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Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello

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Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello THOMAS A. TOMBRELLO (1936 -2014) INTERVIEWED BY HEIDI ASPATURIAN December 26 – 31, 2010 Photo by Robert Paz ARCHIVES CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Pasadena, California Subject area Physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, national security Abstract Interview in nine sessions (December 26–December 31, 2010) with Thomas A. Tombrello, the Robert H. Goddard Professor of Physics, Caltech. Each session is organized around a central topic or theme: (1) early years through college, (2) fifty-year career overview, (3) undergraduate students, (4) Kellogg Radiation Laboratory years, (5) work with Schlumberger research laboratory, (6) Caltech people and personalities, (7) work with national weapons laboratories, (8) ten- year tenure (1998–2008) as chair of Caltech’s Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, and (9) graduate students and miscellaneous topics. Tombrello opens with his family history, youth, early life, and education, primarily in Texas and Alabama, and his undergraduate (BA 1958) and graduate (PhD 1961) years at Rice Institute. He talks at length about his years in Caltech’s Kellogg Radiation Laboratory, including his research into nuclear physics, materials science, and applied physics, and about the science, culture, people, personalities, politics, and economics of Kellogg and the Division of Physics, http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T Mathematics and Astronomy (PMA) over fifty years. There is extensive discussion of his mentoring work with Caltech undergraduate and graduate students, including his innovative undergraduate course Physics 11 and his perspectives on student life at Caltech. Of particular note is the discussion of his relationship with S. E. Koonin, who went from being Tombrello’s undergraduate advisee to his provost. Tombrello provides a wide-ranging, in-depth look at his ten years as division chair of PMA, covering research, recruitment, fundraising, collegial relationships within and beyond the division and with JPL, and the evolution of PMA under his oversight. He talks about his involvement in the design and construction of the Cahill Center for Astrophysics (dedicated in 2009) and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project. He describes his interactions with five decades of Caltech presidents and provosts, institute trustees, and various donors. Tombrello recaps his two years as research director at Schlumberger research and his several decades of consulting work on weapons, national security, energy, and climate change issues at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. He talks about his foray into earthquake prediction research, his research collaborations in China, his years as Caltech’s technology assessment officer, and the emergence of entrepreneurism at Caltech in the 1990s. Anecdotes and recollections of such notable Caltech figures as R. Bacher, J. Benton, H. Brown, L. DuBridge, R. Feynman, W. A. Fowler, M. Gell-Mann, B. Kamb, A. Lange, C. Lauritsen, T. Lauritsen, R. Leighton, C. Patterson, R. Sharp, and F. Zwicky are also part of this oral history. Administrative information Access The interview is partially restricted. Per agreement between Professor Tombrello and the Caltech Archives dated July 31, 2012, portions of this interview are closed for ten years. Closed portions are clearly marked in the transcript. Copyright Copyright has been assigned to the California Institute of Technology © 2012. All requests for permission to publish or quote from the transcript must be submitted in writing to the Head, Archives and Special Collections. Preferred citation Tombrello, Thomas A. Interview by Heidi Aspaturian. Pasadena, California, December 26-31, 2010. Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology Archives. Retrieved [supply date of retrieval] from the World Wide Web: http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T Contact information Archives, California Institute of Technology Mail Code 015A-74 Pasadena, CA 91125 Phone: (626)395-2704 Fax: (626)395-4073 Email: [email protected] Graphics and content © 2012 California Institute of Technology http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ARCHIVES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT INTERVIEW WITH THOMAS A. TOMBRELLO BY HEIDI ASPATURIAN PASADENA, CA Copyright © 2012 by the California Institute of Technology http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T NOTE TO READERS Per agreement between Professor Tombrello and the Caltech Archives dated July 31, 2012, portions of this interview are closed for ten years. Closed portions are clearly marked in the transcript. