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Composition of George F. Smith's laser group in the early 1960s; laser radar work at Malibu; work on Q-switching with Robert Hellwarth; discovery of the stimulated Raman effect, and some of the follow-up research; and the spirit of laser work at Hughes' laboratories in the early years.

Covers his family background, upbringing, education at the University of Cambridge, and positions at University of Edinburgh, Imperial College, University of Belfast, Royal Holloway College and University of Sussex. The scientific topics discussed include: the development of Newtonian cosmology, the origins and development of steady-state cosmology; work on theories of the solar system. Also prominently mentioned are: Philip Abelson, Luis Walter Alvarez, Hans Albrecht Bethe, Raymond Thayer Birge, Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, Niels Henrik David Bohr, Ira Sprague Bowen, Sydney Chapman, Karl Taylor Compton, Edward Uhler Condon, Charles Galton Darwin, Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, Kenneth Dodd, Colonel Dudley, Arthur Stanley Eddington, Robley Dunglison Evans, Enrico Fermi, Richard Phillips Feynman, Ralph Howard Fowler, Friedman, Wolfgang Gentner, Thomas Gold, Sterling E. Hendricks, Fred Hoyle, Edwin Powell Hubble, Henry Hulme, James Jeans, W. O. Kermack, Joseph Larmor, Charles Christian Lauritsen, Ernest Orlando Lawrence, George Lemâitre, Milton Stanley Livingston, Howard J. Lucas, Walter Michels, Edward Arthur Milne, Joe Morris, Arthur A. Noyes, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Linus Pauling, Firth Pierce, George Placzek, Harry Hemley Plaskett, Samuel Ruben, Henry Norris Russell, Ryokishi Sagane, Samson, Erwin Schrödinger, Emilio Gino Segrè, George Paget Thomson, Robert Jamison Van de Graaff, Vladimir Iosifovich Veksler, Warren Weaver, Edmund T. Whittaker, Robert Rathbun Wilson, Charles Thomas Zahn; California Institute of Technology, Cambridge Radio Survey, Germany Kriegsmarine, Great Britain Science Research Council, Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory, National Institute of Theoretical Astronomy, Princeton University, Proceedings of the Royal Society, Royal Astronomical Society, Universität Göttingen, University of California at Berkeley, University of Edinburgh, and Zeitschrift für Physik.

This interview 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: Niels Henrik David Bohr, Max Born, Gregory Breit, A. C. Crehore, Peter Josef William Debye, Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, Paul Ehrenfest, R. Fraser, Werner Heisenberg, Paul Hertz, Edwin Crawford Kemble, Earl H. Kennard, Ralph de Laer Kronig, Willis Eugene Lamb, Wilhelm Lenz, Maclaurin, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Wolfgang Pauli, Henry Augustus Rowland, Erwin Schrödinger, John Clarke Slater, Arnold Sommerfeld, Otto Stern, Phillip Subkow, Leo Szilard, John B. Taylord, John Hasbrouck Van Vleck, Wilhelm Wien, A. P. Wills; Columbia University, Cornell University, Københavns Universitet, New York City College, Universität Berlin, Universität Gottingen, Universität Hamburg, and Universität Leipzig.

Family background; identification with and influence of mentor Harvey Fletcher; bachelor's degree; calling as a Mormon missionary in Chicago, graduate course in physics with Albert A. Michelson. Work on electronics and acoustics at Western Electric at the invitation of Fletcher; influence of the work of Hendrik Johannes van der Bijl and Harold D. Arnold. Resumption of graduate studies at University of Chicago in 1919 and recollection of his work there with Michelson and Robert Millikan; change of dissertation topic to investigation of a hearing problem using vacuum tube circuits. Research on the hearing of speech in 1929 at University of California-Southern Branch; commission by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Co. for design of sound stages; design of auditoriums and studios; work on measurement of sound absorption. Dean of graduate division at University of California at Los Angeles, problems during his administration in establishing degree programs; his tenure as Vice Chancellor and as Chancellor; political problems with the Right. Director of National Defense Research Committee during World War II; applications of acoustics to anti-submarine warfare at San Diego Underwater Sound Laboratory. Organization of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), role of Wallace Waterfall. Comments on teaching and religion; activities since retirement, nonprofessional interests; recent research in wave acoustics.

