Yale University

Interviewed by
Joan Bromberg
Interview date
Location
New Haven, Connecticut
Abstract

In this interview, William R. Bennett discusses his work with lasers. Topics discussed include: helium neon laser; Ali Javan; Donald Herriott; Columbia University; Yale University; Air Reduction Company (Airco); Linde Air Products Company; Hugh Robinson; Lewis B. Headrick; Ora S. Duffendack; Bell Labs; Harrie Stewart Wilson Massey; Eric Henry Stoneley Burhop; Allan C. G. Mitchell; Mark W. Zemansky; Rudolf Walter Ladenburg; Sidney Millman; Technical Measurement Corporation; Ted Geballe; Conyers Herring; A. L. Schawlow; Henry Scovil; Harry Nyquist; Jim Gordon; Gardner Fox; Tingye Li; E. I. Gordon; G. D. Boyd; A. F. Turner; Bausch & Lomb Laboratories; Technical Research Group (TRG); Gordon Gould; Charlie Townes; Theodore Maiman; Deming Lewis; A. T. Forrester; George Dacey; C. Geoffrey B. Garrett; Ross McFarlane; Bruce Bogert; Willis Lamb; Paul Rabinowitz; V. P. Chebotaev; John. W. Knutson; Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR); Army Research Office, Durham (AROD); Vernon Hughes; Lloyd Wood; Marshall Harrington; Alfred P. Sloane Foundation; Institute for Defense Analyses; Bob Collins; Kurt Shuler; Walter Faust; argon laser; Spectra Physics; Bill Bridges; Grant Fowles; William Silfvast; Bill Walter; Marty Pilch.

Interviewed by
Finn Aaserud
Interview date
Location
La Jolla, California
Abstract

Joel Bengston discusses topics such as: his education (Ph.D. at Yale under Gregory Breit, 1952); career and employment prior to affiliation with JASON. First experience with JASON in Summer Study, 1963; executive secretary, 1969-1973. Organizational structure of JASON; senior and influential members; selection of members and projects; political views and problems with secrecy; collaboration within JASON and with contractors; JASON's uniqueness and comparable advisory groups; Bengston's personal role.

Interviewed by
Katherine Sopka
Interview date
Location
South Hadley, Massachusetts
Abstract

Mildred Allen was born in Massachusetts in 1894, the elder of two daughters of an MIT professor of civil engineering who had met her mother while working in New Mexico. She graduated from Vassar College in 1916 with training in mathematics and physics. Her Ph.D. in physics (1922) was granted by Clark University where she studied with A. G. Webster, but her thesis research was one at MIT. She taught at Mt. Holyoke, Wellesley and Oberlin Colleges during the 1920s and early 30s, as well as studying further at the University of Chicago and Yale. She did research at the Bartol Foundation, 1927-30, and at Harvard University, 1931-33. She then taught at Mt. Holyoke from 1933 until her retirement in 1959. Since then she has done additional research, most recently (paper published 1971) on the behavior of torsion pendulums especially during solar eclipses.