Interview 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. 2004 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Galston_A application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/150/01/Galston_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Galston_A

oai:CaltechOH:151 2008-07-21

Keller, Herbert B. Physics Mathematics All Records Engineering Interview in two sessions, May and June 1996, with Herbert B. Keller, professor of applied mathematics with a joint appointment in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science and the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy. Dr. Keller received his BEE at Georgia Tech in 1945 and his PhD from New York University (Institute for Mathematics and Mechanics, later the Courant Institute) in 1954. At Caltech as a visiting professor in 1965; joined the faculty as full professor in 1967. Executive officer for applied mathematics, 1980-1985. He discusses growing up in Paterson, N.J., with his older brother, mathematician Joseph Keller, and education in mathematics at Eastside High School. Matriculates at Georgia Tech and joins NROTC; in World War II, serves as a fire-control officer on the USS Mississippi. After the war, he takes graduate courses in electrical engineering at Georgia Tech; soon follows his brother to NYU and the institute established there by Richard Courant. Recollections of Courant and Charles De Prima; fellow students: Peter Lax, Louis Nirenberg, Cathleen Morawetz, and Harold Grad. Bicycling trip in Europe, 1948, with his brother; meeting up with Courant in Switzerland. Thesis work with Bernard Friedman. From 1951-1953, he taught mathematics at Sarah Lawrence. Recalls working with Robert Richtmyer at Courant on the Atomic Energy Commission’s UNIVAC computer; becomes associate director of the AEC Computation and Applied Mathematics Center; Edward Teller and Hans Bethe as consultants; visits Los Alamos and Livermore. Initial invitation to Caltech in 1960 from Gilbert McCann, head of what was then called information science (now computer science). Happy at Courant and unimpressed with Caltech’s offer, he declines, but visits Caltech in 1965 at invitation of Gerald Whitham, joining new applied mathematics program. Returns to NYU for a year, then back to Caltech to stay. Recalls applied math group—Donald Cohen, Philip Saffman, Julian Cole, later Joel Franklin. Recalls Jack Todd. Helps establish and for many years teaches one of Caltech’s most popular courses: Applied Mathematics 95 (AMA 95). Discusses early development of computer science at Caltech: Donald Knuth, Carver Mead, Charles L. Seitz., Ivan Sutherland, Mani Chandy. Discusses his relations with Caltech’s pure mathematicians and aerodynamicists. Recalls sabbatical at INRIA [Institut National de Recherche en d’Informatique et en Automatique] and visiting professorship at Paris-Orsay. Visiting fellow at Christ College, Cambridge, and DAMTP (Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics) in 1993. Concludes by recalling his impressions of K.O. Friedrichs and Fritz John at Courant and his work with his brother. 1998 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Keller_H application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/151/01/Keller_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Keller_H

oai:CaltechOH:152 2008-07-18

Fay, Peter Ward All Records Humanities Interview 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. 1998 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Fay_P application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/152/01/Fay_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Fay_P

oai:CaltechOH:153 2008-07-21

Vogel, Petr Physics All Records An 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. 2004 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Vogel_P application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/153/01/Vogel_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Vogel_P

oai:CaltechOH:154 2008-08-22

Baldeschwieler, John D. All Records Chemistry Interview in six sessions in January and February 2001 with John D. Baldeschwieler, J. Stanley Johnson Professor and professor of chemistry, emeritus, in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Dr. Baldeschwieler received his bachelor’s in chemical engineering from Cornell in 1956 and his PhD in 1959 from UC Berkeley. He begins by recalling his childhood and early education in Cranford, N.J. His father, an analytical chemist, emigrated from Switzerland and his mother from Manitoba. He matriculated at Cornell in 1951 and enrolled in ROTC during the Korean War. Recalls summer work at Los Alamos and graduate school at Berkeley 1956-1959; his thesis on infrared spectroscopy, with George Pimentel; interest in instrument building. After six months’ active duty at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., joins the Harvard faculty; becomes a consultant for Aberdeen. Early work with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Invited to Stanford as associate professor in 1965, where he works on electron cyclotron resonance, in connection with Varian Associates. Joins Army Scientific Advisory Panel; works on “people sensors” during the Vietnam War. Appointed to PSAC (President’s Science Advisory Committee); discussion of defoliant Agent Orange. Becomes deputy director of the Office of Science and Technology in 1970, during first Nixon administration; takes a leave from Stanford and moves to Washington, D.C. Recalls the debates on biological warfare and on whether or not to build the SST (supersonic transport). Recollections of various figures in the Nixon administration. Resigns from government in December 1972 and goes to work at the National Cancer Institute for six months. Invited to become chairman of Caltech’s Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Arrives in 1973, during Harold Brown’s presidency; discusses his close relationship with Brown and his reorganizing of chemistry division, of which he remains chairman until 1978. Meanwhile, consults for Monsanto and Merck and becomes involved in the US-Soviet joint scientific program. Visits the USSR in the early 1970s. Travels with Glenn Seaborg on the first chemistry delegation to China in 1978. Work on binding liposomes to cancer cells in the late ’70s; forms company called Vestar to commercialize the technique as a diagnostic tool. Collaboration with the City of Hope. Discussion of patenting and licensing of discoveries made at Caltech and of proposed high-tech corridor for Pasadena. He concludes the interview by remarking on his children and stepchildren and their work, and he lists the various technology companies he has helped to establish. 2003 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Baldeschwieler_J application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/154/01/Baldeschwieler_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Baldeschwieler_J

