Yale University

Interviewed by
David Zierler
Interview date
Location
video conference
Abstract

Reina Maruyama, Associate Professor of Physics at Yale, is interviewed by David Zierler. Maruyama discusses her appointments in the Yale Quantum Institute and her role as chair-elect for the Yale Women Faculty Forum. She recounts childhood in Japan and the circumstances of her family’s move to the United States and how her interests in science helped her acclimate to American culture. Maruyama explains her decision to attend Columbia as an undergraduate and she discusses a formative summer internship at Los Alamos where she worked on atomic physics. She describes her graduate work under the direction of Norval Fortson at the University of Washington in atomic lasers and optical communications. Maruyama discusses her postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley to join the CUORE experiment to look for neutrino-less double beta decays, which in turn led to her joining IceCube at Wisconsin. She explains how this worked served as an entrée into her interests in astrophysics and cosmology, and she describes the factors that led to her joining the faculty at Yale. Maruyama discusses building her lab and the diverse research she is pursuing including many exciting developments in quantum technology, and in the last part of the interview, she explains how she hopes to contribute to solving the mystery of dark matter.

Interviewed by
David DeVorkin
Interview date
Location
Yale University Observatory
Abstract

Interview discuss John S. Hall's early interest in astronomy; comments about family background and early childhood, schooling in Connecticut and college training at University of Amherst and Yale University. Early contacts and interests in photoelectric photometry, his pioneering efforts in red sensitive cell photometry, work at the Radiation Laboratory at MIT during World War II, postwar research at the Naval Observatory and his co-discovery of interstellar polarization. Also prominently mentioned are: Solon Bailey, A. L. Bennett, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Thomas Cochran, Robert H. Dicke, Harold Ewen, Fresnell, Green, Jesse Leonard Greenstein, Ejnar Hertzsprung, W. A. Hiltner, Gerald Edward Kron, J. A. Miller, Prescott, Jan Schildt, Frank Schlesinger, Harlow Shapley, Theodore Stoller, Otto Struve, David Todd, Robert Williams Wood; Amherst College Observatory, General Electric Co., Harvard University, Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Science (journal), Sproul Observatory, United States Navy, and Yerkes Observatory.

Interviewed by
David DeVorkin
Interview date
Location
Yale University
Abstract

In this interview Pierre Demarque discusses topics such as: his early interest in astronomy; listening to radio lectures by Fred Hoyle; study at the University of Toronto; interest in cosmology; work with Leonard Searle; master's thesis on stellar structure; influence of Searle and J. Beverly Oke; move to the United States and Louisiana State University; University of Illinois and the influence of Ivan King; Ludwig Biermann; George McVittie; going to the University of Chicago and contact with Chandrasekhar; stellar evolution; Yerkes Observatory; leaving Chicago for Yale University; Walter Baade philosophy of studying cosmology; globular clusters; John Eddy's work on solar variability; stellar populations and galaxy evolution.

Interviewed by
R. Bruce Lindsay with W. J. King
Interview date
Location
Dadourian's home, West Hartford, Connecticut
Abstract

Youth and family life in Turkish Armenia prior to turn of century; time at Yale Sheffield Scientific School and early research interests; World War I work for U.S. Signal Corp; teaching experience and associates at Sheffield School; his book on mechanics; experience at Cavendish Laboratory, 1914; impressions of Joseph J. Thomson, reaction to Niels Bohr's atomic theory. Trinity College in Hartford, state of physics department; his preoccupation with wartime plight of Armenians. Comments on philosophy of science, reaction at Yale University to the theory of relativity, hazards of x-rays, concepts of centrifugal force, indeterminacy and complementarity. Also prominently mentioned is Leigh Page.

Interviewed by
Ronald Doel
Interview date
Location
U. S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California
Abstract

Early schooling and education in England; training in geology at London University; Ph.D. studies at Yale University in late 1950s; work on problems in lunar and Martian geology in the 1960s. Detailed discussion of his research at Yale with Carl Turekian, involvement with high-pressure geological research at University of Western Ontario, and participation in 1960s Air Force-sponsored Luster Sounding rocket program to determine micrometeorite flux rates.

Interviewed by
Patrick McCray
Interview date
Location
Tucson, Arizona
Abstract

This interview with A. G. W. Cameron focuses on selected aspects of Cameron's research including nucleosynthesis and use of computers in research. Covers Cameron's different topics of research as well as various institutional appointments. Also comments on style of research and William Fowler's receipt of Nobel prize. Other topics discussed include: his family background and childhood, graduate work at the University of Saskatchewan, Leon Katz, photonuclear reactions, astrophysics, Paul Merrill, galactic evolution, Iowa State teaching nuclear physics, Chalk River, advising work for Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and Department of Energy (DOE), hydrogen bomb, origin of the moon, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Stirling Colgate, nuclear astrophysics, teaching at Yale University, big bang theory, Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Fred Whipple, Leo Goldberg, Hans Suess, Harold Urey, William Fowler, Fred Hoyle, Geoffrey Burbidge, California Institute of Technology, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Interviewed by
Lillian Hoddeson
Interview date
Location
Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey
Abstract

Interview covers changes in the organization of physics research departments at Bell Laboratories during the period of Burton's career, from 1938-1958. Childhood and educational background. Early years at Bell Labs; study of photo-electron emission; history of relationship between telephone company and television; work on radar bomb sights during World War II; origins of solid state physics research at Bell Labs; postwar organization and conditions there, design of physical layout of building 1; how Burton became director of semiconductor research; delay of 1929 expansion by Stock Market crash.

Interviewed by
Albert Bartlett and Joan Warnow
Interview date
Location
Boulder, Colorado
Abstract

This interview begins with a lengthy discussion of his family history, and more personal anecdotes emerge throughout the interview.  After the family history, Broxon discusses his undergraduate education at Wabash College.  There is a brief discussion of Broxon's Law, concerning the flow of electricity inside the sun and around sunspots.  Broxon then goes on to discuss his scientific training at the University of Minnesota, his early experiences at Yale, and the construction of early ionization chambers.  The subject then changes to a brief account of his time associated with the Manhattan Project, both in Chicago and Los Alamos.  The interview concludes with a few personal reminiscences, prompted by photographs in Broxon's personal albums.  Other affiliations discussed include Dr. W.F.G. Swann and Oliver C. Lester.

Interviewed by
Finn Aaserud
Interview date
Abstract

Some of the topics discussed include:  David Allan Bromley's childhood and early education in Canada; his undergraduate education at Queens University; his studies with J. A. Gray; his work on his Ph.D. at Rochester; his early days at Yale and his subsequent career there;  his first visit to Washington and the NSF and AEC; the development of the Yale physics department; heavy ion facility and computer center; involvement and editorship of treatise on heavy ion science; collaborations.

Interviewed by
Finn Aaserud
Interview date
Abstract

Some of the topics discussed include:  David Allan Bromley's childhood and early education in Canada; his undergraduate education at Queens University; his studies with J. A. Gray; his work on his Ph.D. at Rochester; his early days at Yale and his subsequent career there;  his first visit to Washington and the NSF and AEC; the development of the Yale physics department; heavy ion facility and computer center; involvement and editorship of treatise on heavy ion science; collaborations.