Plasma (Ionized gases)

In this interview Leon Fisher and Robert Varney discuss topics such as: Leonard Loeb; Willliam Allis; Sandy Brown; New York University; Wayne Nottingham; Julius Molnar; Phillip Morse; people from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Bell Laboratories; Brookhaven National Laboratory; Norris Bradbury; Dan Alpert; Gerhard Weissler; Lockheed Corporation; John A. Hornbeck; Ben Bederson; Homer Hagstrum; microwaves; radar development; T. D. Lee; Alfred Von Engel; Army Research Office; Office of Naval Research; Air Force Office of Scientific Research; ionized gases; Ted Holstein; cosmic rays; neutrons; Lester Germer; Ronald Geballe; gas discharges; American Physical Society; Karl Darrow; William Shockley.

University of Bristol (1957-1961); work on electron beams and flux in a magnetic field with Yack Aharonov; work on plasmas and the separation of the individual and collective behavior with Gidon Carmi; conference on solid state electronic plasma theory in Utrecht (1959); read Georgii Gurdjieff, Peter Ouspensky, Buddhism, Indian and Christian philosophy; first meeting with Krishnamurti (June 1961); Birkbeck College, University of London (1961-1987); integrating mathematics, physics and philosophy in his teachings; lecturing about Causality and Chance in Modern Physics; differences between Niels Bohr, Wolfgang Pauli and Werner Heisenberg’s ideas on quantum mechanics.

Princeton University, Institute for Advanced Study (1947-1950); plasma and quantum theory research with Eugene Gross and David Pines; quantum theory book included theories of Niels Bohr, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg, Eugene Wigner, Erwin Schroedinger; subpoenaed by the Un-American Activities Committee (circa 1948-1949); obtained professor position at the University of Sao Paolo, Brazil, 1951; philosophy and politics, socialism, problems with science and society (circa 1950).

Relation of the individual to the whole; California Institute of Technology (1939-1940); negative experience at Caltech; interest in Chinese and Japanese culture; Thesis – calculate scattering of light from a nebular gas cloud; University of California Berkeley (1941-1943); political interests and activity including Marxism, socialism, communism; better social, educational and natural environment at Berkeley; compute scattering of protons from deutrons [sic]; Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (1943-1946); electrostatic focusing, electric arc, nature of plasma, particle spin; effects of the atomic bombs on science and society; Research associate for J. Robert Oppenheimer (1946-1947); superconductivity; intuitive problem solving frowned upon by scientists; disillusionment with scientists; Princeton University Institute for Advanced Study (1947-1950); wrote Quantum Theory; structure of elementary particles; renormalization problem; meeting of theoretical physicists in the Pocono Mountains circa 1948, attended by notable scientists including Julian Schwinger, Victor Weisskopf, Niels Bohr, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Feynman; hierarchy of scientists; end of his U.S. career.

Work on theory of plasma between 1946 and 1953. Initial interest in plasma at Lawrence Radiation Laboratory during World War II continued interest at University of California, Berkeley and then at Princeton University (especially in collaboration with D. Grass and David Pines). Also prominently mentioned are: John Bardeen, Albert Einstein, E. P. Gross, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Julian R. Schwinger, and Tor Staver.