Interview with David Goodstein

DAVID L. GOODSTEIN (b. 1939) INTERVIEWED BY SHELLEY ERWIN November 11, 18, 25, and December 12, 2002 David Goodstein, 2000 ARCHIVES CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Pasadena, California Subject area Physics, administration Abstract An interview in four sessions, November and December 2002, with David L. Goodstein, Gilloon Distinguished Teaching and Service Professor, emeritus, and professor of physics and applied physics, emeritus, in the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy. Dr. Goodstein received his BS from Brooklyn College (1960) and his PhD from the University of Washington (1965). He joined the Caltech faculty in 1966, serving as Caltech’s vice provost from 1987 to 2007, and became professor emeritus in 2009. He recalls his early education; taking up experimental low-temperature physics at the University of Washington; recruitment to Caltech by James Mercereau. Six- month NSF Fellowship, University of Rome. Teaching Physics 2 at Caltech; friendship with Richard Feynman; their trip to the University of Chicago in 1967. Establishment of applied physics option. Comments extensively on the production of the innovative 52-part TV series he conceived called The Mechanical Universe (released 1985-86). http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Goodstein_D Recollections of Caltech presidents Harold Brown and Marvin “Murph” Goldberger; Arroyo Center controversy under Goldberger; Goldberger’s difficulties with provost R. E. Vogt. His own duties as vice provost; involvement with scientific misconduct; technology transfer and patents; SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships); Campus Computing Organization (later, Information Technology Services). Describes his work on various NSF committees, the California Council on Science and Technology, and the Packard Foundation. Concludes by commenting on his love of teaching, both of undergraduate and graduate students. Administrative information Access The interview is unrestricted. Copyright Copyright has been assigned to the California Institute of Technology © 2004, 2018. All requests for permission to publish or quote from the transcript must be submitted in writing to the University Archivist and Head, Special Collections. Preferred citation Goodstein, David L. Interview by Shelley Erwin. Pasadena, California, November 11, 18, 25 and December 12, 2002. Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology Archives. Retrieved [supply date of retrieval] from the World Wide Web: http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Goodstein_D Contact information Archives, California Institute of Technology Mail Code B215-74 Pasadena, CA 91125 Phone: (626)395-2704 Fax: (626)395-4073 Email: [email protected] Graphics and content © 2018 California Institute of Technology. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Goodstein_D CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ARCHIVES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT INTERVIEW WITH DAVID L. GOODSTEIN BY SHELLEY ERWIN PASADENA, CALIFORNIA Copyright © 2004, 2018 by the California Institute of Technology http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Goodstein_D Goodstein–ii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTERVIEW WITH DAVID L. GOODSTEIN Session 1 1-7 Early years in Brooklyn; parents’ background. Education at Brooklyn Technical High School and Brooklyn College. Physics teachers who were an influence. Meets and marries fellow student J. Koral (J. R. Goodstein, former Caltech registrar and archivist). Both go to University of Washington for graduate work. Becomes TA for G. Dash; goes into experimental low- temperature physics. Receives PhD, 1965. 8-23 NSF fellowship to University of Rome and offer from J. Mercereau to come to Caltech. To Caltech for half year in 1966; to Rome February 1967–February 1968, then back to Caltech. Recalls initial trip to Caltech to give seminar in early 1966; lunch with R. P. Feynman at topless restaurant in Pasadena. Teaches a section of Physics 2 at Caltech, using Feynman’s textbook. Friendship with Feynman. Their trip to the University of Chicago in early 1967. Meeting J. D. Watson. Experiences in Rome, working with G. Careri and F. Scaramuzzi. Later collaboration at Frascati with Scaramuzzi and A. Savoia. 24-28 With H. Liepmann and F. Humphrey (1970), forms steering committee to establish Caltech’s applied-physics option. Becomes executive officer for applied physics. Feynman’s visits to his lab. Feynman comes up, simultaneously and independently, with what became known in statistical mechanics as Kosterlitz-Thouless theory. Session 2 29-37 Recalls arrival of H. Brown as Caltech’s president in 1969. Devises course and writes textbook States of Matter; book’s widespread popularity. Comments on Feynman Lectures on Physics. Further recollections of H. Brown. 37-45 Discussion of faculty and administration at Caltech. His stint as vice chair, then chair of the faculty. Granted tenure. Arrival of M. Goldberger as Caltech’s president, 1978, and Goldberger’s difficulties with provost R. Vogt. Redesigns Physics 1. 