California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California 91125

Change .ervice requeued

• N e w 5

Volume 40, Number 2

1

I n T h 5 I 5 5 U e

Monsieur Ie Pres i de nt

A Se n d-Off for '06

Th e Literature Profes-

sor's Ta l e

Cannon-Ga ll Run

ancl

R ed Eyes on t h e Sk ies . ,

Cal fornia Institute of Technology c a It e c h ..

Infrarednecks 3 Infrared astronom y was largely born and certainly bred on the Cal tech campus.

Firing Off on the Cannon Caper 7 Ctdlech News looks at the improbable life and incendiary times of an obsolete pi ece of military hardware.

Baker's Dozen, with Jenijoy La Belle 8 The literature professor answers 13 questions about her 37 years at Caltech.

Also in this issue New NAS f.'lcu lty; a new Feynman Professor; new Distinguished Alumni; new SUppOf[ for the Cal tech Campaig n; new beginnings at Commencement; and a new rake on an o ld ho liday tradi[ion (on [he back-page poscer).

Picrurc Credits: Cover-Bill Youngblood; 2,4,5,6, I 0, I 1,12, 13- Roberr Paz; 3-William Reach, NASA/JPL; 3-Palomar Observacory; 6-Kevin Rauch, Alan Ri ce; 8-Cathy 1-lill ; IO-Eric Long! NASM, NASA I)PL; 14 -Roberc Kenn;cu", NASA I)PL; 14-Lockheed Marc;n Space SYStems; 16-Amhony Gharrec. Back Cover P.N. Appleton, ). Bally, NASAI)PL. Poscer Design by Mike ON THE COVER Rogers and Doug Cummin1;s. After a day filled with meetings and introductions, new hire Jean­ lou Chameau can look forward to Iss ued four rim~s a ytar and published by rhe Clli(ornia In<;riwrc o(Tcchnology and the an Interval of R&R as he heads for Alumni Association, 1200 East California HlvJ., Pas,lu<:n,t, CddurnJ,1 91 125. All righrs a picnic on the Caltech campus. reserved. Third class postage paid at Pasadena, Calirornin. Postmaster: Send address changes m: Cd/lech News, Calttch 1-7 l , Pasadena, CA 9 11 25.

EXc(IfIit.'t Editor - Heidi Aspaturian Ponzy Lu '601 Writer - Rhonda Hi ll bery Preside'" oj Ihe A III",,,i AIIOChllio" \f/,.iler - Mi chael Rogers Robert L. O'Rourke Prodllction Arl- Doug Cummings Vi ce President Jor Pllblic I?el(ltiolls COf/lriblllors - Jill Perry, Kathy Svitil, Robert Tindol Col'Y Editors - Allison l3 enrer, Michael Visit Calree h News on tbe lYieb (It Farqu har, Elena Rudncv hI Ip; II pro ((I Itcch. edll Iperiodim/sIC (IIICchN eUJS I

A charmer. By bi rth, a Frenchman. nnnoLinced on May 26, amid a seri es A seasoned, visionary adm in istrator. of meeti ngs held that day to introduce ProvOSt of an institution that annually him to the ca mpus community he w ill confers the largest number of eng ineer­ now lead. ing degrees in the nation. A Renais­ "J ean-Lou C hameau impressed us ALLONS ENFANTS DE LA CALTECH sance man. A Stanford PhD in ci vil with his intelligence, his vis ion, hi s eng ineering. A (ormer dean of engi­ personali ty, and his extensive adminis­ neering. A connoisseur or fine food and trative and fund-raising experience and wi ne, who once thoug ht of opening his success," said D av id Stevenson, Van own restaurant. A charmer. A skill ed O sdol Professor of Planecary Science advocate of interd iscipl inary research, and head of the faeu l[y presidential who has d evoted much of hi s ca reer sea rch committee. "We believe that he to bu i Id i ng bridges and transcend i ng is well sui ted co [he challenges and op­ boundaries among academic fi elds. portunities of the Calcech p residency in A wonderful li stener and t houghtful a time of change in the g lobal environ­ conversationalist, fabled for hi s rapport ment of science, technology, and educa­ wi th students. An effective and far­ tion. We expect him to be an engaging sighted fund raiser. A committed pro­ and energ izi ng p resence in Ollr com­ ponent of diversity, entrepreneurshi p, munity," Added Stevenson, "You will and international collaborations in find, as we did, t hat he is extremely education. And, oh, did we mention­ charming." a charmer. Up next at the pod ium, Trustee J ean-Lou Chameau, the provost Chairman Kenc Kresa praised Cham­ and vice president fo r academic affairs eau's "wealth of manageri al experi ence at the Georg ia Insticute of Technol­ and a strong commitment to students, ogy, is set to become Caltech's eig hth facu lty, and research. H e has done a Jean-lou Chameau (left) introduced himself to students and other members of the Cal tech com­ p resident on September t , succeeding terrific job at Georgia Tech, and I'm munity during a lively campus picnic on May 26, the day it was annnounced he would step down David Baltimore, who will step d own positive he will lead Caltech with t he from his current position as the provost of Georgia Tech to become the Institute's eighth presi­ from the pres idency after nearl y nine sal'n e energy, excitement, and wisdom dent. The French-born Chameau, who spent a busy day on campus mingling with faculty, staff, and years to return to full time teaching he displayed there," And, of course, students while trying to get to know the place a bit better, will assume the presidency of Cal tech and research. Chamcau 's selection was sa id Kresa, the same charm . on September I. CfHllllllled 011 page 9

2 I ClIll/orlllfl Instilllle 0/ "fuhnology • VOi.UM E40 NO.2, 2 006 The prototypical Cal tech trio of (left to right) Tom Soifer, Keith Matthews, and Gerry Neuge­ f r r e d n e c k s bauer takes a break at t he Palomar Observa­ n a tory in 1978. They would have to wait many more years before seeing infrared images like the one above of Comet 7lP/Schwassmann. Wachmann 1. taken by the Spitzer Space How THREE CALTECH ALUMNI HELPED TAKE INFRARED Telescope on April I. ASTRONOMY FROM THE FARM T O THE MAJOR LEAGUES

By M I C. H 1\ I, J It 0 G I; I{ S

These are heady times for infrared ascronomy. As rhe Spiezer Space Telescope Neugebauer, Soifer, and Matthews are certain ly flOt the only major players in orbits overhead, hardly a week goes by without some provocative new piece of dara, infrared astronomy to come out of the Institute. The late Ca l tech physicist Roben often accompanied by a glorious image, emerging from a cornucopia of cosmic heat Leighton '4 1, Ph D '47, coll aborated with Neugebauer to bui ld Cal tech's first infra­ and dust. The f.1ct chac infrared radiation (some of which humans perceive as heat) is red survey telescope, used on the Two Mi cron Sky Survey at Mount Wilson in the able, unlike iigiu, co escape from the imerstell ar and intergalactic d ust that shields mid-1960s. Other prominent scientists who have worked in Caltech's infrared group some of t he most interesting and beautiful objects in the cosmos explains chis hear­ include Eric Becklin, PhD '68, chief scientist and director des ignate of the science seeking mission's appeal to astronomers and lay public alike. To clare, rhe Spiczer center of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, an airborne telescope Observatory, less than a meter in size, has wened in a sell ar performance. It has set fo r Right testing later thi s yea r; Steven Beckwith, PhD '78, former di rector of the detencd evidence of planetary formation in the stark, inhospitable neighborhood Space Telescope Scie nce rn sti tute, which runs the science operations for the Hubble of a dead neutron star; di rectl y detened the heat from planets orbiting other stars; Space Telescope; and Stanford phys icist and Nobel Laureate Douglas Osheroff '67, identified "molecules of life"--otherwise known as hydrocarbons-that were present who crunc hed in frared dara fo r Neugebauer as a Caltech underg raduate. But while in the cosmos when it was one quarter its current age; and in general reiterated Leig hton passed through t he fie ld of infrared astronomy re latively quickly, and other what new astronomical observations are always telling us-that t he universe is an scientists trained by N eugebauer came and went, Soifer and Matthews scayed . Over infinitely richer and stranger place than we already knew it to be. All this from a the yea rs, they became good friends as well as coll eagues wh~ l ik e physics group, worked with Leighton Earth's obscuring atmosphere, hundreds of thousands of aclditional new infrared on a research project t hat involved us ing cloud chambers to investigate exotic sub­ sources were uncovered, including galaxies emitting huge amounts of infrared en­ atOmic particles produced in cosmic-ray decays. Aftet getting his Ph D, Neugebauer ergy, in ca ndescent reg ions of Star formation withi n and beyond our own galaxy, and went to J PL in 1960 to cornplete his Army serv ice, working on infrared detectors for the first tantal izing hi nts of pia nets orbiting other stars. the mi litary. Returning to Cal tech in 1962, he and Leig hton got together to adapt W hile many astronomers, astrophysicists, and engineers have contributed to the the same detector technology for use in astronomy. advancement of infrared astronomy, much of the credit for unvei ling the infrared sky "In general, the physics and astronomy facu lty didn't care what we did," Neuge­ belongs to a small constell ation of Ca ltech scientists who also happen to be Cal tech bauer recall s. ;'The astronomers basica ll y thought we were wasting our time, but alumni. For more than 30 years, they have worked together as a team, designing they were so busy with Mount Wilson and Pa lomar and had enough respect for and building instruments, making pioneering observations, planning and operating Leighton that they left uS alone." facilities, and educating and mentoring a new generation of astronomers. Leig htOn and Neugebauer built a 62-inch reflecting dish, followed by an infrared The mainstays of the group are Gerry Neugebauer, PhD '60, the Millikan Pro­ instrument that, as Lei g hton recalled in a L986 Caitech oral histOry interview, was fessor of Physics, Emeritus; Tom Soifer '68, professor of physics and director of the "suffi ciently sensitive to be interesting and suffi ciently precise to be able to locate ob­ Spitzer Science Center; and Keith Matthews '62, member of t he professional staff in jeers in the sky." The duo autOmated it so that it could rapidly image sources, tried it physics. Each has unique skills that have contributed to the development of infrared OUt on campus, and then brought it up to Mount Wilson in 1965 to begin the in ­ astronomy. And while Neugebauer is now retired, Soifer and Matthews cOl1[inue to frared sky survey, In 1966, they were joi ned by Soifer, who was juSt fini shing up hi s work tOgether and to consult with Neugebauer, former director of the Palomar sophomore year. Like nearly every Cal tech student at that t ime, he had entered the ObservatOry and former chair of Cal tech's D ivision of Physics, Mathematics and rnstitute wi tli the idea of becoming a high-energy physi cist. Still, when his room­ Astronomy. And with the help of today's sophisticated instruments, incl uding the matc, Ed G rOth '68, encouraged him to take a part-time job helping Neugebauer, Spitzer Space Telescope, the te lescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Mauna Soifer signed on. "The way if worked, they had someone paid to operate the telescope Kea, Hawai i, and the Palomar Observatory, they contin ue to produce increasing ly five nig hts a week," sa ys Soifer. "Graduate students and undergraduates would oper­ detail ed and dramatic pictures of the universe. ate it the other nig hts. So, every couple of months, I'd run t he telescope."

