Iowa State University

Interview with Sunil Sinha, Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics at the University of California, San Diego. Sinha describes how he has been able to keep up his research during the COVID pandemic, and he recounts his childhood in Calcutta where he attended Catholic schools and developed his interests in math and science. He describes his undergraduate education at Cambridge where he became interested is quantum mechanics, and he explains his decision to remain there for graduate work to conduct research on neutron scattering under the direction of Gordon Squires. Sinha explains the centrality of neutron scattering to the development of condensed matter physics, and he describes the opportunities leading to his postdoctoral research at Iowa State. He discusses his work at Ames Lab and Argonne Lab, where he continued to pursue fundamental research on neutron scattering and rare earth materials. Sinha describes his research at Exxon Lab, and the start of the revolution in soft matter physics, and he explains his decision to return to Argonne at the beginning of the Advanced Photon Source project. He discusses his subsequent move to San Diego where he enjoyed a joint appointment with Los Alamos Lab and when he was able to concentrate more fully on teaching after a career spent mostly in laboratory environments. At the end of the interview, Sinha describes his current interest in spin glasses, exchange biases, and jamming theoretical computer simulations, and he explains the reason for the enduring mystery of the mechanism for high-temperature superconductivity. 

In this interview, David Zierler, Oral Historian for AIP, interviews Philip Anfinrud, Senior Biomedical Research Scientist, National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, at the National Institutes of Health. Anfinrud likens his work environment to the “Bell Labs of Biophysics” and he expresses his pride in working with colleagues conducting research at the cutting-edge of their respective fields. He recounts his upbringing in small town North Dakota and how he developed his early interests in atmospheric chemistry. Anfinrud describes the circumstances leading to his graduate work at Berkeley, and how he approached his interests in physics from a physical chemistry perspective. He describes his work with Walter Struve on energy transport and picosecond lasers, and he describes his postdoctoral research with Robin Hochstrasser at the University of Pennsylvania where he worked on infrared spectroscopy on the femtosecond time scale. Anfinrud discusses his first faculty appointment at Harvard, and he describes the process building a laser lab in partnership with Mitsubishi. Anfinrud explains his research on myoglobin and photolysis laser pulses, and he describes his first forays in X-ray radiation and crystallography. He describes his move to the NIH, where he created Laboratory of Ultrafast Biophysical Chemistry. Anfinrud explains the value of NMR spectroscopy to understand protein folding, and he describes how his interests are situated more in the realm of basic science and not clinically-oriented research. He discusses the value of scaling laws in physics as a means for understanding biochemical phenomena, and he describes the numerous ways that the NIH provides an ideal environment for research. At the end of the interview, Anfinrud provides an overview of his current research in time-resolved crystallography and single molecule behavior, and he describes the public health impact of his work on speech droplets as a means of transmitting the coronavirus.

In this interview Harry Deckman, recently retired as Senior Scientific Advisor at ExxonMobil Corporate Strategic Research, explains the many research and consulting facets of this work, and the collaborations he has participated in over his career which has tracked with technical and geopolitical developments. Deckman emphasizes ExxonMobil’s commitment to research in non-petroleum energy sources in parallel with finding new oil and gas reserves. He discusses: his childhood outside of Cleveland; early interests in science and the excellent public school offerings he received; undergraduate education at Case Western where he focused on solid state physics; his decision to go to Iowa State for his PhD, where Constantine Stassis supervised his thesis research on magnetic neutron scattering; his initial appointment in Exxon’s Corporate Research Lab to work on laser fusion, the impetus of this research in light of the energy crisis of the 1970s, and the many experiments and collaborations in the Lab that mixed basic and applied science, including the demonstration that laser plasma could be a source for X-ray lithography; the rise of soft matter physics as a discrete subfield, and the impact of the information revolution in the 1980s on his research agenda and his focused interest in absorbed molecules and studying isotherms and transport; his work with novel reactors and coupled waves in geoscience, and why his work in carbon dioxide separations marked a major turning point in his career both as a fascinating area of research and because of the imperative at Exxon to address carbon emissions; his work on hydrocarbons and their value as an affordable energy source; his interests, in retirement, to continue searching for solutions for greenhouse gas mitigation strategies.

In this interview Thomas Rossing discusses topics such as: his childhood; undergraduate work at Luther College; graduate work at Iowa State University; working with Sperry Rand; teaching at St. Olaf College; Peter Fossum; Northern Illinois University; solid state physics; magnetics; musical acoustics; Uno Ingard; Art Benade; visiting professorships at University of Edinburgh and Stanford University; Acoustical Society of America (ASA); president and time with the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT).

Personal background; Iowa State University, 1887-1914; state of American physics prior to 1930; Paul Klopsteg; teaching versus research; Arthur G. Webster; first American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) success, 1931; Karl Compton and Floyd K. Richtmyer support; formation of the American Institute of Physics and AAPT as a founder society. Interview conducted by the Columbia University Oral History Research Office as part of a series of interviews conducted with founding members of the American Association of Physics Teachers.

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).

David Arch is a physicist who has worked primarily on solid-state devices for Honeywell in Minnesota. This interview was done as part of the American Institute of Physicists in Industry project, and is a follow-up interview to one conducted in November 2005 by Joe Anderson and Orville Butler. The interview discusses Arch's family and youth in rural Illinois, undergraduate education at St. John's College in Minnesota, graduate work on lattice dynamics at Iowa State University under Constantine Stassis, experience working with the Ames Laboratory, and on neutron beams at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Arch was hired by Honeywell in 1980, and worked as a researcher in different laboratories in the Minneapolis area. The interview discusses his research and development project, his transition to management and business development positions, some corporate business and research history, and his recent transition to the assessment of prospective technologies.