45-55 Conceives of The Mechanical Universe television series. Money from Annenberg CPB Foundation. Early involvement of KCET doesn’t pan out. Creation of the pilot program, working with D. Delson, S. Beaty. Financial assistance from Caltech; further money from http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Goodstein_D Goodstein–iii Annenberg. Key audience: high school physics teachers. Involvement of T. Apostol, S. Frautschi, R. Olenick. Crucial assistance from animator, J. Blinn, then at JPL. 55-63 Putting the television shows together. Anecdotes about shooting the programs. His participation as deviser of the programs. Session 3 64-72 Further anecdotes on the making of The Mechanical Universe. His participation as actor. Winning the Japan Prize for a series program. Series wins Cindy Awards for documentaries. 73-80 Arroyo Center controversy at Caltech under Goldberger. Goldberger’s difficulties with R. Vogt. Vogt resigns as provost; Goldberger resigns as president. Goodstein becomes vice provost under new provost, B. Kamb (1987). Comments on predecessors C. Babcock and N. Pings. Responsibility for Ombuds Office. Computerization of Millikan Library. Industrial Relations Center. 80-88 Drafts regulations on handling scientific misconduct cases, 1989. His investigation of a fraud accusation. Later high-profile case involving two postdocs in L. Hood’s lab. Co-teaches course on scientific ethics with J. Woodward. Comments on imbalance caused by excessive production of physics PhDs and contrasts it with scientific ignorance among general public. Session 4 89-95 Caltech’s policy on technology transfer and patents. Effects of the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act. He drafts a set of rules on conflict of interest. Formation of Office of Technology Transfer. Member of National Organization of Senior Research Officers. Work of Caltech’s Sponsored Research Committee. Caltech’s policy on overhead. 96-99 Caltech’s policy and practice with regard to laboratory animals. 99-108 History of SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships). History of Campus Computing Organization (CCO), now Information Technology Services (ITS). Early work on massively parallel computing by G. Fox and C. Seitz. 108-114 His work on Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering (CEOSE) and NSF’s directorate for the mathematical and physical sciences. Membership on board of directors of the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST). Work on the scientific advisory http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Goodstein_D Goodstein–iv committee of the Packard Foundation. Awarded Oersted Medal, 1999. John P. McGovern Science and Society Award from Sigma Xi. Comments on teaching experience at Caltech. Comments on his work on the influence of dimensionality on the properties of matter in phase transitions. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Goodstein_D CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ARCHIVES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Interview with David L. Goodstein by Shelley Erwin Pasadena, California Session 1 November 11, 2002 Session 2 November 18, 2002 Session 3 November 25, 2002 Session 4 December 12, 2002 Begin Tape 1, Side 1 ERWIN: Could you begin by giving us a little bit of family history, a little background on where you were born and where you grew up, early education? GOODSTEIN: I was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Flatbush, right around the corner from Brooklyn College, which is where I finally went to college. Neither of my parents went to college; my mother was one of nine children, and they chose one member of the family to go to college, and he never finished. [Laughter] She was born in New York, and my father was born in Warsaw—and probably would have gone to medical school if his mother had lived, but she died at a young age. So in 1916 he and his father—they were not poorly off—traveled around Europe a bit and then emigrated to the United States. ERWIN: Was he an only child? GOODSTEIN: My father was an only child, yes. He went to prep school and learned to speak unaccented English, which was very important for an immigrant. But then he started making money working as a salesman, so he never went to college. ERWIN: But he had some ambitions? http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Goodstein_D Goodstein–2 GOODSTEIN: Well, his mother had ambitions. ERWIN: I see. So it really was the loss of her influence in his life that was a major blow. GOODSTEIN: Yes, I think so. Anyway, I grew up in the area around Brooklyn College, so I went to that college and I went to the public school, called PS 152, in the same neighborhood. But I did not go to Midwood High School, the local high school; I went to Brooklyn Technical High School instead. I guess, like most scientists, I knew at a very early age that I had a facility for numbers that most children didn’t have, and I knew in some vague way that I was going to be a scientist or an engineer or something like that, even though I had no idea what a scientist or engineer did. ERWIN: This was some time in elementary school? GOODSTEIN: Oh, yes. Brooklyn Technical High School was designed to prepare its students to become engineers, so when I graduated from high school I thought I was going to become an engineer. Brooklyn College did not have an engineering degree, but it was around the corner, so I started there.

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