Radiation

In this interview, David Zierler, Oral Historian for AIP, interviews Ralph Nelson, a radiation physicist at SLAC who retired just shy of forty years of service. He explains Panofsky’s original decision for Nelson to split his time doing physics and helping to create the radiation protection group, for which he did shielding calculations to ensure safety both to SLAC employees and to the surrounding community. He describes his research in accelerator health physics, and he recounts his education at Berkeley and his research as a nuclear emulsion scanner at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Nelson describes the scene at SLAC when he arrived in 1964, and he describes the arrangement by which he would pursue a Ph.D. in muon physics as an inter-departmental student in nuclear engineering, radiology, and physics, while retaining his employment. He explains the complex challenges associated with identifying the most dangerous areas in the lab in order to develop and deploy shielding. Nelson describes his advisory work for the site selection committee for the SSC, and he describes how he needed to tailor his safety objectives relative to different research endeavors over the years. At the end of the interview, Nelson reflects on Panofsky’s overarching vision for SLAC, and how his concern over radiation exposure was paramount in all of his considerations.

Interview with Stephen Seltzer, retired from the National Institute of Standards and Technology where he was Leader of the Dosimetry Group in the Radiation Physics Division. Seltzer discusses his current interests in photoelectric cross sections and he explains why NIST supports research in radiation physics. He recounts his childhood in the Washington DC area, he describes his education at Virginia Tech and his first job at the National Bureau of Standards. Seltzer describes the advances in ionizing radiation at NIST during his junior years and the formative mentorship provided by Martin Berger and his pioneering work in radiation science and Monte Carlo calculations. He explains why Monte Carlo codes provide a solution to the Boltzmann Transport Equation and why electron transport research provides value to space exploration and how NIST contributed to proton therapies for cancer. Seltzer discusses his administrative service as leader of the Radiation Interactions and Dosimetry Group, and he explains his motivations to serve as a mentor to younger colleagues at NIST. At the end of the interview he reflects on the budgetary environment at NIST over his tenure and why young physicists should consider NIST as an excellent place to pursue a career. 

This is an interview with Howard Bassen, Research Engineer in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Division of Biomedical and Physical Sciences. Bassen recounts his childhood in Rochester and then suburban Washington DC. He describes his early interests in science and electronics, and discusses the impact of Sputnik on his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering at the University of Maryland. Bassen describes his post-college work at Harry Diamond Labs, where he designed radio frequency transmitters, and he explains how his opposition to the Vietnam War compelled him to move to the U.S. Postal Research Labs in Rockville, where he worked on surveillance and package security with X-ray systems. Bassen discusses his first encounter with the Bureau of Radiological Health and his first job in the Microwave Radiation Branch, where his main project was testing home microwave ovens for radiation levels. He describes his work measuring radiation and tissue implantable probes in the human body, and he explains his motivation for taking a job as branch chief of the Microwave Research Branch at Walter Reed, where he studied the effects of very high power microwaves emanating from missile-jamming technology. Bassen explains the absorption of the Bureau of Radiological Health by the FDA, and he describes his decision to return to work on electromagnetic compatibility and cell phone safety. He explains the importance of ensuring electromagnetic compatibility of medical devices so that, for example, an implanted pacemaker does not malfunction when exposed to a cell phone or an MRI machine. At the end of the interview Bassen reflects on his career and singles out his work in determining the safety of electromagnetic fields as the most impactful aspect of his career. 

Donald Witters recently retired as a Senior Review Scientist from the FDA, Center for Devices and Radiological Health. In this interview, Witters recounts his childhood in suburban Washington DC, and his decision to pursue a physical sciences degree at the University of Maryland. He describes meeting Howard Bassen and the opportunity to join the FDA and he explains the overall mission of the FDA’s work on technology regulation for public health, including the regulation of microwave ovens, X-rays, and electric and radio fields. Witters explains how regulatory questions reached his office, and how he and his colleagues transmitted information as part of the process of regulatory policy. He discusses the role of the FDA in regulatory medical devices and the research that demonstrated that cell phones did not produce a hazardous level of radiation. Witters describes the many challenges associated with RFID and avoiding interference with medical devices such as pacemakers. At the end of interview, Witters surveys the regulatory work that will be needed for the wireless 5G network, and he describes the value in completing a graduate program at Georgetown in biomedical engineering.

In this interview, David Zierler, Oral Historian for AIP, interviews Arthur Bienenstock, professor emeritus of photon science and associate director of the Wallenberg Research Link at Stanford University. Bienenstock describes his childhood in New York City and his education at the Bronx High School of Science, his studies at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, and his graduate work at Harvard. Bienenstock describes his postdoc work Harwell, the atomic energy research lab in England, his start as an assistant professor at Harvard, and his work in Washington at the Naval Research Lab and the National Bureau of Standards. Bienenstock discusses his move to Stanford, and the influence of the anti-war protests that were taking place in the late 1960s. He discusses the various strategies he has employed to balance his research and administrative duties over the years, and his involvement with the synchrotron radiation laboratory and with SLAC. Toward the end of the discussion, Bienenstock discusses his work in the realm of science policy at the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the White House and as special assistant to the president for federal research policy at Stanford.

Some of the topics discussed include:  the development of his career along with the problems of the simultaneous development of his wife Ursula Lamb's career in academia; radiation; megnetron oscillators; laser theory; quantum theory of lasers; government funding of research.  Some of his associates mentioned are:  Arnold Nordsieck, George Uhlenbeck, Van der Pol, Charles Townes, Leonel Menegozzi, William Wing, Marlan Scully, E. T. James, William Bennett, Richard Fork, Sargent, among others.

