Topics include his childhood and early education; World War II experiences; decision to take up geology; availability of Western publications at Humboldt University; fixism and alternative ideas to plate tectonics; the International Geophysical Year and East German participation; National Oil company job; accused of being a Western spy; escape to West Germany and refuge camp experience; his work with the German Geological Survey; research on the North Sea; Indian Ocean Expedition and its importance to German marine science; trip to U.S. to meet American colleagues; differences between German and US marine sciences; recollections of Maurice Ewing; comparison of Scripps, Lamont, Woods Hole; participation on Atlantic Panel; MOHOLE Project; Joint Institute Deep Earth Sampling Program; German science policy; international cooperation in science; work on the Argentine volcanic margins; cooperation with Russian researchers; government scientific advising.
In this interview Harry Van Loon discusses topics such as: climatology, the history of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), research on El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the solar influence of climate; Jan Taljaard; weather maps of the Southern Hemisphere; serving in World War II; going to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Hurd Willett; working on the Southern Hemisphere project; going to Antarctica; International Geophysical Year (IGY); Harry Wexler; Will Kellogg; Akira Kasahara; Colorado Research Associates; Warren Washington.
Descriptions of other Spilhaus oral history interviews that cover childhood as well as career in education and public service; impressions of graduate education at Massachusetts Institute of Technlogy (MIT), early 1930s; work at Sperry Corporation. Meteorological research at MIT (C.-G. Rossby, C. S. Draper); meteorological work with Technical Services, South African Army, 1935-1936. Return to MIT, 1936; develops bathythermograph; life at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Professorship in Meteorology at New York University; impressions of department. Develops ozone research project; post-World War II involvement in numerical weather forecasting (John Von Neumann). Dean of Institute of Technology at University of Minnesota, 1949-1966; involvement in weapons testing, involvement in United States National Committee of the International Geophysical Year; impressions of committee members and its operations. National Academy of Sciences advisory panels on oceanography and waste management. Personal philosophy.
Ionospheric work in the ‘50s; Lloyd Beckner, extensively; McKerran Act and scientists; Satellite discussions in the early ‘50s; meeting and attendees at a meeting in Beckner’s room at IUGG; Project Farside; rocket work; discussions of using explosions in space to create shock waves; trapped radiation; Project Argus; Singer excluded from NASA and NRL but got funding from NSA.
Topics include his childhood and education; his joining the National Guard; his young adulthood; his working for the Weather Bureau; his education at the University of Puerto Rico, and later at New York University; later work with the Weather Service; work on the Loran navigation system; his work on the International Geophysical Year, 1957-58. Some of the persons mentioned include: George W. Kendrick, Harry Wexler, Louis Harrison.
This interview covers selected aspects of Friedman's career at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). It traces the development of upper air research at NRL through the International Geophysical Year (IGY, 1957-1958), and then outlines subsequent attempts at international coorperation in geophysical research. The latter discussion serves as the basis to explore the role of "big" science, and its relationship to individual and "little" science.
Princeton Physics Department building, Princeton, New Jersey
Abstract
In this interview Joseph Farman discusses topics such as: the British Antarctic Survey and the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole; Brian Gardiner; Jonathan Shanklin; ozone layer depletion; stratospheric ozone; chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs); creating 2D and 3D models; Susan Solomon; working in the aerospace industry on guided missiles; World Meteorological Organization; F. S. Rowland; Mario Molina; Imperial Chemical Industry (ICI); Total Ozone Monitoring Spectrometer (TOMS); Adrian Tuck; Shigeru Chubachi; International Geophysical Year (IGY); Al Flagg; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Some of the topics discussed include: his childhood; education in geophysics at Columbia/Lamont; research in seismology; early use of computers in seismology and geophysics; influence of the International Geophysical Year on Lamont; international collaborations; Russian seismology; working with NASA and the lunar seismology experiments in the Apollo missions; move to University of Texas (Marine Biomedical Institute) at Galveston; Comparison of Lamont and Texas laboratories under Maurice Ewing; details of staff transfer, set-up of the new laboratory and acquisition of the Ida Green; factors in Lamont's success. Prominently mentioned are: Walter Bucher, Maurice Ewing, Cecil Green, Bruce Heezan, Gary Latham, John Lindberg, Jack Oliver, Walter C. Pitman, Frank Press, Marie Tharp, Joe Worzel.
Some of the topics discussed include: his childhood; education in geophysics at Columbia/Lamont; research in seismology; early use of computers in seismology and geophysics; influence of the International Geophysical Year on Lamont; international collaborations; Russian seismology; working with NASA and the lunar seismology experiments in the Apollo missions; move to University of Texas (Marine Biomedical Institute) at Galveston; Comparison of Lamont and Texas laboratories under Maurice Ewing; details of staff transfer, set-up of the new laboratory and acquisition of the Ida Green; factors in Lamont's success. Prominently mentioned are: Walter Bucher, Maurice Ewing, Cecil Green, Bruce Heezan, Gary Latham, John Lindberg, Jack Oliver, Walter C. Pitman, Frank Press, Marie Tharp, Joe Worzel.
Some of the topics discussed include: his childhood; education in geophysics at Columbia/Lamont; research in seismology; early use of computers in seismology and geophysics; influence of the International Geophysical Year on Lamont; international collaborations; Russian seismology; working with NASA and the lunar seismology experiments in the Apollo missions; move to University of Texas (Marine Biomedical Institute) at Galveston; Comparison of Lamont and Texas laboratories under Maurice Ewing; details of staff transfer, set-up of the new laboratory and acquisition of the Ida Green; factors in Lamont's success. Prominently mentioned are: Walter Bucher, Maurice Ewing, Cecil Green, Bruce Heezan, Gary Latham, John Lindberg, Jack Oliver, Walter C. Pitman, Frank Press, Marie Tharp, Joe Worzel.
