Interview with Tony Tyson, Distinguished Research Professor at UC Davis in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The interview begins with Tyson sharing stories from his childhood in southern California and his early interest in ham radio. He discusses his undergraduate studies at Stanford and his introduction to low-temperature physics. Tyson describes his graduate studies at University of Wisconsin and a fellowship at University of Chicago. He explains his thesis experiment on phase transitions and discusses having both Dave Douglas and Chandrasekhar as advisors. Tyson recalls being recruited by Bell Labs and talks about his initial work there on gravitational radiation. He describes branching out into cosmology and astrophysics and recounts his time in John Wheeler’s gravity group at the Institute for Advanced Study. Tyson reflects on the impact of CCDs and his role in their development for astronomy. Tyson also discusses the evolution of the LSST project, of which he is the founding director. Topics include site selection, funding and fundraising, and the renaming of the project for Vera Rubin. The interview concludes with Tyson sharing his hopes for the future of the field and his excitement for the new discoveries that will inevitably come from the LSST.
This interview with N. Douglas Pewitt is part of a series conducted during research for the book Tunnel Visions, a history of the Superconducting Super Collider. Pewitt recollects his education in particle physics and early work at the Center for Naval Analyses before taking on government roles with the White House Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Energy Office of Energy Research, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He reflects on the events leading to the termination of the Isabelle collider at Brookhaven National Lab, including OSTP Director Jay Keyworth’s work to line up opposition to the project within the White House. He also discusses his disagreements with Keyworth over the viability of the SSC project, his own doubts about the physics community’s and DOE’s ability to manage large-scale projects, and his involvement with the Reagan administration’s effort to reorganize DOE out of existence. Pewitt then recalls his later work with Universities Research Association to write the proposal to manage the SSC project, including an unsuccessful effort to bring Bell Labs in on the proposal and Martin Marietta’s decision not to bid. Pewitt also discusses his experiences working at the SSC Laboratory, including his efforts to implement a cost and schedule control system, difficulties with magnet design, the lab’s efforts to appoint a project manager, and his own brief service as acting project manager. He offers his views of Roy Schwitters’s leadership and Bob Hunter’s activities as director of the DOE Office of Energy Research, and he suggests the SSC project was headed for collapse as early as mid-1989.
In this interview organized through the Acoustical Society of America, German inventor and scientist Gerhard Sessler reflects on his life and career in acoustics. Sessler begins by recalling his childhood in Germany and his high school math teacher who inspired him to study physics. He describes the beginning of his undergraduate studies at Freiburg University before transferring to the University of Munich, where he took classes from physicists such as Arnold Sommerfeld. Sessler recalls moving to the University of Göttingen for his graduate studies, where he was introduced to the field of acoustics by Erwin Meyer. He describes his master’s thesis on sound propagation in rarefied gases. Sessler then explains the opportunity that led him to Bell Labs to work with Manfred Schroeder, where his projects included work on transducers, electrets, sound propagation in plasma, and architectural acoustics. He discusses his collaboration with Jim West on the development of electret microphones, first using Mylar films and then transitioning to Teflon. Sessler recalls his decision to return to both academia and Germany by accepting a position at Darmstadt University. There, he continued his work on electroacoustics, materials research, and room acoustics, and he discusses his work on developing silicon microphones. Toward the end of the interview, Sessler recounts his time as chairman of the first German acoustics association, DAGA, and then his role as founding member of the German Acoustics Society, DEGA. He also reflects on the honor of being elected to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1999, as well as receiving the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering.
In this interview, Peter Runge recounts his life and work with Bell Labs on optical communication. Runge describes his early life and education in West Germany, and his undergraduate and graduate work at Technische Hochschule Braunschweig (later Technische Universität Braunschweig), first on millimeter waveguide technology, and then developing a single-frequency laser for optical communication. He discusses his move to the United States to work at Bell Labs, starting with his initial work on organic dye lasers and then developing optical communication technologies. Runge goes into detail on both the state of optical communication in the 1970s and ‘80s, as well as the internal workings at Bell Labs.
In this interview organized through the Acoustical Society of America, the discussion begins with West’s experiences as a member of the society before moving into his family background and youth in Virginia, education at Hampton Institute and Temple University, and military service in the Korean War. West describes his employment with Bell Labs and his work on the electret microphone, for which he and Gerhard Sessler would be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He also discusses his experiences as a Black member of the technical staff at Bell Labs, the importance of being in a research environment with people of similar backgrounds, and the creation and successes of the Association of Black Laboratory Employees (ABLE). West further describes his work in the acoustics of concert halls and hospitals and on the design of devices for taking medical measurements. The interview concludes with West highlighting his work during his presidency of ASA to expand its reach in Latin America and to attract and support people of Hispanic origin to acoustics.
