X-rays

In this interview, David Zierler, Oral Historian for AIP, interviews Thomas Ramos, a physicist detailed to the Principal Associate Director for Weapons and Complex Integration at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. Ramos discusses his current work writing an unclassified history of the weapons program at Livermore and the broad perspective this has given him on the Laboratory from the postwar era to the present. Ramos recounts his childhood in Brooklyn and his military enlistment after high school, which led to a tour in South Korea and then an order from West Point to pursue a master’s degree in nuclear physics. He discusses his graduate work at MIT and his research on bubble chamber experiments at Fermilab and Argonne before being ordered back to West Point to teach nuclear science. Ramos describes the opportunities leading to his appointment at Livermore four years later and his initial work on the X-ray laser program and the origins of the SDI program. He discusses the impact of the end of the Cold War on the Laboratory and the extent to which Reagan’s military spending accelerated the Soviet collapse. Ramos discusses his work at the Pentagon as a legislative affairs officer for the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Atomic Energy, and he explains Livermore’s increasing involvement in monitoring nuclear proliferation among terrorist groups and rogue states. He describes his transition to counterproliferation as a result of the end of nuclear testing at Livermore and the signification of the creation of the National Ignition Facility. Ramos describes the transition to his current work documenting Livermore’s history, and he reflect broadly at the end of the interview on how Livermore has adapted to evolving security threats over its long history.

Interview with Stephen E. Harris, Professor of Applied Physics Emeritus at Stanford University. Harris discusses his childhood first in New York City and later White Plains, New York, and describes his father’s work as a machinist. He recalls beginning his undergraduate studies at Cornell University and then transferring to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he studied electrical engineering but gravitated toward physics courses. Harris explains how a summer job at New York Telephone Company led to a job with Bell Telephone Labs after college. He then discusses his graduate work at Stanford in Tony Siegman’s group, where he began working with lasers, and his eventual transition to faculty. Throughout the interview, Harris reflects on his many publications and areas of research, including FM laser oscillation, birefringent crystals, parametric fluorescence, atomic systems, and electromagnetically induced transparency. He also discusses his consultant work for Sylvania Electronic Systems and Spectra-Physics. 

In this interview, AIP Oral Historian Jon Phillips interviews Dr. Sean Brennan, emeritus physicist at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory. Brennan describes his early life in an academic family, undergraduate education at Catholic University, and graduate education under Arthur Bienenstock at Stanford University, where he began work with synchrotron radiation. He discusses his early work at SLAC with Jo Stohr on X-Ray absorption experiments, and his post-doc at Exxon. Brennan goes on to discuss the development of the facilities and research at SLAC over the course of his tenure there, as well as his work on the NASA Stardust project analyzing asteroid and comet samples. The interview concludes with a discussion of Brennan’s activities after retirement, including programming apps and serving as a ski patrol rescue worker.

Interview with Joachim Stöhr, Professor Emeritus of the Photon Science Department at Stanford and former Associate Laboratory Director at SLAC. Stöhr begins the interview recounting his childhood in Germany, his interest in sports, and his introduction to physics in high school. He discusses his undergraduate studies at Bonn University and his Fulbright scholarship to Washington State University where he studied optical spectroscopy. Stöhr then describes his doctoral studies with Rudolf Mossbauer in Munich, and his subsequent postdoctoral position at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He recounts his time as a staff scientist at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) before transitioning into a position at Exxon and then IBM. Stöhr describes his return to Stanford and SSRL, working as Deputy Director and then Director. He then talks about accepting the opportunity to become the first director of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) and the challenges that came with building up a new program. The interview concludes with Stöhr’s reflections on his return to the science after his directorship and his work on a forthcoming book.

Interview with Paul Emma, retired and formerly Senior Staff Scientist at SLAC. Emma recounts his childhood in Illinois, and he describes his undergraduate work at Western Washington University in Bellingham. He explains why he left WWU early to accept an opportunity for graduate work at Caltech briefly before accepting a job at Fermilab where he worked in operations on the Main Ring and the Tevatron project. He describes the series of events leading to his work at SLAC, where he worked in operations and design on the LCLS, the SLC, and the NLC. Emma describes his work for the superconducting undulator for Argonne and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories, and at the end of the interview he discusses his ongoing work on LCLS-II.

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 John Galayda, Project Director for the NSTXU project at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Galayda recounts his childhood in New Jersey and his undergraduate experience at Lehigh University. He discusses his research work as a graduate student at Rutgers, where he was interested in applying accelerator physics to energy supply solutions, and where he focused on quantum field theory. Galayda discusses his research at Brookhaven he worked on the NSLS and the Transverse Optical Klystron. He explains his decision to move to Argonne where he conducted research on X-ray beams, and he describes the factors that convinced him to join SLAC in 2001. Galayda describes SLAC’s interest in building a next-generation Linear Collider. He explains some of the major research questions that propelled the LCLS and he describes the recruitment process that led to his current work at PPPL. In the last portion of the interview, Galayda surmises on the future of plasma physics and he emphasizes the importance of working with good people.

Dr. Han Wen runs the Imaging Physics Laboratory at the National Institute of Health. In this interview, Wen discusses his childhood in Beijing and the circumstances that led to his decision to pursue graduate studies in statistical quantum mechanics at the University of Maryland and its joint biophysics program that the Department of Physics ran with the NIH. Wen describes his early interest in MRI first as a graduate student at the NIH and then as a full time physicist. Wen provides an overview of his contribution to improvements in MRI technology and explains how the spirit of interdisciplinary collaboration at the NIH has enhanced his research. Wen explains his current work on x-ray CT imaging, which he hopes will improve in the future to the point when radiation exposure is minimized and the imaging quality becomes so good that many biopsies will no longer be necessary.

Family background and early education; studying chemistry at Occidental College. Work at Bell Labs (1930’s), the job freeze during the 1930’s Depression. Morgan’s work on dielectric constants. Columbia University, Rabi’s course, comparison of academic and industrial scientists. Colloquia and study groups, Darrow, Nix, Shockley. Transfer to Metallurgy Department, work on single crystals of zinc; The Bell Laboratories Record; work under Germer and Davisson, their experiments; work on carbon deposits on filaments using x-ray diffraction, Grisdale, W. E. Campbell. Evolution in role of basic research at Bell Labs; Kelly’s role; Buckley; Bell Labs conference (1954), AIP symposium. Awareness of work on copper oxide rectifiers by Becker, Davisson, Brattain; work on microphone carbon; Holden’s work on quartz; changes in the solid state program. Work during the war years; material research of Scaff and Grisdale; pn junction; technological application. Effects of war on solid state research, interactions with other solid state centers. Postwar years, work in Woolen’s group (1945), work in Wooldridge’s group; reasons for Bardeen’s leaving; Fisk’s group; development of transistor under Shockley.