COlllllllled 011 pflf,e 10

3 I Ca/ltch Neu'J Cal tech's newest Feynman Prin winner Richard Mur· ray keeps an eagle eye on Cal tech's automotive vehicle "Alice ," as it competes in the DARPA Grand Chal­ lenge autonomous robot FACULTY, ALUMNI race through the California NAMED TO NAS desert. He worked on the design and development or Three Ca lcech professors have been Alice with donns or Insti· tute students. elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of t he highest honors chat can be accorded an American sc ienci s[ or engineer. T hey were among 72 new RICHARD MURRAY AWARDED FEYNMAN PRIZE members whose names were announced in April at rhe 143rd annual meering Ri chard Murray '85 was a freshman clubbed "Mud" cards, at the end of each of rhe Academy in WashingtOn, D .C., attending fros h camp on Catalina class, asking questions about anything and thei r election brings [072 rhe Island when he first encountered fa med they found confusing (or "muddy"). number ofCalrech faculty who are cur­ physicist Ri chard Fey nman. "A profes­ Answers to the students' questions are rently members or the Academy. sor sat down next to me and starred posted on the class website (he same Ca lrech's newest NAS members are talking about some shell s he had found day. Mark Davis, the Schlinger Professor of whi le he was sw imming. La and "You have to be wi lling to rake Chemical Eng ineering; Chuck Steidel, behold, it was Ri chard Feynman­ questions, because you know yo u are PhD ·90, the DuBridge Proressor of althoug h I was an eng ineering student going to miss the mark someti mes," Astronom y and exec utive offi ce r for and not in physics, and I'm not sure Murray says, This commitment to astronomy; and David Tirrell , chair of I knew who he was at the time. That learning is not lost on his students. "In the Institute's chemi stry and chemical wi lling ness to talk to a student typifi ed ,Ii I my classes j have never before had a engi neering division , and the McCol­ hi s approach to teaching." professor that was so dedicated to an­ lum-Corcoran Professor and professor Such willing ness to engage and en­ swering students' questions and mak­ of chemi stry and chemical eng ineering. courage students al so typifies Murray's ing sure that students understood the Four Ca lrech alumni were also named own approach, and now the profes- material," wrott' one underg raduate in to membership, and Vladimir Bragin­ sor, who was recently named Caltech's nominating Murray for tht award. sky, a visiting associate in physics at Everhart Professor of Control and Dy­ Another sc udent call ed Murray "wich­ Cal tech and a member of the Moscow namical ystcms, has been awa rded the Out a doubt one of the most talented State University fanlity, was elected Institute's Richard P. Pey nman Pri ze teachers I have ever met." one of 18 new foreign assoc iates. ror Excel lence in TCllching. The prize, Murray also served as leader of Dav is's primary research interests handed Out annuall y, is Ca ltcch's most Team Cal tech, the group of about SO include the creation of new catalytic prestig ious teaching honor. With it undergraduates who created "Alice," materials, the sy nthesis of biomateri als, comes a $3,500 cash award, plus an Caltech's most recent entry in the and gene tberapy, The Davis research equivalent yearly raise in salary. Defense Advanced Research Projects group also works on the synthes is of The Feynman Pri ze Selection Com­ Agency (DARPA) Grand Chall enge substances that are useful for delivering mittee sing led Out Murray for his autonomous vehicle race through the nucleic acids and has shown that these "enthusiasm, res ponsiveness, and in­ SOllth<::rn California desert. In a letter delivery systems can be Llsed with RNA novation" in the class room and for hi s recommending Murray to the Feyn ­ interference molecules to inbibit genes "contribution to the underg raduate man Pri ze selection commi(tee, Antony in rumors of an imals to produce potent ex perience through reaching outside Fend <:: r, a leCturer in eng ineering and anticancer effects. Tbe team hopes to the conventional classroom," also a member of Team Cal tech, sa id , '. j think the field I do research in "The students involved in this projeCt move this system to tbe clinic in the From the top, the Institute's newest members is very exciting, so I try to teach in a receiveJ an education unlike anything near future. of the National Acad emy of Sciences are Mark Steidel's overarcbing resea rch inter­ Davis, Chuck Steidel, and David Tirrell. way that conveys the Ravor of why I I've ever seen before," add ing that they est is the connection between galaxy find it exciting," says Murray, whose would "carry this experience with them formation and the evolution of struc­ work includes high-confidence control for their entire lives," ture in the universe, Much of bis work emific papers, and si nce 1995 has been of cooperative systems and non linear Murray says that he was surprised involves large spectroscopic surveys of an advi ser to the president of the Max cOlltrol theory. and "very honored " to receive the Feyn­ star-forming galaxies at va ri ous stages Planck Soc iety. Murray was also commended for his man award. "I've known many faculty in cosmic bistory- researcb that is Four Cal tech alumni at ocher insti­ determination to make sure hi s stu­ who received it and always looked up yielding fundamental new insig hts into tutions were also elected to the NAS dents understand the material he teach­ to them as being g reat teachers. It's a large-scale distribution and populations this yea r. T hey are Bri an Hoffman, es. For exa mple, he encourages students big honor to be among them." of galax ies and their overall relation­ PhD, '67, professor of chemistry at to anonymously fi ll out incl ex cards, shi p to the development and shape of Northwestern University; Robert p, Lin tbe cosmos. '62, proressor of physics and director Tirrell 's research combines organic, of the Space Sciences L,boratory at UC ELACHI NAMED ONE OF biological, and materials chemistry to Berkeley; J ose Onuchic, PhD '87, co­ make new macromolecular systems of di rector, Center fo r Theoretical Biolog­ "AMERICA'S BEST LEADERS" contro ll ed structure and funct ion. He ical Physics, and professor of physics, and hi s students are exploring arcificial UC Sa n Diego; and Arthur Riggs, PhD JPL directOr Charl es Elachi, PhD "7 1, has been named one of "Ameri ca's proteins made by expression of artifi­ '66, director of the Beckman Reseatch Bes t Leaders" by U.S. News alld \Vorld l?ep0rl and t he Center ror Publ ic Le'dde r­ cial genes in microbial celi s, and the Institute at City of Hope, Duarte, Cali ­ ship at Harvard·s Kennedy Sc hool or Government. He wi ll be profi led, along creati on of novel amino-acid building fornia, with 17 other leaders, in a special issue of the magazine later this year. Previ ­ blocks for use in protein design and ous holders or the designation have included Bill and Melinda GateS, Steve analysis. J obs, Oprah Winfrey, Antonio Villamigosa, and Condoleeza Ri ce. More details Bragi nsky, a regul ar vi sitor at about previoLis winners ca n be found at hrrp:!lwww.usnews.com!usnews/news! Ca l tech, works on the Laser Interfe r­ articles/OS 1. 0 3 1/3 IinttO.htm. ometry Gravitational-Wave Observa­ Po,· (/1I11/Ho-delle liJi of (lwards etnd hOllors bestowed reeefllly "POll Cetl"eh faCIl Ity tory (LlGO) project and on othet te­ """ staff, go to hup:lllodlty.caltech.ed"ltodayloll-call//JIIs.ld "lid scroll dowII 10 HOllors search in volving g rav itational physics. tOld AU'ilrcis in the right-htllJd colllnln, tiS lilt/! (IS to the ArrhitteS link ill thot section. He has published more than I SO sc i-

4 I Culi/onlifl I "JI;fllfe 0/ T echl/ology • VOWMF40 No.2, .2006 A robf(!s gallery presided ove" C.. /tech com­ CH • • • CH ••• CHANGES­ menc.ement in June. At left, Oa~id Baltimore CALTECH GRADUATES made his last commencement appearance (AND PRESIDENT) as president. Among the many fac.ulty who participated in the ceremon'l wa$ Professor TRACE TIME AT of Chemica' Engineering Julia KOl'nfleld '83, COMMENCEMENT shown below, waving to the camera.