Some of the topics discussed include:  the development of his career along with the problems of the simultaneous development of his wife Ursula Lamb's career in academia; radiation; megnetron oscillators; laser theory; quantum theory of lasers; government funding of research.  Some of his associates mentioned are:  Arnold Nordsieck, George Uhlenbeck, Van der Pol, Charles Townes, Leonel Menegozzi, William Wing, Marlan Scully, E. T. James, William Bennett, Richard Fork, Sargent, among others.

Autobiographical profile of the experimental and theoretical physicist, Richard L. Garwin, focusing first on his contributions to thermonuclear weapons (1950-1952), supplemented by observations on various of his Los Alamos colleagues at the time, and extending to related and unrelated work during his later career at IBM. Subjects covered include: Werner Heisenberg, Edward Teller, Teller-Ulam report, Stan Ulam, Enrico Fermi, Hans Bethe, John von Neumann, radiation, Marshall Rosenbluth, SEAC, Cornelius Everett, Frederic de Hoffmann, Leo Szilard, Robert Richtmyer, Conrad Longmire, John Wheeler, Carson Mark, Norris Bradbury, Marshall Holloway, Rod Spence, George Cowan, transition to IBM, work on computer memory, gravity wave detection, Andre Landesman and John Tukey.

Family background; grows up in California; early interest in electronics. Undergraduate and graduate studies at Caltech. Strong interest in history of science as undergraduate. Ph.D. in physics, 1932. University of California at Berkeley, 1932-1934. MIT from 1934; founder of the Radioactivity Center. Starts first course designated "nuclear physics," January 1935. Strong interest in study of radium poisoning; radium tolerance in humans, cancer research. World War II work, postwar work; establishment of Laboratory for Nuclear Science and Engineering. Markle Foundation supplies funds for the Radioactivity Center's Cyclotron; the 1940 Conference on Applied Nuclear Physics (sponsored by the American Institute of Physics and MIT); World War II work at the Radioactivity Center at MIT; radium dial paint studies; radium and plutonium safety regulations (Glenn Seaborg); work relations with the Manhattan Project; the MAMI (marked mine) project reveals indication of German plutonium project. Also prominently mentioned are: Carl David Anderson, Joe Aub, Joe Boyce, Vannevar Bush, Evan Byers, John Cockcroft, Robert Colenko, Arthur Holly Compton, Karl Taylor Compton, Enrico Fermi, Horace Ford, Ralph Howard Fowler, George Gamow, Newell Gingrich, Clark Goodman, Leslie Richard Groves, George Harrison, Hobart, Elmer Hutchisson, Ray Keating, Arthur Kip, Pinkie Klein, Rudolf Ladenburg, Charles Christian Lauritsen, Thomas Lauritsen, Ernest Orlando Lawrence, Gilbert Newton Lewis, Willard Frank Libby, Milton Stanley Livingston, Leonard Benedict Loeb, Sam Lynd, Edwin Mattison McMillan, Robert Andrews Millikan, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Elmer Robinson, Ernest Rutherford, John Clarke Slater, Sorensen, Robert Jamison Van de Graaff, Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton, Martin Wittenberg, Jerrold Reinach Zacharias; American Institute of Physics; American Cancer Society, Bausch and Lomb Co., National Research Council, Radiation Standards Committee, United States Federal Cancer Commission, United States Food and Drug Administration, United States National Bureau of Standards, United States Navy, University of Rochester, University of Utah Salt Lake City Project, Wesleyan University, World War I, and World War II.

Family background; grows up in California; early interest in electronics. Undergraduate and graduate studies at Caltech. Strong interest in history of science as undergraduate. Ph.D. in physics, 1932. University of California at Berkeley, 1932-1934. MIT from 1934; founder of the Radioactivity Center. Starts first course designated "nuclear physics," January 1935. Strong interest in study of radium poisoning; radium tolerance in humans, cancer research. World War II work, postwar work; establishment of Laboratory for Nuclear Science and Engineering. Markle Foundation supplies funds for the Radioactivity Center's Cyclotron; the 1940 Conference on Applied Nuclear Physics (sponsored by the American Institute of Physics and MIT); World War II work at the Radioactivity Center at MIT; radium dial paint studies; radium and plutonium safety regulations (Glenn Seaborg); work relations with the Manhattan Project; the MAMI (marked mine) project reveals indication of German plutonium project. Also prominently mentioned are: Carl David Anderson, Joe Aub, Joe Boyce, Vannevar Bush, Evan Byers, John Cockcroft, Robert Colenko, Arthur Holly Compton, Karl Taylor Compton, Enrico Fermi, Horace Ford, Ralph Howard Fowler, George Gamow, Newell Gingrich, Clark Goodman, Leslie Richard Groves, George Harrison, Hobart, Elmer Hutchisson, Ray Keating, Arthur Kip, Pinkie Klein, Rudolf Ladenburg, Charles Christian Lauritsen, Thomas Lauritsen, Ernest Orlando Lawrence, Gilbert Newton Lewis, Willard Frank Libby, Milton Stanley Livingston, Leonard Benedict Loeb, Sam Lynd, Edwin Mattison McMillan, Robert Andrews Millikan, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Elmer Robinson, Ernest Rutherford, John Clarke Slater, Sorensen, Robert Jamison Van de Graaff, Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton, Martin Wittenberg, Jerrold Reinach Zacharias; American Institute of Physics; American Cancer Society, Bausch and Lomb Co., National Research Council, Radiation Standards Committee, United States Federal Cancer Commission, United States Food and Drug Administration, United States National Bureau of Standards, United States Navy, University of Rochester, University of Utah Salt Lake City Project, Wesleyan University, World War I, and World War II.