University of Edinburgh

In this interview, David Zierler, Oral Historian for AIP, interviews Anneila Sargent, Ira S. Bowen Professor of Astronomy Emeritus at Caltech. Sargent recounts her childhood in Scotland and the encouragement she received regarding her desire to pursue science as a young woman at the University of Edinburgh. She describes her work at the Royal Greenwich Observatory and her developing interests in astronomy. Sargent recounts meeting her husband to be, Wallace Sargent, who had traveled to Britain following his postdoctoral research. She describes the series of events leading to her graduate work at UCSD and then at Caltech, where she worked with Peter Goldreich. She describes her decision to pause her studies to raise a family, and she explains her involvement with millimeter-wavelength interferometers when she returned to school. Sargent explains her growing expertise in millimeter wave astronomy and how her interests in how massive stars formed molecular clouds formed the basis of her dissertation. She describes the opportunity the department gave her to stay on at Caltech and her work at Owens Valley Radio Observatory and her ascent to the directorship of OVRO. Sargent explains the offers she considered that would have taken her away from Caltech and her consistent decision to stay. She explains her contributions to the ISO Camera steering committee and the Space Science Advisory Committee. Sargent describes her work as director of CARMA, her tenure as vice president for student affairs, and she discusses her recent work since her retirement in 2017.

In this interview Thomas Rossing discusses topics such as: his childhood; undergraduate work at Luther College; graduate work at Iowa State University; working with Sperry Rand; teaching at St. Olaf College; Peter Fossum; Northern Illinois University; solid state physics; magnetics; musical acoustics; Uno Ingard; Art Benade; visiting professorships at University of Edinburgh and Stanford University; Acoustical Society of America (ASA); president and time with the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT).

Undergraduate atmosphere at University of Cambridge: course work, lecturers, extra-curricular groups, training experiments in radioactivity and scintillation-counting; obtains old radon tubes for neutron experiments while doing radioactivity work with Robert W. Woods at Johns Hopkins University in 1929; discussions with James Chadwick of Joliot papers, 1932; move with Chadwick to University of Liverpool, 1935; return to University of Cambridge 1936; reaction to selection of William Bragg as Ernest Rutherford's successor; shift in Cavendish Laboratory's world role in nuclear physics; World War II service at Cambridge: administration, teaching, measurement of fission cross-sections; move to University of Edinburgh to replace Charles D. Barkla, 1945.

Undergraduate atmosphere at University of Cambridge: course work, lecturers, extra-curricular groups, training experiments in radioactivity and scintillation-counting; obtains old radon tubes for neutron experiments while doing radioactivity work with Robert W. Woods at Johns Hopkins University in 1929; discussions with James Chadwick of Joliot papers, 1932; move with Chadwick to University of Liverpool, 1935; return to University of Cambridge 1936; reaction to selection of William Bragg as Ernest Rutherford's successor; shift in Cavendish Laboratory's world role in nuclear physics; World War II service at Cambridge: administration, teaching, measurement of fission cross-sections; move to University of Edinburgh to replace Charles D. Barkla, 1945.