Washington University (Saint Louis, Mo.)

Interviewed by
Jon Phillips
Interview date
Location
Video conference
Abstract

In this interview, AIP Oral Historian Jon Phillips interviews Dr. Earl Blodgett, Professor of Physics at the University of Wisconsin River Falls and Historian for Sigma Pi Sigma and the Society of Physics Students. Blodgett discusses his undergraduate education at the University of Wisconsin River Falls and graduate education at Washington University St. Louis in detail, including his work on acoustics with James Miller at Washington. He describes his return to River Falls as a teaching professor, and the development of physics pedagogy there, as well as his longstanding activity with both the American Association of Physics Teachers and the Society of Physics Students, for which he has served as both President and Historian. The interview includes extensive discussion of both the administrative and pedagogical dimensions and trends within undergraduate physics education in the United States over the course of Blodgett’s full career.

Interviewed by
David Zierler
Interview date
Location
Remote Interview
Abstract

In this interview, David Zierler, Oral Historian for AIP, interviews Douglas Scalapino, Research Professor at UC Santa Barbara. Scalapino recounts his childhood in San Francisco and then Scarsdale, New York, he discusses the circumstances leading to his admission to Yale, and he describes how he settled on physics as an undergraduate after getting to know Professor Larry Biedenharn. Scalapino discusses his graduate research at Stanford, where he worked under the direction of Mitch Weissbluth conducting radiation chemistry using a small linear accelerator to see free radicals created by the electron beam. He describes his burgeoning interests in electronic spin resonance and magnetic resonance. Scalapino explains the circumstances leading to his decision to finish his thesis work with Ed Jaynes at Washington University while working for Kane Engineering. He discusses his postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania with Bob Schrieffer and Henry Primakoff. He discusses his work at Bell Labs, where he worked with Phil Anderson, and he describes his first faculty position at Penn. Scalapino describes how UCSB recruited him, and he explains how his hire was part of a broader effort to raise the stature of the physics department. He recounts the virtues of working in a small department, where opportunities were available to collaborate with Bob Sugar and Ray Sawyer on high-energy physics, and Jim Hartle on astrophysics and general relativity. Scalapino describes the origins of the Institute of Theoretical Physics and how the National Science Foundation came to support UCSB’s proposal. He reflects on how the ITP has benefited the department of physics over the years, and he provides an overview of his research agenda at UCSB, which includes his contributions to the quantum Monte Carlo project and high-Tc and unconventional superconductors. At the end of the interview, Scalapino discusses his current interests in the numerical simulation of quantum many body systems.

Interviewed by
David Zierler
Interview date
Location
video conference
Abstract

In this interview, David Zierler, Oral Historian for AIP, interviews Cliff Will, Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of Florida. He recounts his childhood in Ontario, Canada, and explains his decision to enroll at McMaster University, which was both nearby and offered an excellent physics program. He describes his studies with Bertram Brockhouse and how he developed his skills and interests in theory. Will explains his early impressions of Caltech, and how different California felt in the late 1960s. He describes his graduate research in general relativity under the direction of Kip Thorne, and he explains the significance of his calculation of the n-body equations of motion, which was the first post-Newtonian approximation of general relativity. Will explains the import of recent experimental advances in general relativity and how this advanced theoretical work. He describes his postdoctoral research at the Fermi Institute and his attraction at the concept of working with Chandrasekhar. He explains his decision to join the faculty at Stanford, and the state of the field in general relativity and gravitational radiation in the early 1970s. Will describes the circumstances leading to his work at Washington University and the research he did at the McDonnell Center for Space Sciences. He discusses his service work for the National Research Council and his advisory position on the Stanford-NASA space mission called Gravity Probe-B. Will describes his interest in conveying scientific concepts to the broader public, and the excitement he felt in joining the LIGO collaboration. He discusses his recent research interests at the University of Florida and his ongoing collaborations in France. At the end of the interview, Will reflects on what has been confirmed and improved in the field of general relativity since the time of Einstein.