oai:CaltechOH:155 2008-08-25

Helmberger, Donald V. Geology All Records Interview in two sessions, May and June 1999, with Donald V. Helmberger, Smits Family Professor of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences. He begins by recalling his family background and childhood on a farm in Northern Minnesota, one of thirteen children. Matriculates at the University of Minnesota in 1956 (B.S. 1961). Summer work at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 1961; sails to Alaska on a research vessel studying the structure of the oceanic crust. Transfers to UCSD for graduate work in geophysics; works at Scripps with Russell Raitt (PhD 1967). Recollections of Walter Munk and Freeman Gilbert. Two-year postdoctoral position at MIT, with Frank Press and Nafi Toksoz; introduced to seismology. Works on upper-mantle modeling, supported by U.S. Air Force in connection with underground testing of nuclear weapons. Becomes an assistant professor at Princeton in 1969; following year, joins Caltech Seismology Laboratory as assistant professor of geophysics. After 1971 San Fernando Earthquake, works on high-frequency modeling of earthquakes. Recollections of Seismo Lab when it was on N. San Rafael Ave., in Pasadena, and of the move in 1974 to South Mudd, on Caltech campus. Memories of Charles Richter. Recalls students: Charles Langston, Thomas Heaton, Thorne Lay, Terry Wallace, Stephen Grand. Comments on Hiroo Kanamori, director of Seismo Lab 1990-1998. Discusses National Science Foundation’s establishment of earthquake centers and hopes for Caltech to get the first one; Caltech loses out to SUNY Buffalo. Succeeds Kanamori as director of the Seismo Lab in 1998. Discusses evolution of directorship since Don Anderson’s tenure (1969-1989) and effects of the move to Caltech campus. Discusses Kanamori’s directorship and work on TriNet. Discusses Seismo Lab’s relations with U.S. Geological Survey and the CUBE program [Caltech-USGS Broadcast of Earthquakes]. Concludes by discussing his own efforts as director of the Seismo Lab and his hopes for its future. 2001 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Helmberger_D application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/155/01/Helmberger_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Helmberger_D

oai:CaltechOH:156 2008-08-25

Huttenback, Robert A. Social Sciences All Records Humanities Administration Interview in two sessions, September and November 1995, with Robert A. Huttenback, chairman of the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences from 1972 until 1977, when he was appointed chancellor of UC Santa Barbara. He begins by recalling his childhood; born in Mainz, Germany, in 1928. Since the family was Jewish, they were anxious to leave Germany when Hitler became chancellor; they emigrated in 1933, first to Italy, then to England. In 1939, they came to San Francisco, thence to Los Angeles. Matriculates at UCLA 1947, BA in history, 1951. Drafted during the Korean War, posted to Fort Bliss, Texas. After two years’ service, returns to UCLA for graduate work in history (PhD, 1959). Fulbright Scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London for a year, then a year of research in India. Comes to Caltech as Master of Student Houses (MOSH) and acting lecturer in history. Recalls his activities as MOSH (1960-1969) and early teaching; his opposition to invitation to Gov. Ronald Reagan to speak at Caltech’s fund-rasing kickoff. Becomes dean of students, 1969. Recalls his deanship and the unfortunate involvement of psychotherapist Carl Rogers, of the Center for Studies of the Person in La Jolla. General dissatisfaction with division chairmanship of Hallett Smith and search committee for a new chairman; Huttenback becomes acting chair. Establishment of graduate program in the social sciences. Discusses his efforts to professionalize the division; recalls battle over tenure for literature professor Jenijoy La Belle. 1972, becomes division chairman. Recalls anti-Vietnam War demonstration on campus. Comments on presidency of Harold Brown and on the admission of women to Caltech in the early 1970s. Discusses his academic research on British imperialism in India; his work on consortium advising on development of technology institutes in India; 1962, consults at Kanpur. Six months’ research in South Africa on Gandhi. Research on racism and imperialism worldwide. Comments on his love of teaching; his work with Lance Davis on Mammon and the Pursuit of Empire, both at Caltech and after his move to UC Santa Barbara; recaps the establishment of the social sciences in the division. Discusses his part in setting up the Baxter Art Gallery at Caltech. Concludes by voicing disappointment in general quality of Caltech’s English and philosophy faculty during his chairmanship. 1998 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Huttenback_R application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/156/01/Huttenback_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Huttenback_R