Afr~r nearly a decade as president orCalcech, che Insc ituce's 2006 com­ mtncemenc speaker, David Baltimore. has decided chac ic 's time co open rhe neXt chapter. which in his Case includes all ambicious bid co help fighc che HIV/A IDS pa ndemic. "Nine yea rs ago, I Glme ro Calcech as a freshman. Not being as well pre­ prm:!d as the high-school graduates we accept, it has taken me nine years to gn.duare, Buc J have finally made ir as a member of rhe class of 2006," he co ld a sea of robed commencement candidates under a g lirnrnery gray and sometimes misty sky. "For me it has been as much of an education as you have recei ved. "And r have been lucky ro have wonderful Techers :1S reachers," the cocrearor and executive producer of ourgoi ng president said on June I), at the CBS re levision program Nllmb3rs, Calrcch's \ \ 2th commencement. and aceor David Krumholtz, who plays He spoke cmhllsiasricf.tJly about l11ach professor Charlie Eppes. C har- how Caltech's size made it possible lie works ar an institution known as CO see the place from all perspenives, CalSci, a fictional name for its inspira~ incJudins those of scudents and their tion, Cal tech. Said Baltimore , "1 never p,-Uel1lS, as wdl as of faculty, stilfr, rhoughc 1 would find l11yself praising trustees, vice presidents, ~u)d division a rdevision pro.gmm, but Pa s~\dena has chairs, and even that of his wife, Alice brought to America a program that Huang, f.1cu lry associate in biology and embodies the virtues of mathematically senjor councilor for external relarions. based rhinking," In Caltcch, he discovered a plethora of Balrimore contrasted the impas­ perspectives, "all wrapped intO a tidy sioned, albeit fictional, celebration of package, Ie has been a glorious educa­ rigorous thinking and (act~based rea­ tion, and I thank you all for it. Having soning porer,Lyed in Nlmlb3,.s with the learned my lessons, 1 can now take a Aawed assumptions he sees in much of place among the educated, as a member roday's domcsrie policics. "An ideology of that mOSt wonderful group on Ca m­ of America n hegemony and executive pus, che faeLl Iry," infallibility has ruled, leaving no place Baltimore plans to recu rn to full­ for calculating the consequences of ac­ (ime work as a professor of biology, tions, (o r t hinking out strategies t hat focusin,g on teaching and research in his respond to likely circumstances, for l

5 Ie ll/ferb Nell'J there's only one.caltech CARMIC THE CAMPAIGN CONVERGENCE

CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS in outcome-based projeers that w ill im prove the q uality of life for future New gifts and g ram s co rhe "There's generations. Funding is organi zed only one. Cairech" cam paig n will sup­ around large-scale initiatives in sc ience, port a wide range of new research ini­ environmental conservation, and the t iatives in areas ra ngi ng from rhe devel­ San Fra ncisco Bay Area. opmenc of innovative med ical therapies to resea rch aimed at decip hering the DARYN KOIIATA hi stO ry of the universe. A $ 10 mi llion g if[ fro m [he lace Dr. J oseph ). J acobs has helped Cal[ech co escablish [he J oseph). J acobs In­ INSTITUTE RECEIVES stitute for Molecular Engineering GRANT TO START for Medicine to develop in novative TRAINING PROGRAM IN mechodologies fo r d iagnosing and STEM-CELL RESEARCH treating d isease. David Tirrell , McCol­ The official dedication of the Combined Array fo r Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy lum-Corcoran Professor and chair of Cal tech has been awarded $2.3 mil­ rhe Divisio n of Chem istry and Chemi­ (CARMA) facility took place on May 5 at Cedar Flat in the Inyo Mountains near Bishop, lion by t he Ca li fornia Institute for California, almost 21 years to the day (May 4) aft er the dedication of its predecessor, t he cal Eng in ee ring, wi ll be the inaugura l Regenerative Medici ne (CIRM) [0 Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) . A joint ven ture of Caltech, UC Berkeley, the Univer­ d irector of rhe new institute, which suppOrt postdoctoral scholars in the sity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Maryland, CARMA consists of the wil l bring tOgether Calreeh scientists Cal tech Seem Cell Biology Train ing six 10-meter millimeter-wave telescopes transported from OVRO, along with nine six-meter telescopes from the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association (BIMA) array that have been and international medical experts [Q Program. T he grane is one of 16, col­ conduct research that has rhe potencial relocated to the new Cedar Flat location, about 13 miles east of Big Pine, by mountain __ lective ly totaling $ l 2. l million, award ­ route. Speaking at the dedication, CARMA director and Rosen Professor of Astronomy An- to provide sig nificant improvement in ed by the state seem-cell agency follow­ nella Sargent, PhD '77 (shown, above right, officially baptizing the array) hailed the new treating human disease. ing passage of the Stem Cell Iniriative facility's high, dry location as one that will provide radio astronomers with an ext remely Induscry leader and ph ilanc hropist last year. clear view of the universe. CARMA's telescopes will investigat e in terstellar molecular gas and dust clouds that give rise to stars and planetary systems, and will also study J acobs was fo under and chairman of the T he program w ill educate 10 post­ boa rd of Pasadena-based J acobs Eng i­ pl anet-forming disks around other stars, nearby galaxies, and galaxies so distant that they doctoral scholars in both stem-cell bio l­ must have formed very early in cosmic history. CARMA funding was made possible by the neering Group, Inc., one of the world 's ogyand its potential b iomedical appli ­ Kenneth and Eileen Norris Foundation, t he Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and t he largest eng ineering and construerion cations. In addition to current courses, Associates of Caltech. firms . the Institute will add a bioethics cou rse T he Gordon and Berry Moore Foun­ that emphas izes the social, ethical, and dation has awarded Cal tech g ranes co legal issues raised by stem-cell research, AND PARALLEL undercake new research ini tiatives in and host a new stem -cell seminar and COMPUTATION genom ics and cosmology. A g rane of journal club program and an annual $7.9 mi ll ion has fu ncled the Cal[ech sym posium . A coll aboration with the Proteome Explo ration Laboratory. Keck Sc hool of M ed icine at USC and Along with two existing fa cilities on Children's H ospital of Los Angeles will campus, the lab is desig ned co make provide opporrunities fo r basic scien­ the lnst iwte a worl d leader in the most ri sts to become fa miliar with clinical advanced technologies fo r studying stem-cell iss ues and the potential appli ­ human genome p roducts t hat specify carion of rheir find ings to d isease. the chemistry of I ife, and for investigat­ "Cal tech is al ready undertaking ing how the genome di reers proteins to many stem-cell research projects, and I g ive rise to an organism. T he principal think rhis w ill srimulate considerable investigator is Raymond D eshaies, pro­ additional in rerest," says Paul Patter­ fessor of biology and a Howard Hug hes son, training program director and Medical .Institute investigator. Biaggini Professor of Bi ological Scienc­ Supported wi[h a $5.6 mill ion es. "Thi s is the first step in expanding grane , the Center for T heoretica l our efforts in this area." Cosmology and Physics will study Relevant areas of cu rrent campus q uestions related to dark matter, dark research include em bryonic and adult energy, and the earl y universe, d rawing scem-cell plastic ity, stem cells and on the Institute's wealth of observa­ cancer, embryonic development, im­ [ional cosmology daw. Led by M arc aging technology, tissue eng ineering Associate Profe ssor of Geophysics Mark Simons (right) describes the 2048- Kamionkowski, professor of theoretica l and macromolecular fabrication, com­ processor supercomputer in the GPS Parallel Computing Facility to Caltech p hysics and astrophysics, the program putational b io logy, nanoscale biology trustee and Associate Ted Jenkins '65 , MS '66, and Associate Kathy Wiltsey. The wi ll unite senior sc ient ists, visit ing: and chemistry, and the basic sc ience of occasion was an Associates luncheon and tour, showcasing t he geological and scholars, and postdoC[oral scholars as planetary sciences (GPS) division's Parallel Computing Facility and newly reno­ hematopoietic, muscle, endothelia l, and vated media center. The Institute support group has chose n t he GPS super­ they investigate fundamental cosmo­ neural stem cells. computer for its 2006 campaign project. Funded by Dell, Intel, My ricom, and logical questions aimed at advancing the Fletcher Jones Foundation, the pioneering technology is used to support our u nderstanding of the history of the numerou s projects throughout the division, including theoretical seismology universe. and studies of climate change, large-scale terrestrial motions, and planetary Established in 2000, [he Gordon atmospheres. To find out more, please contact Arlana Silver, executive direc­ and Betty Moore Fou ndation invests tor of the Associates, at 626-395-3919. To read more about the facility, go to http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/CaltechNews/artides/v37/se ismic. htm I.