Family background and early childhood; religion; early interest in science; learning Copernican theory; Manual Training high school; Cornell University undergraduate (1915-1919); Student Army Training Corps (1917-1919); tutoring at City College; National Research Council Fellowship (1927), travel to Europe; met Linus Pauling, Arnold Sommerfeld, Edward Condon, Howard Percy Robertson, Niels Bohr, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg, Edwin Schrodinger, Hans Bethe, Rudolf Peierls, Otto Stern; Columbia University lecturer; physics research at Columbia University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1940- ).

Family background and early childhood; religion; early interest in science; learning Copernican theory; Manual Training high school; Cornell University undergraduate (1915-1919); Student Army Training Corps (1917-1919); tutoring at City College; National Research Council Fellowship (1927), travel to Europe; met Linus Pauling, Arnold Sommerfeld, Edward Condon, Howard Percy Robertson, Niels Bohr, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg, Edwin Schrodinger, Hans Bethe, Rudolf Peierls, Otto Stern; Columbia University lecturer; physics research at Columbia University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1940- ).

Discusses childhood and upbringing in Arkansas and Arizona; his undergraduate education at Cal Tech and Pomona College; graduate work at UCLA; his impressions of David Griggs; his postdoc experience in Australia and the geophysics research there; research in earthquakes and high pressure research; his work a Lamont-Doherty and Columbia University; the development of the El Nino model and other climate research; among other topics. Also prominently mentioned are: Lynn Sykes, Mark Kane and Manik Talwani.

Discusses childhood and upbringing in Arkansas and Arizona; his undergraduate education at Cal Tech and Pomona College; graduate work at UCLA; his impressions of David Griggs; his postdoc experience in Australia and the geophysics research there; research in earthquakes and high pressure research; his work a Lamont-Doherty and Columbia University; the development of the El Nino model and other climate research; among other topics. Also prominently mentioned are: Lynn Sykes, Mark Kane and Manik Talwani.

This interview focuses on Ramey's experiences as a member of the Harvard Physics Department but also includes information on his early training in physics and his position during World War II. Contains coverage of his own research and inter-university activities before and after coming to Harvard. Discusses his work with students at undergraduate and graduate levels and his involvement with educational innovations and administrative duties at Harvard. Includes comments on women in physics and the job opportunities available to both women and men in physics.

Youth and college education in Queens, New York; graduate studies and research work with Donald Kerst at the University of Illinois, 1941; Pd.D. in nuclear fission, 1944. Contract work during World War II for NDRC, Woolwich Arsenal in England; subcontract work on photo fission threshold for the Manhattan Project (Enrico Fermi); involvement in medical betatron work (Philip Morrison). Postwar transitions at the University of Illinois. Work at National Bureau of Standards as Director for the Betatron Laboratory and, from 1962, as Director of the Radiation Physics Division after Lauriston Taylor’s retirement. Work on radiation processing and food rpeservation. Directorship of Standards; his goal for AIP, its independence. Discussion of the scientific information explosions and the National Science Foundation (NSF) grant (Elmer Hutchisson) Manpower Statistics (the Bromley Report); long-range planning committees (Frederick Seitz); effects of Internal Revenue Service audit; 1977/78; classification of physics documents (Philip Morse, Thomas Lauritsen); information as a saleable commodity (Germany, England); electronic information systems (PINET and PIMAIL); translation of Russian journals. Also, major events in reorganization; move to Woodbury and that facility’s later expansion, computerization of publishing activities, relationship between governing boards and Member Societies. Attracting new societies, AIP’s early (pioneer) ventures: Manpower Statistics, history and education programs, and public relations. Series ends with a brief discussion of the career of Marshak Cleveland: his work in radiation treatment, founding his own company (Radiation Dynamics), and his new venture in Colorado. Also prominently mentioned are: Alan Astin, Edward U. Condon, Michael Danos, Ugo Fano, Evans Hayward, Raymond Hayward, Wheeler Loomis, Harold Wyckoff; and the American Physical Society.