Interviewed by
David Zierler
Interview date
Location
video conference
Abstract

In this interview, David Zierler, Oral Historian for AIP, interviews Walter Massey, chairman of the board of the Giant Magellan Telescope organization. Massey describes his childhood in segregated Mississippi and his academic achievements that led to his admission to Morehouse College from the 10th grade. He describes his developing interest in physics during a formative summer program at Columbia, which convinced him that he could compete at high levels. Massey describes his graduate work at Washington University and how he came to be a student of Eugene Feenberg, who was working on correlated basis functions to many-body physics problems. He discusses his postdoctoral work at Argonne Laboratory and his interest in becoming involved in civil rights issues in the late 1960s, when he became a professor at the University of Illinois. Massey describes his subsequent tenure at Brown, where he focused on mixtures of helium-3 and helium 4 and on the problem of sound dispersion. He discusses the impact of an ACE fellowship which led to his work in the chancellor’s office at UC Santa Cruz, which in turn changed the course of his career trajectory toward policy. Massey describes his tenure at the University of Chicago, his directorship at Argonne, and how he worked through the existential challenge of nuclear energy following the Three Mile Island disaster. He explains his decision to accept an offer to head the National Science Foundation and how he grappled with creating a national science policy in a post-Cold War world. He discusses his work in support of the LIGO project and he explains his decision to lead Morehouse College after a brief appointment with the University of California. Massey reflects on his accomplishment at Morehouse, and he describes the ways the college had changed since his time there as a student. At the end of the interview, Massey discusses his work on the board of Bank of America and for the School of Art Institute of Chicago, and he discusses some of the ongoing challenges and areas of improvement to pursue in promoting diversity in the sciences. 

Interviewed by
Richard Peppin
Interview date
Location
Fort Lauderdale Marina Marriott Hotel, Florida
Abstract

Ungar’s family leaves Vienna for St. Louis fleeing the Nazis. College at Washington University is interrupted by Army service in postwar Europe. Takes up mechanical engineering on return to Washington University. Master’s degree while employed at Sandia Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM. PhD at New York University where he briefly teaches. Joins Bolt, Beranek and Newman in late 1950s. Also joins the Acoustical Society of America rising to the presidency. Family and leisure activities.

Interviewed by
Thomas D. Cornell
Interview date
Location
Pasadena, California
Abstract

A preliminary conversation mainly about the construction of the Rochester Cyclotron in the 1930s; comments on the Physics Department, the theorists, weekly colloquia; DuBridge as chairman and dean; Washington University's graduate program's influence on the Rochester program; work on the FP-54 vacuum tube; interest and support from Ernest O. Lawrence; design and building of cyclotron. Graduate projects; photoelectric research and cyclotron research at Rochester, cooperation with Hans Bethe at Cornell University. World War II work. Relationship of teaching and research at University of Wisconsin, Cornell University, and California Institute of Technology.

Interviewed by
Charles Weiner
Interview date
Location
California Institute of Technology
Abstract

Career at the University of Rochester, 1934-1940, 1946, with emphasis on the Rochester cyclotron. The cyclotron's funding is covered in particular detail, with the aid of documents from the E. O. Lawrence Papers (Bancroft Library, Berkeley, CA). Comments on the Rochester Physics Department and its relations with other institutions, and on biophysical and medical research. Also prominently mentioned are: Hans Albrecht Bethe, Stafford Warren, H. Russell Wilkins; Bell Telephone Laboratories, National Research Council (U.S.) Committee on Mytogenic Radiation, University of California at Berkeley, School of Medicine and Dentistry of University of Rochester, and Washington University.

Interviewed by
John L. Heilbron
Interview date
Location
Eckart’s office, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, La Jolla, California
Abstract

Part of the Archives for the History of Quantum Physics oral history collection, which includes tapes and transcripts of oral history interviews conducted with circa 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: Edwin Plimpton Adams, Niels Henrik David Bohr, Max Born, Frank W. Bubb, Arthur Compton, Karl Compton, Ona K. Defoe, William Duane, Paul Sophus Epstein, Werner Heisenberg, Otto Hellwig, Frank Clark Hoyt, Georg Eric MacDonnell Jauncey, Cornelius Lanczos, Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, Wolfgang Pauli, Philip Rau, Henry Norris Russell, Erwin Schrödinger, Arnold Sommerfeld, John Von Neumann, Norbert Wiener; American Physical Society meeting (Washington), California Institute of Technology, Kaffee Heck (Munich), Princeton University, Princeton University Physics Colloquium, and Washington University.