6 I Calijor1lit, l'I Ililllle oj Ttch'lology • VOLUME 4 0 No.2, 2 006 F r n g o f f o n t h e c a n n o n c a p e r

By RH ONDA HrL LOEHY Reunited, and it feels so good. Members of Fleming House (below, left) push their vener­ miffed that MfT was able to spirit it able symbol back into position. Above. cannon away so easil y. O n April 10, Ted joined master Ted Dickel '07 poses with the antique the red -shirred Plemi ng contingent siege gun after its return to campus. He was part of an honor guard of Flems that new to that traveled to Cambridge, Massachu­ Cambridge, Massachusetts, in April to retrieve Now safely resting in fronc ofSreele knew what was going on. "H e hadn't setts, to retrieve it. The red-eye journey it (rom MIT. H Ollse after its 6,OOO-mi le journey, [he heard anything," M annion recou nts. was too stressfld to be fun. "Nerve­ Fleming House cannon looks no worse "T here was no chatter on his campus." racking," is how he describes it. On for wear, despite its brief stine as a But soon enoug h, an anonymous April 19, the cannon was restored, with p ri soner of war. call er assu red Cal tech security chief a padlock this time, to its temporary the term, Fleming HOllse freshmen Irs April 19 return provided wel­ Gregg H enderson that the cannon was home in front of Steele HOLise . showed u p with ropes and p ulled the come closure co Doyl (Ted) Dickel '07, safe , and that all would soon be re­ Trustee (and former Fl em) Philip thing throug h the streets of San Marino a physics major who served as offi cial vea led. And as t he world now knows, Neches '73, PhD '83, on campus at t he to campus," Neches recall s. cannon master for (wo ful l years. the cannon turned up 3,000 mi les away time fo r a trustee meeting, was invited Once it was delivered, the enthusias­ ti c Techers naturall y wanted to see the The duties of the cannon master on the campus of MIT. to don protective earmuffs and fire the thing fired . "Being the only Fleming incluue trekking around ca mpus to ob­ T hen it all made sense. M IT had cannon in honor of its return. The re­ rain admi nistrative approval sig natures swiped Fl eming House's beloved sulting explos ion touched off a few ca r [-[ ouse tesident (o ut of 80 in the H ouse) before each fir ing. T he cannon master masCOt as payback for a raft of recent alarms in the nearby HollistO n Avenue with a Vi sa card gO t me appointed to also maintains a large red binder fi ll ed Caltech-eng ineeted pranks, including parking g arage. run to the g un shop, where 1 bought a pound of black powde r. " with ca nnon history, lore, and firing For the N ew J ersey­ protocol. based business man, it was The rest is histO ry, or at least part or a 3Y2-page typewritten account tucked Most imporrancl y, the cannon mas­ an opportunity to reprise tef unlocks rhe breech and chen fi res I an important ro le he had intO the official cannon binder: "Curi­ the 19th century rei ic co mark the end played in the cannon's osity eventual ly led Fl eming [House) to wonder, 'H ow loud a no ise can we of roration, end of classes, Ditch Day, inaug ural firing at Cal tech and the conclusion of commencement nearl y 35 years earlier. make" Up until then the 12-pound­ capacity breech had never been loaded (a battery-operated fuse sets off the U ntil its 1972 atrival blank chatge co achieve a satisfy ing at Cal tech, the cannon with more than two pounds of powder, bang). I n addition, rhe cannon is fired had sat for about 45 years but a 3Y2-pound charge demonstrated during cc nain special events, such as in front of Southwestern JUSt what this machine was capable its dramatic recurn co Calrcch in April. Academy in San Marino, a of. The lowered muzzle aimed at Page [H ouse) didn't help." Over a late-afternoon lunch of pizza former military school. By in Chandler Dining Hall , Ted was the late I 960s the weapon The outcome could have been pre­ happy to talk cannon hi scory. Built in was fa lling into disrepair. dicted-the blast shattered two g lass France in 1878, the weapon was in­ The school had changed doors and severa l wi ndows at Page House. tended for lise in the Spanish-American its mission, and the Vi et­ War. But by the time it was ava il able nam War controversy onl y Since the cannon is inexorably for acrion and had reached Florida, it underscored the sense that linked to Fl eming H ouse, how have was obsolete. "The model was discon­ the old rei ic no longer be­ other students reacted to all the brou­ tinued shordy thereafter, when chey lo nged, N eches says. "One haha t hat surrounds the latest cannon­ changed to smokeless powder," says the individual suggested to napping? lanky native of South Carolina, speak­ Fleming H ouse that per­ Says Sean Mattingly, who wrote a ing rapidly and withoL![ a n ace of a haps it wou ld be willing humorous piece about t he cannon and its retrieval COSt in the sollthern accenL " It was onl y made for to provide it with a new California Tech, a shore period and is a relatively ra re home." "It's amazing how much Fl ems get worked up over t hat ca nnon." Most model. So it's been hard to get informa­ Neches, who was a ti on about ie. " senior at the time, adds, students, he says, were amused, not It was especiall y hard d uring those "Southwest Academ y was outraged . "People were laughing at few days after a campus security b ul­ Fl eming when it got stolen, when it happy to get rid of it, b ut letin documenced rhe cannon's mys­ we didn't tell the fresh- showed up at MIT, and then didn't terious departure on March 28. The man Fl ems that." teall y care when they broug h t it back." snatchers had apparently taken advan­ Fi g uring out how to H e admits, however, that he was happy tage of its removal to a new, unsecured to see it return. the one in 2005, when unsuspecting transport an apparatus d es ig ned to be location in fro nt of Steele H OLise while MIT prefrosh were handed T-s hirts that conveyed by 17 horses was a chall enge, In keeping with tradition, cannon the South I-louses, which incl ude Fl em­ read " M IT " on the front, and on the but of course Cal tech ingenui ty was up master Ted fired the cannon one last ing, were being renovated. time on Ditch Day 200 6 (May 17), back " ... because not everyone ca n go to the tas k. After free ing the wheels Since the cannon vanished close to to Caltech ." During that same event, from a bed of concrete, the Fl ems spent when the ri g hts and responsibilities of the annive rsary of its hijacking 20 years the job were transferred to Meng Tan Cal tech students had also altered an weeks building a spec ial dolly to sup­ ago by Harvey Mudd students, the MIT sig n to read "The Other Institute port and help steer the heavy tai lp iece. '09. The cannon is expected to return first thought around Cal tech was that of Technology." Finally, all was in readiness, and a large to its permanent home along the Olive the same culprits had struck again. In With the fa cts finally out, Flems contingent dressed in black set out in Walk when the South I-louses renova­ fact, Tom Mann io n, ass istant vi ce p resi­ reacted with mixed emotions, reli eved the dead of nig ht. tion is com pleted in earl y 2007. dent fot student life, ca ll ed the dean at that their iconic symbol was fou nd and "One fine Saturday night, early in Harvey Mudd to t ry to fi g ure Out if he

7 I Cn/lech Netl)J B a k e r s D o z e n

WI T H JENIJOY LA BELLE

The ellrly wreer of CII/tech Iilew/llre flrofessor j enijoy UI Belle reads like a filo/ froll! one of Ihose self-referential nweis sel in (lcac/elll;a: As the Sixties draw to a dose, (/ brand new PhD becomes the firsl female hired on tbe tenllre track by (/ IIniversity thtll has jllS' begl/n 10 admil

'mdergradl/tlle women. Slill very ","ch ill the millority eight )'eays laler al (IIJ ilJJli,",iOfJ she bas cOllie fo love, she is denied tenure and derides to challenge the decision. A rh(/rge of sex dis­ (''';''';'/(II;on fol/oUls, leac/ing 10 tin investigation, (/ sclllemclII, and, ill 1979, a second lenllre review. (If Il·hich poinl 1",(1 Belle did ,-«eitle tenllre (/nd sell/ed into tI long (tlreer of leachiJJg litera/lire 10 jJredominantly IIIa tb dnd science Sltldenls. The tlII,hor of two books find WIlI/erollS artideJ, she wrote tl reglll(ll" COllllll" /orthe Los Angeles Times in the mitl-1990s tlnd ill re­ celli years htls /ocmed her /em'hing and research Oil Shakes/)em'e tlnd poetry. In netlrly 40 )'eurs til/he IlIStitllte, she's cer/ainly (ompiled enough 1J/tlterittl to write her oU'11l1ovel, bll/ stlys it's more likely to be a memoir. Calrech News editor Heidi Asptlturian served liP thirteen qlles­ ';OllJ / 0 olle of 'he I nst;tllte's senior hlllJlan;t;eJ Jch()lr,rs fmd its longest-serv;ng jelllttie pro[essOf: wou ld become a sc holar and a literary critic, whi ch is what J did, I thought, "1 know 1 c.an't hope to compete with T. S. Eli ot, but if I can't even write as we ll as the g irl I II tI J 996/Jiece Ibtl/ YOIl lI'1'ole forlbe Los An!!tI<:s Times, YOII "died leacbing sitting next to me, I'd better go into anocht.'f field." And that gi rl who sat next to me "olle of tbe eterllal mysleries." ''''bal did ) 'fJlI metlll? in dass g rew up to be Tess Gallaghn, thl: an:lailllt'd POCt. So, the moral is: Be careful whom you sit next to. I meanr thar one is never q uire sure how lea rning rakes place. Good teaching stirs the students, and lousy teaching stifles them, but it's hard to say what works and Do YOII sl i/l u ,,.il e fIOel,.y? what doesn't. 1 try to crea te in my studencs an awa reness of what literature is and what it can g ive them. But there are days when I fee l t hat I'm just pontificati ng, and I write verse. I wouldn't call it poetry. that I'm tcaching the subject and not the studcncs. And sometimes the students say norhing, and 1 can hear them saying nothing. Those are the days when I go back to ' Vho are (/ cOII/,le ofYOllr j(1l'orile tllllbol'S, I/lul tire Ihere allY YOII 1M ,'I iClila rly my office and drip with despai r. Other times, somehow I'm abl e to bring li g ht to the like ll 'bom YOII consider IIl1derrated? poetry and the prose, and the students are al ive, and everything is wonderful. Patience is a g rea t virtue in t he classroom. It 's taken me a long long ti me to learn I love the Renaissance poetS idney, Spenser, Surrey, Suckling, Herbert, and that the way to draw out a snail is not to grasp its horns. I-ferrick. Among comemporary writers, I like the novelists Elizabeth Ta ylor and El izabeth vo n Arnim. J love Anita Brookner. All thrce are stylistica ll y brill iant and H Oll' do YOII ellgage eallecb sllldellls, lI'bose lIIaill illleresls are IIslially else­ have a keen sense of irony. Among underrated writers, Chidiock Ti chborne leaps i111 - lI 'bere, ill y01l1' subjecl? mediately to mind-such a wonderfu l name. His mos t famous poem is the "Elegy" he wrote in 1586 in the Tower of London whi le awa iting execution. He was involved I think I Starr with the idea thar literature can be a kind of liberation-not to be in a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I, and he was publicly disemboweled while confused with escapism-for our students. That it ca n offer a whole other way of he was sti ll alive-the penalty for creason. looking at the universe. Not the materi al universe, but the hu man universe-the Another poet I think is g reatly underrated is Edward Young. He belonged to the inner worl d of the mind. If they can perce ive it as an alternative way of thinking "graveyard sc hool" of poets, and his 1740 poem "Night Thoug htS" was perhaps about their li ves, that's what I think will interest them.

Aside /1'0111 Ibeir ofJl'iolis illfelligellce, II'blll do (.allccb IIl/dergrads brillg 10 Ihe stlldy of lilel'lIll1re, ruul r"')111 do Ihey lake all'''Y frolll Ibe experiellce.' Robespierre slept with "Night ThoughtsJ!

W hat sra nds out fo r me is their passion- almos t a rage- to exce l. The introduc­ under his pillow. So do I. tory humanities cou rses here are pass/fa il , and it wo ul d be petfec tl y easy for students to wri te I'n ediocre papers and still pass the courSt:S. And they don't. They don't wa nt to JUSt pass. They want to surpass- if "surpass" ca n be an intransitive verb-and that reprinted more than any ocher work in the 18th century. Robespierre slept with always amazes me. W hat J hope they take away from these classes is a larger sense of "N ig ht Thoug hts" under his pillow. So do I. It makes for good, lugubrious reading what it means to be human, a larger sense of the varieties of human experience, and, in the middle of the night. at least for some of t hem, an appreciation of aesthetic forms and an awareness that literature ca n be just as complex and as intell eCt ually demanding as the sc iences. As a leacher IIl1d scbol,,,' ()f Sbllkes/Jeare, do ),011 hrll'e (/ /tll'orile IJlay?

