Interview with Dr. Diane McKnight, professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and currently program director for the Arctic Observing Network at the National Science Foundation. The interview begins with McKnight recounting her childhood with both parents having doctorate degrees, and she discusses the early science influences in her life. McKnight describes her decision to attend MIT for her undergraduate studies and subsequently her graduate studies in engineering, where she worked with Francois Morel. She discusses her engineering classes, campus life at MIT, and the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated field. McKnight then recalls how her early career work at the US Geological Survey led to her work in Antarctica. She shares stories of life at McMurdo Station, meeting Al Gore, and working on the Palmer Station Long Term Ecological Research project (LTER). At the end of the interview, McKnight reflects on how this work influenced her life and what life has been like since.
In this interview organized through the Acoustical Society of America, Greg Tocci discusses his life and career, focusing on his entry to the acoustics field, his relationship with ASA, and his long career with the acoustics consulting firm Cavanaugh Tocci. Tocci recalls his upbringing outside Boston as the son of an engineer, his undergraduate education in mechanical engineering at Tufts University, and master’s-degree work at MIT with Richard Lyon. He also discusses early jobs as a draftsman at a mechanical engineering firm and a researcher at the Army Materials and Mechanics Research Center at Watertown Arsenal, and his service in the Army Reserve during the Vietnam War. He then discusses his early career in architectural acoustics through the firms Cambridge Collaborative and Cavanaugh Copley and the circumstances leading to the splitting off of Cavanaugh Tocci in 1975. The interview concludes with a discussion of Tocci’s personal life and his ongoing work to train young employees and maintain the culture of Cavanaugh Tocci following his sale of his stake in it.
Interview with Jim Hsieh, founder of Sheaumann Laser, Inc. The interview begins with Hsieh describing his childhood in China during turbulent times and his family’s move to Taiwan where he completed secondary school and college. He discusses his decision to pursue graduate school in the US at Virginia Tech and his subsequent time working at Westinghouse in the Molecular Electronics Division in Baltimore. Hsieh then continued his education first at UC Berkeley and then moved to the University of Southern California. He recalls some of the early patents he contributed to, related to circuit design and semiconductors. Hsieh describes his move to MIT Lincoln Lab where he worked under John Goodenough. He discusses the beginnings of fiber optic communication, and describes the technical aspects of his research at the time on topics such as gallium arsenide lasers, laser diodes, and quarternary lasers. Hsieh talks about his decision to start his own company, Lasertron, with Kenneth Nill, and reflects on the transition from a purely research environment to a business endeavor. He discusses witnessing the growth of the laser market and the international landscape of laser development at the time. The interview concludes with Hsieh describing the sale of Lasertron to Oak Industry and the creation of Sheaumann Laser, Inc.
In this interview organized through the Acoustical Society of America, the discussion begins with Pisoni’s experiences as a member of ASA and the influence of a presentation at a 1980 meeting by Brian Eukel as well as earlier work by the Harvard Psychoacoustics Lab. The interview continues with memories of Pisoni’s youth in New York City and undergraduate education in experimental psychology at Queens College of the City University of New York, including the influence of Lou Gerstman. Pisoni then recalls his doctoral work in psycholinguistics at the University of Michigan and research at Haskins Laboratories, as well as his move in 1970 to his only place of employment, Indiana University, and his sabbaticals at MIT. Other subjects Pisoni discusses include the creation and growth of the IU “Training in Speech and Hearing Sensory Communication” program funded by the National Institutes of Health, some of his most influential books and papers, his participation in the Institute for Defense Analyses’ Summer Camp in Applied Mathematical Problems, and his moves into clinical work and cognitive aging and speech perception.
Interview with Allan Pierce, Professor Emeritus at Boston University and President of the Cape Cod Institute for Science and Engineering. Pierce recounts his childhood in Kansas and New Mexico, where his father worked on building aircraft during World War II. He remembers tinkering with a chemistry set as a child and building his own little radio. Pierce describes his undergraduate studies in physics at New Mexico State University and winning an NSF Fellowship to attend MIT for free for his graduate studies. Upon completing his PhD, Pierce recalls working for RAND Corporation on defense-related issues at the height of the Cold War, as well as his burgeoning interest in acoustics. Pierce describes his career trajectory that took him to Avco Space Systems Division, the Mechanical Engineering Department at MIT, and Georgia Tech. He recounts his research in a variety of fields such as helicopter noise, sonic booms, wind turbines, and underwater acoustics. Pierce talks about the genesis of his famed acoustics textbook and speaks in detail about several topics in the book, such as the wave theory of sound, plane waves, and room acoustics. Pierce describes moving to Penn State, then Boston University, and finally the formation of the Cape Code Institute. He also reflects on his time as Editor in Chief of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. The interview concludes with Pierce reflecting on his unique historical perspective and appreciation for acoustics, and how he has seen the ASA change over the years.
The interviewee has not given permission for this interview to be shared at this time. Transcripts will be updated as they become available to the public. For any questions about this policy, please contact [email protected].
Interview with Marlan Scully, Distinguished University Professor and Burgess Chair at Texas A&M and Distinguished Research Academician at Baylor University. The interview begins with Scully recounting his early experience contracting COVID-19 and how that informed his research into the virus. Then he describes growing up in Wyoming and recalls not being very interested in school until he fell in love with calculus while attending community college. Scully talks about his studies in physics at the University of Wyoming before eventually transferring to Rensselaer Polytechnic. He then discusses his decision to move to Yale to work with Willis Lamb on laser physics. Scully recounts his assistant professorship at MIT and the opportunity at University of Arizona, where he was involved with starting their Optical Sciences Center. He talks about his subsequent joint position between University of New Mexico and Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, as well as his work with Air Force weapons labs on laser applications. Scully details the events leading to his position at Texas A&M and the inception of the Institute for Quantum Studies, and his ongoing affiliations with Princeton. At the end of the interview, Scully reflects on the interplay between theory and experimentation throughout his career and in laser physics specifically, as well as the technological advances that have propelled laser research forward.
The interviewee has not given permission for this interview to be shared at this time. Transcripts will be updated as they become available to the public. For any questions about this policy, please contact [email protected].
Interview with Katherine Freese, Director of the Weinberg Institute for Theoretical Physics, the Jeff and Gail Kodosky Endowed Chair in Physics at UT Austin, and the Director of the Texas Center for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (TCCAP). Freese begins the interview with an overview of terminology, such as cosmology, astrophysics, and astroparticle physics and the delineation between these fields. Then she describes her childhood in Bethesda, Maryland where both her parents were scientists. Freese recalls beginning college at age 16, starting at MIT and then transferring to Princeton. She recounts taking time off after her undergraduate studies, before deciding to pursue graduate studies. Freese began grad school at Columbia but switched to the University of Chicago to work on neutrino physics with David Schramm. She discusses her first post-doc at Harvard, working on WIMPs and dark matter, and then her second post-doc at Santa Barbara with Frank Wilczek. Freese then recalls returning to MIT as a professor where she worked with Alan Guth and Josh Frieman on cosmic inflation. She talks about her transition to the University of Michigan and the exciting developments in cosmology at the time, as well as her introduction to dark energy. Freese describes her more recent involvement with NASA’s SPIDER experiment, as well as the honor of being named to the National Academy of Sciences. Freese discusses the amazing opportunity of being the Director at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics and ends the interview with her hopes for the future of cosmology, namely her hope for finding dark matter.
The interviewee has not given permission for this interview to be shared at this time. Transcripts will be updated as they become available to the public. For any questions about this policy, please contact [email protected].
