Columbia University

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.

Recollections of political and professional controversies within the physics community in the Vietnam War ear; extended impressions of Columbia University in the 1960s and 1970s including the Department of Physics and Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory; involvement in science education programs and activities, including development of international programs at Fermilab and the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy; views on reductionism in science and the teaching of science in secondary education; extended recollections of Lederman's directorship of Fermilab and his role in promoting the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) project through the early 1990s; views on present and future development of physics and physical theory.  Also prominently mentioned:  Jacques Barzun, President Bill Clinton, Joseph Needham, Frank Press, Isador I. Rabi, Carl Sagan, Abdus Salam, Robert Wilson.

Born in Johnstown, NY on Dec. 26, 1933; discusses family life and childhood. Discusses his early interests in chemistry, physics, and astronomy; pursued scientific interests at Deerfield Academy. Describes his decision to go to Harvard during the McCarthy era; comments on his undergraduate education at Harvard, 1952-1956. Discusses his decision to major in geology; describes his geology coursework and summer field work in Colorado. Discusses his Navy service from 1956-58 and his travels during the International Geophysical Year; describes his decision to go to Ohio State for graduate school in geology. Comments on meeting other scientists through the Polar Institute; describes his growing interests in the Antarctic and how he came to his undergraduate thesis research. Discusses his post-graduate research at Columbia, Lamont, 196 1-1964; describes his coursework at Columbia and the teaching of Heezen, Wust, and Newell. Discusses how he became involved with the CLIMAP project; describes the collaborative nature of the CLIMAP research. Comments on the Emiliani/Ericson debate; compares the involvement of Lamont with Scripps and Woods Hole in the CLIMAP project.

This interview covers the education and professional career of physicist Joseph Giordmaine, who spent his professional career at Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey (1961-1988), NEC laboratories, Princeton, New Jersey (1988-1998) and Princeton University (1998-2005). Giordmaine earned his undergraduate degree in physics from the University of Toronto, and his Ph.D. in physics at Columbia, studying masers under Charles Townes. Most of his research was related to lasers and non-linear optics, with particular focus on phase matching, optical parametric generation, picosecond correlation light duration measurements, and non-linear properties of liquids. Recollections of people include Charles Townes, Ali Javan, Willard "Bill" Boyle, Arno Penzias, and Kumar Patel. For detail on Giordmaine's early laser work, this oral history can be read in conjunction with an oral history Giordmaine did for the Center for the History of Physics in 1985 as part of the laser history project.

Graduate and postgraduate work at Columbia University under Charles H. Townes, 1955-1961; the maser receiver for the Naval Research Laboratory. The early quantum electronics conferences at Schwanga Lodge (1959), Berkeley (1961) and Puerto Rico (1965). Nonlinear optics researches at Bell Laboratories and Munich's Technische Hochschule, 1961 to about 1968; optical parametric oscillators. Picosecond pulse measurement techniques.

Graduate and postgraduate work at Columbia University under Charles H. Townes, 1955-1961; the maser receiver for the Naval Research Laboratory. The early quantum electronics conferences at Schwanga Lodge (1959), Berkeley (1961) and Puerto Rico (1965). Nonlinear optics researches at Bell Laboratories and Munich's Technische Hochschule, 1961 to about 1968; optical parametric oscillators. Picosecond pulse measurement techniques.

Discusses his youth and education in the mid-west and Colorado; his undergraduate education at the University of Kansas and his graduate work at Columbia University; his decision to go into geophysics; his work as chief scientists aboard the research vessels and his relationship with Capt. Henry Kohler; international cooperation in researach projects; the effect on Lamont of Maurice Ewing's move to Texas; his committee work for the National Science Foundation; teaching graduate students at Columbia; plate tectonics; and marine geology.  Also prominently mentioned are Wally Broecker, Charles Drake, Gordon Eaton, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Arnold Gordon, Bruce Heezen, Marcus Langseth, Jack Nafe, Jack Oliver, Neil Opdyke, Walter Pitman, Baring Raleigh, Mark Talwani, J. Lamar Worzel.

Discusses his youth and education in the mid-west and Colorado; his undergraduate education at the University of Kansas and his graduate work at Columbia University; his decision to go into geophysics; his work as chief scientists aboard the research vessels and his relationship with Capt. Henry Kohler; international cooperation in researach projects; the effect on Lamont of Maurice Ewing's move to Texas; his committee work for the National Science Foundation; teaching graduate students at Columbia; plate tectonics; and marine geology.  Also prominently mentioned are Wally Broecker, Charles Drake, Gordon Eaton, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Arnold Gordon, Bruce Heezen, Marcus Langseth, Jack Nafe, Jack Oliver, Neil Opdyke, Walter Pitman, Baring Raleigh, Mark Talwani, J. Lamar Worzel.

Discusses his youth and education in the mid-west and Colorado; his undergraduate education at the University of Kansas and his graduate work at Columbia University; his decision to go into geophysics; his work as chief scientists aboard the research vessels and his relationship with Capt. Henry Kohler; international cooperation in researach projects; the effect on Lamont of Maurice Ewing's move to Texas; his committee work for the National Science Foundation; teaching graduate students at Columbia; plate tectonics; and marine geology.  Also prominently mentioned are Wally Broecker, Charles Drake, Gordon Eaton, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Arnold Gordon, Bruce Heezen, Marcus Langseth, Jack Nafe, Jack Oliver, Neil Opdyke, Walter Pitman, Baring Raleigh, Mark Talwani, J. Lamar Worzel.

Discusses his youth and education in the mid-west and Colorado; his undergraduate education at the University of Kansas and his graduate work at Columbia University; his decision to go into geophysics; his work as chief scientists aboard the research vessels and his relationship with Capt. Henry Kohler; international cooperation in researach projects; the effect on Lamont of Maurice Ewing's move to Texas; his committee work for the National Science Foundation; teaching graduate students at Columbia; plate tectonics; and marine geology.  Also prominently mentioned are Wally Broecker, Charles Drake, Gordon Eaton, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Arnold Gordon, Bruce Heezen, Marcus Langseth, Jack Nafe, Jack Oliver, Neil Opdyke, Walter Pitman, Baring Raleigh, Mark Talwani, J. Lamar Worzel.