SIi/J/JOse YOII htiduol become tI/JrofeHol'- ll'hal iJ yOll1' career/wI" 1/01 lake,,? Othello. It's so beautifu l. Each time I read it, I hope it wi ll come Out differently.

I g rew Lip t hinking I would be a poet- a famous poet, of course. My mother, who Wlb,,1 rio YOIl S(/y Ibese days 10 IJeo/Jle tI 'bo IIwillltl;u Ibtll Shakes/Jcare cOllldu'l was a teacher, brought me up on verse. She started with nursery rhymes and then IJ()ssibly htlL'e uTilleu his Oll 'U lcorks? Yru/,'e II'rilleu aud leclllred Oil Ibis topic, moved quickl y to Blake and Kea ts and Di ckinso n and Years. And when I went to rhe University of Was hington, J had some wonderful writers as teachers, including the This is an idea I find so tiresome that 1 will no longer ta lk about it at cocktail American poet Theodore Roethke and the Eng lish poet Henry Reed. Bu t year arter parries. I think J hea r it mOst from la wyers and retired army colonels. It's gorten yea r, in verse writing classes, 1 sat nex t to a gi rl named Theresa Bond . And no mat­ co the point where if so meone says, "Don't YOll think so-and-so rea ll y wrote Shake­ tcr what kind of poem I wrote, hers waS better. Al so, she had such a store of painful spe~l r e 's plays?" J will say, "Why, yes. Yes, J do." Because anti-Stratfordians are emo­ material to write about. She was the oldest of five children, her father was an alco­ tional and completely illog ica l. It's like listening to so meone insist that the ea reh is holi c longshoreman, and her family constantly quarreled. For a while, I was actually flat. T here is not a shred of hard evidence against Shakespeare's authorship. Anyo ne is upset t hat my parents had g iven me such an exquisitely happy childhood. So after a noodle who thi nks someone other than Shakespeare wrote rhe plays. a few yea rs, and, hav ing at least learned a lot about the craft of poetry, I decid ed J

8 I Cali/orn;" InHillllt of T uiJno l ogy • VOLtJM H40 NO.2. 2 006 Are YOII illle,.esled in science afler neLI,.{Y fOllr decades til CLdlech.' Cb"III eaH . fr o m pa J!. t :2 opportunities for faculty and studencs. He has been a strong proponent of pro­ The field of science I'm most incerested in lately is geroncology, for obvious rea­ Speaking in an elegant, French­ grams that have contributed to Georgia sons. But mostl y what I've learned from science, I've found out from scientists them­ acccented English that bore nary a Tech's leadership in educating minor­ selves. What I know about physics, I learned from Richard Feynman. He Llsed co trace of I. 5 years in Georgia, C hameau ity students in engineering, and he has rake me to lunch, and he would lise the salt and pepper shakers to explain to me t he said his appointment left him feeling actively promoted the recruitment, St ruCtu re of subatomic particles. And J would always feel that for a moment I had a "privileged" and "humbled." "As a retention, and promotion of

9 I CO/ItCh NW'J The 2.2-micron infrared telescope (above left) was built on the Cal tech campus by Gerry Neugebauer and Robert leighton (left to right, in photo at left) and then brought to the Mt. Wilson Observatory where it was put to use in an unprecedented sky survey. The telescope was eventually se nt to the Smithsonian, where it was displayed at the National Air and Space Museum from 1983 to 1997, It is now on view at the museum's Ivar-HalY Center near Dulles Airport outside Washington. D.C.

I lIfraud'lecki. from Ilagt 3 The telescope made a sweep of the phys ics, emerirus. Bur by rhe 1960s, chac lasted only a few minutes. "No went. "It was a ri sky move to give up a sky every hour, and Soifer's job was m the particle accelerators were putting one had done this from space before," tenure-track position, but 1 was young o ri ent the instrument hourly to make the cloud chambers our of busi ness. Soifer says. Traveling to New Mex ico and fooli sh," Soifer says. (He would be sure that it was mapping the proper '·Clolld chambers were horse and buggy with hi s firSt payload, he warched rhe named a Calrech professor in 1989.) slice of the heavens. "It was a great ex­ sruff, in a way," Matthews says. "When first launch at the W hi re Sa nds missi le Launched in January 1983, I R AS perience, working with lots of bright, Ferrnilab turned on in 1972, one pulse range. "The rockets shot like a bullet scanned more than 96 pt:rcent of the young, enthusiastic people," Soifer says. wiped us out. " out of the rower at S g's. I thought, sky during its to months of operation, "We worked hard . We'd show up at From his early days g rowing up in 'There's no way my payload will sur­ providing the first view of the infrared noon and work till 3 a.m ., then go to Staten Island, N ew York, it was clear vive this.' But my advisor had said, universe unencumbered by atmospheri c Tiny Naylor's and have breakfast. There t hat Matthews was a born instrument ' If it survived the trllck d ri ve ac ross distortions. Encased , as Neugebauer was a tremendous amount of excite­ builder. As a kid, he rinkered wirh the country, it wi ll survi ve t he rocket fo ndl y put ir, ··in a thermos jug fi ll ed ment, and it was an enormous amount Heathkit projects in his basement, and launch.' And ir did." Soifer would ana­ wirh liquid helium" (wh ic h kepc rhe offun." by the time he got to Caltech, he was lyze the data from one launch while detectors cold enoug h to prevent their Among the most interes ting discov­ more than read y, as he says, "to play bui ld ing the payload for the nexc. heat emissions from interfering with eries to emerge from the survey were around" in a more challenging arena. " I Afte r CorneJi and a yea r as a posr­ infrared obse rvations), the 24-inch stars that barely reg istered at vi sible wasn't ever interes ted in being an as­ doc at the Smithsonian AStrophysical telescope was eq uipped with 62 detec­ wavelengths, but radiated copiously tronomer," he says, but in 1972, when Obse rvatory in Cambridge, Massaciw­ tors arranged to look at four different in the infra red. "They were so cool cloud-chamber research dried up, he serrs, he was hired by UC San Diego, wavelength bands, each keyed to tem­ that they were not even red; they were went to work for N eugebauer and the where he continued to bui ld instru­ perature ranges associated with specifi c brown," recall ed Leighron. These so­ infrared-astronomy g roup, building ments and carry out observational astronomical objects or phenomena. ca ll ed "dark brown stars" turned am detecrors and other instrumentation fo r work, some of it aboard the Kuiper "The detectors wete ex tremely se nsi­ to be old stars t hat were produci ng Palomar. Matthews says that he knew Airborne Observatory-a Lockheed tive," N eugebauer told hi s audience d ust in their atmospheres and ejecting N eugebauer a bit, and Cowan may have C- 14 1 transport plane that fl ew with ar a 1984 Ca lreeh Watson lec ture that it into the interstell ar medium. Even heard that there was a job available an infrared telescope. Back at Cal tech, presented lRAS's achi evements to the more interesting than the individua1 with him, bur he doesn'r remember his underg raduate mentor, N eugebauer, publi c. "If we had IRAS ill Cali fornia discoveri es was their sheer abundance. exactl y who arranged the switch. had JU St been named chief scientist on and none of Earth's atmosphere in the "Almgerher," said Leig hron, "we found By this t ime, Soifer had abandoned the new J PL mission to launch the first way, and we chrew a baseball up high some tens of thousands of sources. any idea of a career in particle phys- orbiting infrared telescope, the Infrared enoug h in New York C ity, we could These were a lot more than anybody ics and had decided to throw in with Astronomical Sarellite (lRAS). Soifer have detected it. " thoug ht we wouJd ever come across." astrophysics. He went to g raduate was now an assistant professor at San IRAS didn'c find any baseball s "The Two Micron Survey was a school at Corn ell , where he was hop­ Diego, but when N eugebauer invited up in space (unless yo u count the six path-breaking work in that it was one in g: to get in volved in radio astronomy, him to come back to the Institute as new comets it identified) and , like its of rhe rhings that made people under­ since Corn ell had juSt bui lr a big radio se n ior researcher for borh I RAS and ground-based predecessor at Mount stand what in ftared astronomy could telescope, But he was ass ig ned instead ground-based astronomy programs, he Wilson, one of its key achievements d~what the potential was," Soifer co an as tronomer who was helping co says. "Uncil yo u can look ac che sky launch rh e burgeoni ng fi eld of space­ without prej udice, witham bring ing in based astronomy. " I learn ed about what yo ur preconceived notions, you'll mi ss was going on there and gO t excited the importance of looking at the uni­ about that, ex ploring the wavelengths verse at new waveleng ths. The survey rhat hadn't been observed before," Soi­ provided an unbiased and, at that time, fer says. Putting telescopes into space unprecedenced view of the sky." would be pa rticularl y important for While N eugebauer, with Soife r in infra red observations, since much of tow, was launching the infrared-astron­ infrared radi ation, particularly at lon­ omy field up at Mount Wi lson, Keith ger waveleng chs, is si mply absorbed by Matthews was down on campus, partic­ Earth's atmosphere before it can reach ipating in the end-stages of a different ground-based telescopes. chapter in science-the cloud -chamber Soifer spent most of his four years era in particle phys ics. He enjoyed at Cornell building instruments ch at working with Eugene "Bud" Cowan, rode rockets into space, gathering in­ The image above, assembled from six months of data taken in 1981 by the Infrared PhD '48, now a Cahech professor of fra red data during suborbiral Aighrs Astronomical Satellite, shows the plane of the Milky Way in the center bright band.

