Interview with Henry Victor Neher

Abstract

An interview in two sessions, April 27 and 28, 1982, with Henry Victor Neher, professor of physics, emeritus, in the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy. Dr. Neher received a BA in physics from Pomona College (1926) and became a graduate student at Caltech in 1928, earning his PhD three years later. In this interview, he recalls his undergraduate years at Pomona, his growing acquaintance with Caltech, and his work as a graduate student on the scattering of high-energy electrons. Recollections of Robert A. Millikan, Earnest Watson, William H. Pickering. He describes Caltech’s cosmic-ray group—Millikan, Carl Anderson, Seth Neddermeyer, Ira S. Bowen—and the plane trips he made throughout North and South America to measure cosmic rays. Recollections of Richard Chace Tolman. Comments on his PhD orals, on teaching undergraduates, on some of his memorable students (Kip Thorne, Howard Berg, H. Guyford Stever). The 100-to-1 Shot Club; John Anderson and Russell Porter. The effect of the Depression on Caltech. War work at the MIT Radiation Laboratory. Changes at Caltech during presidency of Lee Dubridge. Postwar balloon flights to study cosmic rays. Comments on Frank and J. Robert Oppenheimer and their political difficulties during the McCarthy era. Early campus atmosphere and changes over the years. Donald Glaser and development of the bubble chamber.