Interviewed by
Charles Weiner
Interview date
Location
Condon's home, Boulder, Colorado
Abstract

In this interview, Edward Uhler Condon discusses topics such as: his family background; early education; influence of high school physics teacher, William Howell Williams, 1914-1918, and later teacher at University of California, Berkeley; interval as boy reporter. Undergraduate years at Berkeley, beginning in 1921 in chemistry department; Ph.D. in physics, 1926; association with Fred Weinberg. Discovery of Erwin Schrödinger's wave mechanics papers; International Education Board fellowship to study quantum mechanics at Göttingen, 1926. Work on Bell Systems technical journal for six months before accepting lectureship at Columbia University; teaching post at Princeton University; Condon and Philip Morse's Quantum Mechanics, result of Columbia and Princeton courses. Relations with University of California; role in persuading Ernest Lawrence to go to Berkeley from Yale University. Recollections of Michigan summer school. Work at Westinghouse on applications of nuclear physics to industry, including completion of Van de Graaff machine, 1937-1940; setting up Westinghouse research fellowships, 1938; Massachusetts Institute of Technology conference on applications of nuclear physics, October 1940; war work on microwave radar. J. Robert Oppenheimer asks Condon to come to Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory; tour of Los Alamos with Leslie Groves; reasons for leaving Los Alamos after a few weeks. Work as head of theoretical section of Lawrence's laboratory, August 1943-1945; British scientists. Evaluation of Westinghouse's four million-volt machine. Description of Nimitron, a physical computer, designed for 1939 World's Fair. Discussion of 1928 radioactivity. Reminiscences of Ronald Gurney's later career and his trouble with security. Discussion of postwar events, such as the Quebec Conference, McMahon Act, Moran's book about Winston Churchill. Peacetime development of atomic energy; establishment of the Senate's Special Committee on atomic energy. Directorship of the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), 1945-1951. Work on superconductivity; W. Emmanuel Maxwell and John Pelham. Accomplishments at NBS. Hearings in 1948 and 1952 before the Department of Commerce under Truman's loyalty program; Averell Harriman. Director of Research at Corning, 1951. House Un-American Activities Committee hearing, 1954; J. R. Oppenheimer and Bernard Peters; reopening of clearances, loss of Corning position; becomes Corning consultant. Head of Washington University physics department, 1956-1963; Oberlin College, 1962; interest in modernizing teaching; Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA), from 1963; editor of Reviews of Modern Physics, 1957-1968; establishment of the National Accelerator Laboratory (Chicago); the UFO story. Comments on his most satisfying and his least satisfying work. Also prominently mentioned are: Raymond T. Birge and Henry Wallace.

Interviewed by
Charles Weiner
Interview date
Location
Boulder, Colorado
Abstract

In this interview, Edward Uhler Condon discusses topics such as: his family background; early education; influence of high school physics teacher, William Howell Williams, 1914-1918, and later teacher at University of California, Berkeley; interval as boy reporter. Undergraduate years at Berkeley, beginning in 1921 in chemistry department; Ph.D. in physics, 1926; association with Fred Weinberg. Discovery of Erwin Schrödinger's wave mechanics papers; International Education Board fellowship to study quantum mechanics at Göttingen, 1926. Work on Bell Systems technical journal for six months before accepting lectureship at Columbia University; teaching post at Princeton University; Condon and Philip Morse's Quantum Mechanics, result of Columbia and Princeton courses. Relations with University of California; role in persuading Ernest Lawrence to go to Berkeley from Yale University. Recollections of Michigan summer school. Work at Westinghouse on applications of nuclear physics to industry, including completion of Van de Graaff machine, 1937-1940; setting up Westinghouse research fellowships, 1938; Massachusetts Institute of Technology conference on applications of nuclear physics, October 1940; war work on microwave radar. J. Robert Oppenheimer asks Condon to come to Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory; tour of Los Alamos with Leslie Groves; reasons for leaving Los Alamos after a few weeks. Work as head of theoretical section of Lawrence's laboratory, August 1943-1945; British scientists. Evaluation of Westinghouse's four million-volt machine. Description of Nimitron, a physical computer, designed for 1939 World's Fair. Discussion of 1928 radioactivity. Reminiscences of Ronald Gurney's later career and his trouble with security. Discussion of postwar events, such as the Quebec Conference, McMahon Act, Moran's book about Winston Churchill. Peacetime development of atomic energy; establishment of the Senate's Special Committee on atomic energy. Directorship of the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), 1945-1951. Work on superconductivity; W. Emmanuel Maxwell and John Pelham. Accomplishments at NBS. Hearings in 1948 and 1952 before the Department of Commerce under Truman's loyalty program; Averell Harriman. Director of Research at Corning, 1951. House Un-American Activities Committee hearing, 1954; J. R. Oppenheimer and Bernard Peters; reopening of clearances, loss of Corning position; becomes Corning consultant. Head of Washington University physics department, 1956-1963; Oberlin College, 1962; interest in modernizing teaching; Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA), from 1963; editor of Reviews of Modern Physics, 1957-1968; establishment of the National Accelerator Laboratory (Chicago); the UFO story. Comments on his most satisfying and his least satisfying work. Also prominently mentioned are: Raymond T. Birge and Henry Wallace.