t o I California I nu;tlltt of Tuhnology • V OLUM E 4 0 NO.2, 2006 Tom Soifer and Keith Matthews (Keith is the one in the center photo, communing with a dewar in the infrared clean room) have col­ laborated for nearly 30 years, developing a deep friendship during that time. "It's a profound and ing would wo rk than that the satellite Mauna Kea, where Soifer and Neuge­ part, hig hl y customized to the purpose historical thing when would work." But both succeeded, and bauer joined him for the first observing at hand and frequently one of a kind. sc ientists are still mining the data from rUIl. While hi s coll eagues mapped out "There's no sense in building an oscil ­ the IRAS miss ion. t he astronomy objectives, Matthews loscope," he says. "If you can buy it hllmans have detected Although much of his time was focused on making the balky instru­ and it works, you buy it. You modify taken up with IPAC, Soifer continued ment work. things to work or do stuff that does the directly the light from a to work with N eugebauer and Mat­ "I had to pump t he va cuum chamber job that hasn't been done. I never build thews on the design and fabrica tion of and cool it with liquid helium every stuff for the fun of building it. I always new infrared instruments for the Palo­ day," he says. ''I'd get up at 2 p.m., build stuff for some purpose. planet orbiting another mar Observatory, as well as carrying drive lip the mountain, pump it, fill it "My bottOm line is that I want the our observing runs there. Meanwhile, with liquid helium, stay up there all instruments to be the most sensitive. star, " Soifer says. Matthews had become well known in nig ht for the observing run, go back I don't want to make a big telescope the astronomical community as a su­ down the mountain at 9 3.m. for break­ into a little telescope" by putting on an perb instrument builder, and in L980 fast, then go to sleep and get up again inferior instrument or one that doesn't he was the only Caltech sc ientist named at 2 p.m . to go back lip the mountain take full advantage of the telescope's to the design committee of what would to pump il again. It was leaking but it capabili ti es. Although he's not officially was to document the extraordinary eventually become the W. M. Keck was working. YOLI could do that for­ an academic advisor, M atthews also number of infrared objects in the Observatory. ever, but eventuall y J broug ht it back routinely helps graduate students on cosmos. It detected about 500,000 Matthews had built an infrared cam­ to Cal tech and replaced the leaking their instrumentation projects, from infrared sources, twice the number of era for Palomar during L987 and L988, piece." design through the building and oper­ all previously caralogued astronomical and in 1989 he started work on a simi­ Sensitive enough to detect a candle ating p hases. p henomena. "Je was the first all-sky lar instrument for the Keck , which was Aame on the moon, the NIRC snapped Matthews proudly admits that he's infrared survey that probed in the ther­ then under construction by Cal tech and pictures of what at the time were the considered something of a "dinosaur" mal infrared across the entire galaxy the University of California. Quips Soi ­ most distant known galaxies and qua­ in the world of astronomical instru­ and oU( co a substantial distance in rhe fer, the coprincipal investigator on the sars in the cosmos. It also revealed that ment builders. H e hates reporting universe, revealing phenomena never project, "It was my job to keep people an extremely luminolls object discov­ to committees and, all things being before seen," says Soifer. Among its off Keith's back. I'd take care of report­ ered by lRAS was actually a quasar equal, prefers to design and build in­ highlig hts, he lists rhe discovery of ing to committees and let Keith build hidden behind a galaxy. "This meant struments by himself with minimal ulrraluminolls infrared galaxies, disks the best possible instrument." that the apparent luminosity was ' mag­ outside interference, As a result, he has of planetary debris orbiting nearby Surprisingly, there were few other nified,' and so the quasar appeared to be largely stayed away from space-based stars, and some of the best views ever teams gearing up at that time to build 30 to LOO times g reater than its actual astronomy, which typically involves obtained of the early stages of scar instruments for the Keck. Matthews's luminosity," Soifer says. huge budgets, multiple oversight com­ formation. lRAS also provided unprec­ explanation for this is simple: "Jt was In 2001, Matthews installed a sec­ mittees, and, of course, those manda­ edented images of the Milky Way's hard work. You didn't get much out ond infrared camera on the newly com­ tory meetings. galactic center, which is roo obscured of it- just enough money to build the pleted Keck 11 Telescope, which had by gas and dust [Q be investigated at instruments. 1 was very worried, and now joined its twin on Mauna Kea. A B O DY I-I I' A 'I' visible wavelengths; uncovered strong I wrote a memo saying we should be more sophisticated imager, NIRC JJ infrared emissions from interacting, careful and make sure that at least one was designed to work with the Keck's In L984, with lRAS an unqualified or colliding, galaxies; and provided of the instruments is ready before the adaptive-optics technology-a kind of success, seri ous pJans got under way compelling evidence that quasars-the telescope is. It would be vety embar­ corrective lens system that compensates to des ig n and launch its successor- a most distant and radiant objects in the rassing to have the telescope JUSt sit­ to varying degrees for the atmospheric next-generation infrared space telescope universe-are fueled by black holes. ting there with nothing to put on it." distortion of starlight, producing im­ dubbed the Space Infrared Telescope "There was such great science," Soifer As it turned Ollt, Matthews's in­ ages that are 10 to 20 times better than Facility (SIRTF). Matthews participat­ says. "Almost toO much to enumerate." strument, the Near Infrared Camera they otherwise would be. ed in the early desig n work, but then, Soifer's pri mary role in the miss ion (NIRC), was the only insreument In his more than three decades in citing obl ig ations to Keck, stepped was to organize and oversee the data­ completed when the Keck ObservatOry Caltech's infrared-astronomy group, aside. But Soifer, with his months of processing component of the project, began operating in March L99 3, and Matthews has built or upg raded nu­ (PAC management under his belt, got which was carried out at the Infrared when a last-minute problem surfaced , merous infrared instruments and devic­ deeply involved , joining the SIRTF Processing and Analysis Center, oth­ it tOok all of Marehews's fabl ed ingenu­ es, primarily areached to ground-based team des ig ning the telescope's infrared erwise known as I PAC: a] PL-NASA ity and somewhat cranky pe rfection ism optical telescopes. Asked if he has a spectrograph. By 1990, NASA had facility based at Caltech. "We needed to resolve it. About a month before tbe favorite projeCt, he says, "Not really. designated SIRTF as the hig hest priot­ to process the data a certain way to find camera was scheduled to be shipped Some were more successful than oth­ ity project for the astronomical com­ individual infrared sources in the data to Hawaii, he discovered that the ers, but some were a pain, even though munity and announced plans to lavish stream ," Soifer says. "It was a compli ­ tank of liquid helium used for cooling they were successful." Almost sounding $2 billion 011 the observatOry. But then cated and iterative process" that in­ the detector was leaking. H e tried to concerned that hi s instruments might ca me the disaster with the Hubble volved building a simulatOr of the sky plug the hole with different materials, experi ence jealous pangs if they de­ Space Telescope's warped mirror, and survey so the software engineers would and at one point a pressure hose g ave duced that their creator had a favorite. the ambitious plans for SIRTF ctashed know how to handle the data once it way, spraying him and his lab with an he adds noncommittally, "You get en­ abruptly back to earth. actuall y started coming in. "I was a lot oily film . With time running Ollt, he joyment out of doing things." "There was a point in 1992 or 1993 more confident that the data process- brought his detector- leak and all- tO His instruments are, for the most COT/fiT/lied 0" pn ge 14

