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World War II work at the MIT Radiation Laboratory. Early postwar years at Princeton University. Research orientations; application of microwave techniques to determination of fundamental atomic constants. Background to paper on super-radiance. Government committee work to about the mid-1950s. Princeton Applied Research, a company organized by Dicke & others. Contact with Charles H. Townes. Consulting for Radio Corporation of America; patent obligations to RCA. Sources of financial support for research; Signal Corps support. Methods for choosing student thesis topics. Signal Corps meetings; contact with colleagues. Technical support at the Princeton Physics Department. Graduate students; financial support; his style of super vision; modes of communication; comments on some specific students. Dicke's habits of documentation.
Interview is a biographical profile of theoretical astrophysicist David Layzer, with emphasis on his career at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Topics discussed include his family life, interest in music, childhood interests, reading preferences. Affinity for mathematics. Contact with Jason Nassau at the Warner and Swasey Observatory. Devoured literatures, recollections of English teacher. Decision to enroll at Harvard and contact with Bart Bok. Mathematics courses and contacts with Garrett Birkhoff. Contrasting mathematics and astronomy at Harvard. The Harvard undergraduate experience, interrupted by being drafted into Army service during World War II. Signal Corps duty in radio intelligence control. Return to Harvard and astrophysics readings. Contact with Herbert Jehle. Harvard graduate school, thesis with Donald Menzel, Ph.D. in 1950. Interest in philosophy of physics. Impressions of Harvard College Observatory (HCO) under Shapley and the Berkeley Astronomy Department under Otto Struve. Growth of interests in cosmology at Berkeley and move to Princeton on another temporary appointment. Work for John Wheeler. Impressions of Princeton, lack of security clearance, contact with Martin Schwarzschild and Edward Teller. Return to Harvard in 1953 under Menzel and general recollections of the divisive atmosphere of the place and the coming of Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) under Whipple. View of the importance of teaching. Writing and publishing. The growth of SAO and his concerns. Leo Goldberg's concerns about SAO and HCO relations. Layzer's involvement - commentary on letters he wrote during the crisis expressing concern over Harvard's lowered rating among astronomical institutions and what to do about it.
The interview ranges from Inglis’ youth and family origins to his current (1977) activities. Topics include his student days (Amherst College 1924-28, Ann Arbor 1928-31), contact with European physicists and rising Nazism (1932-13), the physics departments at Ohio State, University of Pittsburgh, Princeton, and Johns Hopkins in the 1930’s, and the last of these in the 1940’s; atomic spectroscopy, ferromagnetism, uses of the vector model, shift from atomic to nuclear spectroscopy, the Thomas precession and spin-orbit coupling in nuclei, shell and droplet models for nuclei, intermediate coupling model for light nuclei, the earth’s magnetic field, wind-dynamos and nuclear reactors; Los Alamos during World War II, Argonne Laboratory in the 1950’s and 60’s; expression of social concern, especially in relation to the nuclear arms race, in the 1950’s through the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the political victimization of Donald Flanders, the Federation of American Scientists, congressional testimony concerning Lewis Strauss’ (nominee for Sec. of Commerce) experiences at Pugwash Conferences, obstacles to slowing or reversing the arms race.
The interview ranges from Inglis’ youth and family origins to his current (1977) activities. Topics include his student days (Amherst College 1924-28, Ann Arbor 1928-31), contact with European physicists and rising Nazism (1932-13), the physics departments at Ohio State, University of Pittsburgh, Princeton, and Johns Hopkins in the 1930’s, and the last of these in the 1940’s; atomic spectroscopy, ferromagnetism, uses of the vector model, shift from atomic to nuclear spectroscopy, the Thomas precession and spin-orbit coupling in nuclei, shell and droplet models for nuclei, intermediate coupling model for light nuclei, the earth’s magnetic field, wind-dynamos and nuclear reactors; Los Alamos during World War II, Argonne Laboratory in the 1950’s and 60’s; expression of social concern, especially in relation to the nuclear arms race, in the 1950’s through the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the political victimization of Donald Flanders, the Federation of American Scientists, congressional testimony concerning Lewis Strauss’ (nominee for Sec. of Commerce) experiences at Pugwash Conferences, obstacles to slowing or reversing the arms race.