This wide-ranging interview explores the career of Jim Decker, most of which has been at the U.S. Department of Energy and its predecessor agencies. Decker first worked in the fusion energy program, and from 1985 to 2007 he was Principal Deputy Director of the DOE Office of Energy Research, which was renamed the Office of Science in 1998. The position was the highest-level career position within the office. The interview covers the evolving fortunes of fusion research in the U.S., including expanding support in the 1970s, U.S. participation in the international ITER project, and deep funding cuts in the 1990s. The leadership of Al Trivelpiece at the office, the development of DOE’s high-performance computing efforts, and the management of the Superconducting Super Collider project are discussed in some detail. Other subjects include the origins of DOE’s support for the Human Genome Project, the development of DOE’s procedures for oversight of major projects, recent trends toward funding “centers” and special initiatives, the evolving status of the Office of Science within DOE, and Decker’s experiences with Congress and successive presidential administrations.
Interview with Steven Chu, former United States Secretary of Energy and current Professor of Physics and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology in the Medical School at Stanford University. Chu begins by taking us through his changing research interests across his time at Berkeley, Bell Labs and Stanford, and then recounts the beginnings of his interest in climate change in the early 2000s. He talks about his work advising companies who are working on climate change solutions such as carbon capture, and he gives an overview of the research and action being taken around renewable energy sources. Chu then goes back in time and recounts the story of his family, starting with his grandfather in China who emphasized education for all his children. Growing up in Nassau County, Chu describes feeling like a “disappointment” in his family because he didn’t go to an Ivy League school and instead completed his undergraduate studies in math and physics at the University of Rochester. Chu discusses his decision to attend Berkeley for grad school and meeting his advisor Eugene Commins, who was working on weak interactions. Then Chu recounts his transition to Bell Labs and describes the laser work going on there at the time, as well as his burgeoning interest in beta decay experiments. He talks about his research surrounding laser cooling and explains his decision to move to Stanford after Bell. Chu remembers his experience winning the Nobel Prize and accepting the position as director of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Chu ends the interview with stories from his time as Secretary of Energy under the Obama administration, such as his experiences with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, setting up the DOE Loan Program Office, and his international work on climate change.
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Interview with Peter W. Shor, Morss Professor of Applied Math at MIT. Shor recounts his childhood in Brooklyn and then Washington, DC, and he describes his discovery early in childhood that he had a special aptitude in math. He describes his undergraduate experience at Caltech, where he pursued an interest in combinatronics, and he explains his decision to attend MIT for graduate school, where he studied under Tom Leighton. Shor discusses his graduate work at Bell Labs and he explains how applied math research was relevant to Bell's business model. He describes his thesis research which used math to design good algorithms for computer problem solving, and he discusses his postdoctoral research at the Mathematical Science Research Institute at Berkeley where he focused on computational geometry problems. Shor explains his decision to return to Bell Labs and his focus on optical fibers, and he explains Google's influence in achieving breakthroughs in theoretical computer science. He describes the origins of Shor's Algorithm and Charles Bennett's involvement in this development. Shor explains when true quantum computing became theoretically feasible, and the various budgetary, theoretical, and political challenges that stand between the current state of play and quantum computer realization. He explains his interest in returning to academia at the time Bell Labs was coming apart, and he explains his contributions to advancing quantum information and the utility this has for AdS/CFT research. Shor describes his current interest in black holes and quantum money, and at the end of the interview, he explains why the question of whether NP = P remains fundamental.
Interview with John Spence, Richard Snell Professor of Physics at Arizona State University. Spence discusses his dual role as a Director of Science at NSF and his focus on research at the intersection of biology and physics. He recounts his childhood in Australia and his undergraduate education at Queensland University. Spence describes his graduate research on plasmons at Melbourne and the opportunities that led to his postdoctoral appointment at Oxford, where he worked with Mike Whelan and David Cockayne on quantifying atom arrangements in solids. He describes his decision to join the faculty at Arizona State, and the nascent field of high-resolution electron microscopy, which compelled him to write a book on the topic. Spence discusses his work on the structure of defects in superconductors and his collaborations with Bell Labs, and he explains the significance of the LCLS to his research. He describes the BioXFEL project, his work as part of the broader community of crystallographers, and the intellectual origins of the book "Lightspeed". At the end of the interview, Spence credits Michael Crow for bringing ASU to the forefront of so much innovation in science, and he reflects on how physics has never failed to surprise him.