II I Cn/tech NeuJJ And Speaking of Cal tech Alumni-the CAA initiated two new Honorary members at its annual dinner In June-Dr. William Caton III, (right) chairman of neurosurgery and director of neurosciences at Pasadena's Huntington Hospital, and Dr. Kevin Austin, director of health and counseling services at Cal tech. Caton was honored for his work with Caltech premed students at Huntington Hospital; Austin for the phYSical and emotional support he has provided the Caltech community, par· ticularly its students, since his arrival in 1990. THINK GLOBALLY, ACT TO SUPPORT CALTECH, SAYS ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT available), Calrech and MIT are ti ed at d egrees only. MIT claims 6 L total-25 With the arrival of J ea n-Lou Cha­ YOllr fealty by sending YOllr dues , as 7 th rank, overall. T he alumni g iving alumni and 14 g raduate alumni. (You mea u, a gf'Jdzt/l", J am reminded char well. Remember this the nex t time you rate for MIT was 12 th , with 37 per­ competitive types wi ll note that the we arc being implored coday [0 think pull on that sweatshirt. cent, and Cal tech's was 23rcl, with 32 Cal tech- MIT scaling in the category of g lobally. For a Cal tech alumnus, t his Athlet ic sweatshi rts reAect another percent (now bene, G eorg ia Tech was alumni laureates is not 5 but 1.5.) Of is old hat, sin ce rhe first principles we uniquely Ameri can activity- intercol ­ 22nd, al so at 32 percent). This is all pe­ altech's 207 Dis tin).; uished Alumni, learned and li se were discovered Ollt­ legiate SpOrts. The relationship be­ riphera l ro the research and educat ional 120 have g raduate d egrees onl y. side of rhe Western H emisphere, and tween alumni associations and athletics m iss ion, buc as wich intercoll eg iate In the past year, as a semipro, I have a whole generation of LI S became what has been stud ied in depth by J ames athleti cs, one needs o nl y to beat the paid more anention co the soli cita­ we are because of Sputnik. with hefty Shulman ~m d William Bowen (presi­ po int spread. They d o yie ld bragging tions by Caltcch and its peers. There is conrribucions made in between by U.S. dent of Princecon, 1972-88, and now ri g hts. very Ii trle co no effort targeted at the immigrants displaced by World Wat pres ident of [he Mell on Foundation). Only 5 percent separates L2th from PhD alu mni . It is true that one would II. In spite of it all , the Ameri can Re­ Their The Gmlle of Life (Princeton Uni­ 23rd in the alumni g iving category­ expect them co have g reater affinity co sea rch Universi ty in rh e 2 J Sf ce ntury ve rsity Press, 200 I ) noted among "key that is to say, a difference of L, 000 their underg raduate insticutions. Bu t is still rhe envy of rhe world. There are empiri cal findings (that)' . . athletes are Caltech alumni . We are about l 4 per­ Cal tech is small , with fewer students some uniquely Ameri ca n aspens of ch ar leaders in large numbers in tWO speci fi c cent under our pea k years, which essen­ per class or year than t he average hig h educa tional enterprise seen from the areas: alumni/ae activities and youth ti all y m e~ lI1 s that about 3,000 alumni school. One expects the smaller org a­ "wretched refu se" point of view. g roups .... This is clearest in the case have not g otten arollnd to sending in ni zation CO instill more loyalty than I began writing rhis piece in earl y of alumni/ae lead ership." Shulman their annual g ift lately. would usuall y be the case--especially May. The class of 20 I 0 had JUSt sent and Bowen also nOte that above-aver­ Agai n, the rate of g iving counts, not in those who have had the memo rable in their depos its for sears on the bus to age giving rates are observed in three JUSt the amount. Here is an opportu­ ex peri ence of completing an advanced frosh camp in September. A couple of g roups: former athletes, hig h academic nity CO make up the difference, and to degret', co Calrech's standards. The weeks la ter, the class of 2006 donned achievers, and those who were heavily fini sh the 'There's only one. Caltech" t WO major benefactors of t he lnstiCllte, medieval costume for g raduat ion. In in volved in extracurric ul ar activities as campaig n with a BA NG (a llusion to Arnold Beckman ana Gordon Moore, between came .Mother's Day and our were g radwtte students. Add in the Reunion Weekend. A gathering of fa ct that Co- l tech g raduate students alumni at their al ma mater is a celebra­ represent the desirable "overachieving t ion, like Mother's Day, that is u nique­ end" of their respective underg raduate ly Ameri can . schools. We should be searching for Another quintessent iall y American creative ways ro more active ly eng age practice is seeking d ireer philanthropi c OLlr g raduate alumni. and alumni financial support for private Are there innovat ive approaches universities. Midway through the pen­ that go beyond the underg raduate an­ ultimate yea r of the "There's only one. niversary reunions whose years arc Caltech" campaig n, it is g ratifying to pegged co B d enominacor of 5? MJT has sec that it is on schedule and on tat­ a Matching Fibonacc i Challenge. As for get , having recently reached the $ 1. 1 Cal tech, in a perhaps unique instance of billion mark. In spi te of the Cal tech leading by example, Robert Millikan 's Alumni Associa rion's independence, its "las t gesture ... was a barg ain [that] he p resident and vi ce pres ident are in­ sig ned wi th the Forest L.:''l\vn Associa­ cl uded ex officio in various fund-raising tion (fo r] it ... CO contribure a sum of committees. In this connection, I have money to his beloved Calrech for the noticed a fe w idiosyncrasies. Graduating from president to past president support of research in return for [the students. Keep in mind that one of the University alumni assoc iations in of the Alumni Association, Ponzy Lu '64 (far cemetery's] privil ege" of having his selling points of Cal tech is that anyone tbe United States are essentiall y af­ right) poses with fellow CAA board members remains interred there. Hubert Eaton, can cake part in spores, since there is no (or 2006-07. From left are Kelly Beatty '73, fini[y c1l1bs [hat, I speclliate, fulfill a t he founder of Forest Lawn, another athletic professionali sm, and many of secretary; Chris Wheeler '78, treasurer; and need for many Ameri cans beca use of cutting-ed ge institution in Southern us do. So, my fe llow alums, as we are Bob Kieckhefer '74, vice president. Not pic· our recent ancesrral movement to the tured: new preSident-and new mother (May C~d iforn ia, had as part of his vi sion the also ALL hig h academic achievers, you Western Hem is p here. (The majority l006)-Angie Bealk. '96. founding of an Ameri ca n Pantheon and should all be g iving at a hig h rate. of the successful Europeans and Asians need ed a Nobel laureate's remtlins. A Since we compete in t he hide - and ~ never left, of course, since things were fu tl er version of this story can be found seek- the-cannon leag ue, how do we the Glnnon intended). There is al so the good at home, with nepOtism o r the in the 1963 edition of Millikan's The compare with that Other Insticute of direct effect that alu mni g iving rates class structure sheltering the less able.) Elerlro71 (University of Chicago Ptess), Technology? Cal tech numbers are very have on that ephemeral, but hig hly The extended fam i Iyin [he O ld World edited by J. W. Dumond ' 16 , PhD, '29. similar to M IT's, once the giving dara publicizeu , U . . Nell'S ranking . was the mother of affinity g roups in We have a lot of disting ui shed fa cul ­ is scaled to account for the fa ct that our From the M IT Ailimni ASJociation the N ew. We can see how this plays ty and alumni, worthy of any pantheon . student and alu mni numbers are almost A IIlIlIall?epOl" for 2004-05, one can out in acad emia by reAecting on how exactly one-fi fth of M IT 's. The two see that David Baltimore is leading by many alumni regularly declare their schools' endowment per student is vir­ example. Cal tech's president is li sted all egiance to their coll eges and univer­ tuall y ident ical, as well as our al u mni as an M IT donor at the "President's sities b y wearing athleti c sweatshirts g iving rates profess ionals Fund" level, wi th an annual contribu­ emblazo ned with rhe institutional logo (fLl nd ~ rai s in g compare rates of g iving, distinct from tion that works out CO between $1 (now a g lobal fashion statement). This amounts). and $2 per Cal tech student. H e was a public display of one's alma mater has In September L999, Cahech was g raduate student at MrT only brieRy, in permeated al l of our activities: li cense ranked # I by News (md 1V0rid 1960-61. plates, credit cards, coffee mugs, and u.s. I?eporl , and MIT was ranked #3. I n that Looking more closely at the sub­ those decals [hat obscure t he SUV tear issue of the mag azine, we were 6th in g roup of hig h academic achievers, of New Association jlresident Angie windows wirh curricula vicae of entire alumni g iving at 46 percent, with MJT t he 32 Nobel prizes clai med by the Bealko '96 lViI/ lake over 'his COIIlIll/1 families. The Cal tech Alumni Associa­ ranked 8 th, at 44 percent. 10 the past Cal"fh Calalog, L7 have been awarded ill the next isslle of Caltech News. tion would like you to d emonstrate year (September 2005, most recent da", to alumni, of whom 11. have g raduate

121 Cali/Orilla f lUl l llll t 0/ Ttchn ol ogy • V OLUM E40 NO. 2, 2 006 ALUMNI COLLEGE FOCUSES ON RENEWABLE RESOURCES, PLANETARY PRESERVATION

j oi n fe llow alumni and friends of Cal tech to examine concerns surrounding the effects of energy production on Earth's environment and natural resources. Take

neuroscientist Seymour Benze r, where they began research on the Shaker gene that j oin us for the next Alumni Travel NEW CAA BYLAWS eventtlally led ro the cloning of the first potassium channel. Moving on to Harvard , program june 23-30, 2007, and ex­ they made the key discovery that peptides can function as neurotransmitters. In plore Baja and rh e Sea of Correz aboard The Alumni Assoc iation has 1979, the j ans starred their own lab at UC San Francisco, where they have carried a private ship. The intimate Sea VOYl'lger updated its bylaws, To request a Out groundbrea king research into neural development, with particular emphasis on is ful ly equipped wirh Zodiacs, kayaks, copy, ca ll 626/395 -6592 or email how neuronal diversity ari ses during the wiring up of the embryonic nervous sys tem . and a convenient swimming platform i nformat ion @a lumni.caltech.edu. Today at UCSF, Lily j an is the Lange Professor of Phys iology and Biophysics; Yuh on the stern. Snorkeling and scuba Nung j an is the LlIlge Professor of Molecular Physiology. diving are also available. Whale watch Ca rver Mead '56, PhD '60, Calrech's Moore Professor of Engineering and Applied from [he deck of our ship, hike unin­ Science, Emeritus, began teaching at the Jn srittlre in 1958 and was appointed ass is­ habited beaches and desert, observe This past spring, more t han 50 alumni and tant professor in 1959, before even receiving his PhD, Known internationall y for hi s myriad seabirds, and enjoy the serenity guests traveled with t he Caltech Alumni As­ pioneering work in sol id-state electronics and the management of complex ity in the of a sunset beach barbecue. We will be sociation to the Eastern Mediterranean to witness the total solar eclipse that took place design of very large-scale integrated (VlSJ) circuits, Mead has written widely, holds accompanied by Calrech Professor of numerous patents, and has founded more than 20 companies. While some of his on March 29. Accompanied by Caltech plan­ Geology and Geophysics joann Srock, etary scientist Andy Ingersoll , one group or later work has emphasized the construction of silicon models of neural systems, hi s who recendy returned from a sabbatical partiCipants abo ex plored the Greek Islands current focus is on a new approach to problems of electromagnetic theory. at the University of Sonora, in Mex ico. by private ship (shown below), visiting ancie nt Sean Solomon '66 is director of the dep