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T Tombrello–iii PREFACE These interviews were conducted in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day 2010. Heidi and I sat in my office during this quiet period and talked and drank tea with little prior planning of the direction these interviews might take. By way of explanation of their eclectic contents, it is like history itself in that a chance comment would lead us down unexpected paths. I’m sure if we were to do it again, the trajectory of the interviews might be different, and other topics that are not addressed here would have appeared. Even with thirteen hours of interviews, one does not expect to cover an entire life and career. In correcting the written text of these interviews, I have resisted the temptation to complete stories using details about what has happened in the year since they took place. For example, Nathan Myhrvold did indeed make a lot of money from the Caltech patent I sold him (Session 9). What you have here is, therefore, a snapshot of my life and career taken at the end of 2010. Throughout this oral history, I have tried to be candid and to present my point of view completely without varnish. From the perspective of those I mention, things may well have looked different. Virtually all of the people I have known have been decent and honorable people. Where I have been negative, I definitely meant to be—take that as you will. My ideal is Horton, my favorite character in all of fiction. “I meant what I said and I said what I meant.” 1 Finally, I have to acknowledge that none of this would have occurred without the encouragement of my colleague of many years, Jenijoy La Belle. She is a lady of charm, wit, and style. Obviously, my interviewer, Heidi Aspaturian, is quite extraordinary—not only as an interviewer but also as an editor. Pulling together thirteen hours of conversation and putting them in coherent form are things that only a talented and dedicated individual could accomplish. Thomas A. Tombrello June 6, 2012 1 Dr. Seuss, Horton Hatches the Egg (New York: Random House, 1968). http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T Tombrello–iv TABLE OF CONTENTS INTERVIEW WITH THOMAS A. TOMBRELLO Session 1 1-9 Family history and roots in Texas: mother’s youthful acquaintance with Lyndon Johnson; parents’ respective German and Sicilian backgrounds; impact of Great Depression on family; mother’s intelligence and strength; father’s drive, business sense, and lifelong love of Texas countryside. Tombrello’s early years in Austin, Texas, and Memphis, Tennessee. Recalls attack on Pearl Harbor and war years; war’s impact on immediate and extended family. 9-14 Early affinity for science; elementary school experiences. Recollections of paternal uncles, their personalities and careers. Experiences of segregation in postwar South: Southern cultural identity; impact on regional economy; parents’ conservatism. 14-19 Secondary education and decision to attend Rice Institute. Marriage, birth of son, Christopher. Undergraduate studies in physics. Summer job at Shell Oil and first exposure to work of “peak oil” proponents. Graduate studies with G. C. Phillips, focusing on light nuclei. Undergraduate research on early IBM computer. Session 2 20-24 First impressions (1961) of Caltech’s Kellogg Radiation Laboratory, Pasadena, and Southern California. Daughter Susan born. Joins Yale as assistant professor (1963); employs W. Houston teaching methods; ponders return to Caltech. In Dallas shortly after JFK assassination. 24-30 Return to Caltech as postdoc (1964): early teaching experiences; research on nucleosynthesis of light elements; accelerator design work; appointed to professorial track in 1965. Summer research at Yale and Los Alamos. Early work with Caltech undergrads T. Weaver and S. Koonin; recollections of the young Koonin and of colleagues T. and C. Lauritsen. Kellogg funding climate in late sixties. Illness and death of T. Lauritsen. Named principal investigator for NSF Kellogg grant (1973) and begins to open lab to applied research. Divorce in mid- seventies; life with daughters Karen and Susan. 30-33 Continues expansion of Kellogg programs; identifies Koonin as future “house theorist.” Caltech’s “miracle year” (1975) sees simultaneous hiring of Koonin, H. D. Politzer, and R. Blandford during official freeze on new appointments. Tombrello explains hiring strategies. Marriage to Stephanie (née Merton) in 1976; daughter Kerstin. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T Tombrello–v 33-37 Financial downturn in Kellogg in early mid-eighties; split between Tombrello and Fowler group; tensions with Fowler and then-provost R. Vogt over research and funding directions in Kellogg. Receives NSF funding to inaugurate materials science program within physics; moves research group to Sloan Annex in 1986-87. 37-40 Growing involvement with oil company Schlumberger:
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