oai:CaltechOH:157 2008-08-22

Kanamori, Hiroo Geology All Records Interview in two sessions in April 1999 with Hiroo Kanamori, John E. and Hazel S. Smits Professor of Geophysics and director of the Seismological Laboratory 1990-1998. Begins by talking about what it was like to grow up in Japan during WW II; his early education and interest in engineering. University of Tokyo, BS in physics, 1959. As an undergraduate and graduate student, worked with Chuji Tsuboi on building a sea-borne gravity meter (MS 1961). Further graduate work with Hitoshi Takeuchi on geodynamics and seismological projects (PhD 1964). Charles Richter and Charles Hewitt Dix to University of Tokyo as visitors; works closely with Dix on gravity meter and geophysical problems. At Dix’s invitation, comes to Caltech in summer 1965, one-year research fellowship. Spends part of it at the Seismological Laboratory, then on N. San Rafael. Back to Earthquake Research Institute (ERI) in Tokyo in 1966; 1969, goes to MIT as visiting associate professor at invitation of Frank Press; studies very large earthquakes (Chile, 1960; Alaska, 1964). Comments on differences between Caltech and MIT. Back to Tokyo; student unrest disrupts ERI. Comes to Caltech as full professor in 1972, appointed to Seismo Lab, headed by Don Anderson. Comments on life at the Seismo Lab and interaction with Richter. Recalls Lab’s 1974 move to Caltech campus. Discusses work on quantifying very large earthquakes using long-period waves; work on tsunami (slow) earthquakes. Mount Saint Helens eruption in May 1980 spurs his interest in volcanology. Seismograms after eruption show it was not main event but triggered by a landslide caused by shear waves. Discusses decision to accept directorship of Seismo Lab; interest in seismic hazard reduction in Southern California; means of reducing seismic risks; 1987 TERRAscope network, joint project with the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) to collect earthquake data. Discusses Caltech’s establishment in 1950s of Earthquake Research Affiliates to fund earthquake study and its reactivation in late 1980s as CUBE [Caltech-USGS Broadcast of Earthquakes], a real-time seismic information system. Comments on interaction with USGS. Improved earthquake network (TriNet) set up in 1997, with help from Everhart administration and FEMA funds; new participant is state of California, through UC Berkeley’s seismic network and California Department of Mines and Geology. He becomes PI of TriNet. Succeeded in 1998 as Seismo Lab director by Donald Helmberger. Discusses outreach efforts to inform public about seismic risks. Collaboration with people in engineering division. Comments on 1995 Kobe earthquake. Discusses his reasons for not having become U. S. citizen. Concludes with his hopes for seismology’s future, including ideas of Takuji Kobori, of the Kajima Technical Research Institute, on developing an active control system to protect large urban structures against earthquake damage. 2000 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Kanamori_H application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/157/01/Kanamori_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Kanamori_H

oai:CaltechOH:158 2008-08-22

Yariv, Amnon Physics All Records Engineering Interview 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. 2003 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Yariv_A application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/158/01/Yariv_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Yariv_A

oai:CaltechOH:159 2008-10-15

Tschoegl, Nicholas W. All Records Chemistry Engineering An 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. 2003 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tschoegl_N application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/159/01/Tschoegl_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tschoegl_N

oai:CaltechOH:161 2008-10-22

Wu, Theodore Y. All Records Engineering An 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. 2002 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Wu_T application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/161/01/Wu_OHO.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Wu_T

oai:CaltechOH:163 2010-01-14

Werner, Michael Physics All Records Jet Propulsion Laboratory Astronomy Interview on July 25, 2008, with infrared astronomer Michael Werner, project scientist for the Spitzer Space Telescope. Dr. Werner received his BS from Haverford in 1963 and his PhD from Cornell in 1969 under M. Harwit. As a postdoc with C. H. Townes at UC Berkeley 1969-1972, he performed early infrared studies of the cosmic microwave background with P. L. Richards and J. Mather. Taught physics at Caltech 1972-1979 and worked on the Kuiper Airborne Observatory. Began working on SIRTF [Shuttle Infrared Telescope Facility] in 1977, first at NASA’s Ames Research Center and after 1990 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Werner discusses the history of infrared astronomy and the evolution of SIRTF into the Spitzer Space Telescope. He remarks on its discoveries since its August 2003 launch, including the bar at the center of our galaxy, the characteristics of extrasolar planetary atmospheres, and the discovery of numerous large galaxies in the early universe. Recalls his appointment as George Darwin lecturer at the Royal Astronomical Society. Comments on upcoming observatory launches by NASA and the European Space Agency. 2009 Oral History NonPeerReviewed http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Werner_M application/pdf http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/163/01/OH_Werner.pdf http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Werner_M deletion/0/1779612/oai_dc