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Laser research at the Universität Heidelberg, 1965-1970. Thesis research. Collaboration on a commercial laser. Hänsch's laboratory style. Frustrations of doing spectroscopy with the early, non-tunable lasers. Laser research at Stanford University. Comparison of resources at Heidelberg and Stanford. The high-resolution, tunable laser of 1971 and the research program it engendered. Also prominently mentioned are: Mark Levenson, Arthur Leonard Schawlow, Isa Shahin, Peter Smith, Peter Toschek; and American Physical Society.

Topics include: his youth and education at the University of Iowa (1959-1967); work on his Ph.D. with Van Allen and Satoshi Matsushima; research at Kyoto University, Japan with Matsushima and Sueo Ueno (1965-1966); NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship (1969); Leiden Observatory, Netherlands, planetary science and his work on Venus; aerosols; building a General Circulation Model; the work of Chandrasekar, Carl Sagan, Jim Pollack, Jastrow, Akio Arakawa, Jules Charney; global warming; collaboration with Wallace Broecker and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory; working with Northern and Southern hemisphere meteorological station data.

Topics include: his youth and education at the University of Iowa (1959-1967); work on his Ph.D. with Van Allen and Satoshi Matsushima; research at Kyoto University, Japan with Matsushima and Sueo Ueno (1965-1966); NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship (1969); Leiden Observatory, Netherlands, planetary science and his work on Venus; aerosols; building a General Circulation Model; the work of Chandrasekar, Carl Sagan, Jim Pollack, Jastrow, Akio Arakawa, Jules Charney; global warming; collaboration with Wallace Broecker and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory; working with Northern and Southern hemisphere meteorological station data.

As the daughter of astronomers Sergei Gaposchkin and Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, this interview covers her home life in Lexington, Mass., and growing up in the atmosphere of the Harvard College Observatory in the 1940s and 1950s.  Discussion includes her relationships with parents and siblings; caring for Peter Gaposchkin; exposure to astronomy, career plans, interest in languages, decision to attend Swarthmore in 1954; studying Russian and Russian culture; early contacts with Harvard faculty and students - Jesse Greenstein and R. N. Thomas; mother's relations with Whipple and Menzel; Shapley's retirement; mother's interest in moving to University of Chicago; recollections of Bart Bok; changes at Harvard College Observatory; recollections of  Sputnik; meeting John Haramundanis and his work in mathematics; Yoshihido Kozai; being hired by Smithsonian in 1958; satellite tracking and analysis of satellite positions and brightness; growth of Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and its working atmosphere; star catalogue work and the reduction of systematic errors in the FK4 system; sense of competition with her mother; shift to the Celescope Project at Whipple's request just before launch in 1968; role in data production; identifying star fields and filter reductions; Camera 2 failure; reduction protocols; recollection of Robert Davis; calibration problems drew HCO staff attention; Charles Lundquist and Andrew Young's involvement, mother's reaction to calibration problems and inaccurate data.

Dr. Harris discusses his career in acoustics, his training and education, and membership in the Acoustical Society of America.

In this interview Katherine Harris discusses topics such as: her childhood and family background; going to school at Radcliffe College; getting her doctorate at Harvard; her time at the City University of New York (CUNY) and Haskins Laboratories; speech production; her time with the Acoustical Society of America and her presidency; Ira Hirsh; J. C. R. Licklider; George Miller; Fred Skinner; Franklin Cooper.

In this interview, Neil Harris discusses topics such as: ozone layer depletion; his background and his studies at the University of California, Irvine under F. S. Rowland; European Ozone Coordinating Unit; stratosphere; Mack McFarland; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); Antarctica; ultraviolet light absorption; Rumen Bojkov; John Pyle; Bob Watson; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control (IPCC); Peter Bloomfield; chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs); Paul Crutzen; Mario Molina; Dan Albritton; Jim Lovelock; Joe Farman; World Meteorological Organization (WMO); United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); Montreal Protocol; DuPont Company.

Born April 6, 1921 in New Jersey; discusses family background during the Great Depression. Discusses joining the Civilian Conservation Corps at age 17; describes the CCC projects: logging, road blasting, machining. Comments on joining the Navy in 1944; describes the action he saw in the Pacific. Describes mechanical work on Navy ships; comments on how he found out about the machinist job at Lamont. Discusses his first year at Lamont in 1957; describes his impressions of the Lamont machine shop. Describes his first cruise aboard the Vema with Henry Kohler; discusses how became senior research assistant for Allan Be. Comments on his retirement from Lamont in1986; describes the highlights of his career with Lamont. Discusses the place of the biology program at Lamont; comments on his work at Bermuda biological station.

This conversation was conducted as part of the Archives for the History of Quantum Physics project, which includes tapes and transcripts of oral history interviews conducted with ca. 100 atomic and quantum physicists. Subjects discuss their family backgrounds, how they became interested in physics, their educations, people who influenced them, their careers including social influences on the conditions of research, and the state of atomic, nuclear, and quantum physics during the period in which they worked. Discussions of scientific matters relate to work that was done between approximately 1900 and 1930, with an emphasis on the discovery and interpretations of quantum mechanics in the 1920s. Also prominently mentioned are: Ralph Fowler; Douglas R. Hartree.

After surveying Martin Harwit's family background and early education, the interview concentrates on: his graduate education at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; his career in physics at Cambridge Unviersity as a NATO Fellow; his time at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) as a National Science Foundation Fellow; and, principally, his work at Cornell as assistant and associate professor of astronomoy, professor, and chairman of the Physics department.  While discussing his childhood and education, Harwit addresses the antisemitism he and his family faced in German and in the United States.  This interview covers a broad range of his scientific interest: galaxy and star formations; comets; infrared optics, especially relating to detector technology; infrared astronomy; rocketry; history of philosophy in science; use of balloons in observation; and astronomy education.  Some affliliations discussed include:  John Decker, Herbert Friedman, Thomas Gold, and Fred Hoyle.