l31 Cn/tuh Newt I llfrartdntcks from p(lgt I I when the congress ional appropriation array ca mera, an infrared spectrograph, language expli ci tly sa id that no money and a phorometer-camera, and is ex­ could be spent on the SIRTF project," pected ro operate at full se nsitivity for recalls Soifer. "NASA was still trying three more yea rs. to support our development efforts, so These days, Spitzer seems to pro­ they se nt money to JPL to study infra­ duce a steady St rea m of discoveri es, new, but the sy nergy between N euge­ often ex hi bits a divide between those red observatories and were very careful making more head lines than any other bauer, Soifer, and Matthews is nOtewor­ who build the instnlments and those not to label it SIRTF. It was ce rtainl y astronom ica l instrument currently in thy for both its sustained level of pro­ who ac tuall y use them. "Typicall y, a depressing time. We were rea ll y operati on. The observatory recently duccivity and its duration. Although there is ve ry much a divi sion between conce rned that the project mig ht not fou nd the first evidence that materi- Neugebauer, who retired as professor observers and instrument builders," survive, and the ded ication of the sci­ als around a dead star mig ht be the emeritus in 1998, now lives in Tucson, Soifer says . '·Most astronomers aren't ence team was rea lly cru cia l co continue in g redients for form ing new planets. It Arizona, he keeps in close contact with involved in the process of instrument pushing N ASA, Cong ress, and other surprised astronomers with the di scov­ his form er coll eagues, while Soifer and building and JUSt want to know, 'H ow government agencies to support it. " ery of planet-forming di sks around twO Matthews Stay in touch with each other can I use the instruments that are avai l­ SIRTF escaped ca ncellation, al­ massi ve stars whose size was supposed daily, via phone ca ll s, wa lks around able?' Or if they see someone else's thoug h its budget was slas hed from $2 co be inimica l to planetary for mation. ca mpus, or coffee klatches at the Red instrument, they' ll say, .J wa nt one of billion to $500 million, a move that It detected li g ht from what may be the Door Cafe, or so me combination of all those.' Mosr aStronomers take whatever Soifer thinks reAected NASA's new earli est objects in the universe-stars t hree. Before Neugebauer retired, the is ava il able to them without trying to devotion to its "faster, better, cheaper'· more than 13 bill io n yea rs in age-and three of them cou ld usua ll y be spotted envision what's useful." mantra. To meet the conscraints of it recorded the first emanations of heat lunching tOgether, often with a g roup If the Cal tech infrared g roup is d if­ the rev ised budget, the SIRTF design­ from a planetary body outside our solar of g rad uate students. fe rent, it is perh aps because Leig hton, ers were supposed co eliminate the system. Former g raduare students have also who helped start it all with Neugebau­ telescope's moving pam-all I L of "To me, the mos t exhilarating dis­ benefited from the ca mataderie of this er, loved to build instruments, se tting them-and did eventually succeed in covery is measuring that thermal radia­ infrared troika. "I felt like I was part of a precedent that all owed ocher instru­ whittling t he number down co two. tion of a planet orbiting another star, " a fa mil y," says Andrea G hez, PhD '93, ment bu il ders/observers like Soifer and They also refined the telescope's says Soifer. "Jr 's a profound and hiscori ­ who today is a professor of astronomy M"atthews to nourish. Soifer, for one, cooling system, reducing the compo­ ca l t hing when humans have detected at UC LA . "Gerry was like the fat her sa ys t hat hi s ea rl y in volvement in in­ nents co a size ··that allowed the mis­ di rec tly the lig ht fro m a planet orbit­ advisor, Tom was like rhe uncle advisor, strument building gave him "a deeper sion co be lau nched on a much smaller in g another scar. We never thought and Keith ta ug ht me how to observe. appreciation of the importance of new rocket," Soifer says. "We ca me out we coul d do this with Spitze r, and it's He's not onl y a brilliant instrumental­ instru mentation and instrumentalists witb so mething morc clegant, clever, rea ll y a tribute to the q uality of the ist, but a bri ll iant observer roo." in advancing the fi eld . My background and COS t effecc ive then what we started instruments and the observatory that "I think there is something special has given me a greater sense t han mOSt with." In 1997, Soifer was named di­ we could make this extremdy precise about them," says Al ycia Weinberger, obse rvers of the value of new technolo- rectO r of the Cal tech-based SIRTF Sci­ observation. PhD '98, now on the scientific staff in ence Center, which operates the science "A lot of running Spitzer is ad minis­ the Department of Terrestrial Mag­ program, data process ing, and public trative and there's a lot of management, netism at the Carn egie Institution of For all the sllccesses that outreach for the telescope. which are not the kinds of things one Washington, "The fact that they've SIRTF was launched in Aug ust 2003 generall y enjoys," Soifer ad mits, "But gorten along for so many yea rs is reall y and, in December, JUSt after it went the science is tremendously rewarding. astounding. " Nellgeballer, Soifer, and inco full operation, it was renamed the It's g ratifying to fee l that yo u're a sig­ Li ke Ghez, Weinberger says that Spitze r Space Telescope in honor of nificant part of what is truly exciting Matthews was integral to her work. Matthews have achieved, astrophysicist Lyman Spitzer Jr" the sc ience. " "Keith was essential to any infrared fitst person CO propose putting a large For Soifer, working with Spitzer is project. H e liked to be a little obscure. telescope in space. Somewhat larget not onl y about watching other scien­ That may have bee n part of the teach­ there tIlay be a bittersweet than lRAS, at 0.85 meters in size, the tists have fun. He gets to ca rry Out in­ ing process, not showing you all the telescope is eq ui pped with an infrared vestigations witb the telescope and has steps and forcing yo u to think through ending to their infrared used it to study dust-enshrouded galax­ things. I still talk to him regularly." ies that were formed when the universe And, she adds, Neugebauer se t very was about Ll3 its present age, and that high standards, which pushed all the astronomy story, are L,OOO times more luminous than g raduate students to excel. "He worked the Milky Way. "We think these are a long hours and ex pected the same level new class of ex tragalactic objeCts which of commitment from us. When he was g ies and telescopes in opening new we're trying to understand. Most likely chair of the [PMA) division, he would areas of research in astronomy. That is they're quasarl ike objects hidden in spend his days running the division, go why I enjoy chat aspect of astrophys i­ dust," home for d inner, and then come back cal research so much. A major part of These new observations have to do science at nig ht. We ahvays joked the tension between observers and i n­ brought Soifer back tOgether with that ifhe did n't see us at ni ght, he'd strumenralists, in my opinion, is that Matthews to bui ld a new instrument ass ume that we hadn't been tbere the most obse rvers do not recogni ze that fo r the Keck-a near-infrared ec hell e whole day." what they are doing is made poss ible spectrometer, whi ch will look at the Neugebauer says chat the reason that by superb instrumental ists. This leads spectra of those unusual extragalactic he, Soifer, and Matthews have worked to a view that the science is done by the objects. "Spitzer gave us so me informa­ so compatibly for so many years is that observer, rather than as a coll aboratio n tion, but the new instrument will an ­ they have approached science in the between the instrument and telescope swer other ques tions, like what causes same way. "I think the thing we have builders and use rs. this huge amount of energy to be gen­ in common is that we all have the same "I think that the crea ci on of new erated ," Soifer says. "We hope to diag­ attitude to what is 'good' sc ience and instruments is the heart and so ul of nose the internal physical processes in how to do it ve rsus what is 'bad ' science observational as tronomy," Soifer says. the objeers by finding various spectral and a waste of time. " Asked to explain, "You ca n't make progress in under­ fearures that are charaCte ri stic of ei ther he says, "This is very subjective, and standing the uni verse without building bursts of star formation or AGN [active the reason Tom , Keith, and I get along new instruments. Keith is a mas ter The Spitzer Space Telescope (above) nearly galactic nuclei , thoug ht to usually in­ fe ll under the budget ax, but since its launch is that we ag ree on whar's importanr instrument bui lder, but he's also a use r. in 2004, it has produced Impressive resul ts. volve black holes) power sou rces." Soi ­ without hav ing to spell it out. Bas i­ He understands how it all fits together The images at t he top right of spiral galaxy fer says he expects the instrument to be call y, it's tbe goal to represent scientifi c and how it will be used. He has a real M51 show several diffe rences betwee n images operational before another yea r is out. data truthfully and to get the mos t out breadth of understanding of hardware taken with Kltt Peak National Obse rvatory's of it withom embell ishing it." 2. I-meter optical telescope, and Spitl er Space and what technology ca n deliver in Telescope's infrared array came ra. The Spitler T il E TIIRFF AM IGOS Thei r re lationship is also marked terms of mak in g measurements and image reveals unusual structures bridgi ng the by a level of mutual appreciation that how instruments in teract with the gaps between the spi ral arms. Scientific co ll aborations are nothing is so mewhat rare in astronomy, which telescope." C01l1ill/ltd 0 1/ pagt 18

14 1California I nJlilu" of T uhnology • VOT.UME40 NO. 2, 2 006 tion, "Sketchp'ld: A Man Machine Gmphical Daniel Ro m m reportS that he has been in­ Communication System," represented a g round­ cluded in Who's Who ill America, 2006 Phl[inum breaking imemccive cO lllpure r ~ aided design Edirion. He has a new book, Things )'Ollr Bridge system . Sutherhmd joined Caltech as n professor Ttorher Won', Tell YOII, coming out in July from and will also support srudem scholarships. L940 of computer sc ience in 1976, and in 1980 he Master Point Press. Ilis previous book was A George R. Drown, of Mid land, Texas, writes Dickinson spent 40 years wi th Texaco as an became a vi ce presidem of the consulting firm Crt/iff o/S(JII . limt he has visi ted some little-known places in engineer and executive. Sutherland , Sproull and Associates, which Sun West Texas. One, the Horsehead Crossing of Microsystems acquire<1 in 1990 to form the ba­ 1965 the Pecos rivers. is where "ca t{h~ were driven Henry L. I{ichter, PhD '56, of Palm Springs, sis of its research lab. Surherlancl's many awards Doug las Bed e r, PhD, of Vancouver, British from Texas to New Mexico both before and after California, writes: "I suddenly have an exhibit include the ACM Turillg Award ( 1988), the Columbia, has joined the board of di re(tors of ,he Civil War, No marker or identification was in the new Smirhsonian Air and Space Mu- IEEE Emanuel R. Pi ore Awatd (1986), and the Current T(-'c hnology Corporation. A professor placed 0 11 the e'J.St side of rhe river bur a granite seum, wife and I were driving from D.C. My IEEE John von Neumann Medal ( 1998). lie is a emeritus in the University of British Columbia's boulder was placed on rhe west side," which , to t ynchb urg and decided to stop by tht:: new fell ow of both [he National Academy of Sciences deparrment of physics and astronomy, Beder has Brown repon s. "the 'old ' rimers say is mislo­ Airand Space Museum near Dulles Airport. and the National Academy of Engineering. been a consu ltant to Current Technology si nce cared." lie adds that "the Butterfield Overland We did not have a 101 of time so took .. quick 199 1. H is past research appoi mments have Stage Rome (Sf. Louis to Sa n Francisco) was weB swing, paniculnrl y around the Space Shuttle L96 L included the Los Alamos Nationall...... bol"'.ltory; known but I was quitt' surprised to find thot the area," T hey noticed a small display case behind Rick A , Foster wrires: "I-lavi ng d rirted from {he L... wrence Radiation I...... borilcory in Berkeley, roure went chrou,I;I h the J-Iorsehcad Crossing just the Shuttle where some Explorer items were mathematics to the theater thirty-some years G difo rnia; and the European Center for N uclear on display. "\'(IE RE WE SU RPR ISED on the before the Civil War." ago and become a nor-quite starving playwrig ht, I~ esea r c h in Geneva, Switzerl and. At thc Uni­ backside of the case to see (he Explorer I Ri g ht I am now completing rhe ci rcl e, sort of, with versity of British Columbi\\, his research and Ho be rt Cox is still in business af rhe age 0(S8. slY."re nansn)iltct on display, with a ni ce ca rd my new play Tht Starry Mmtnger, about Galik'O, academic responsibilities included serving as having owned Lauderdale Marina fo r 58 years with my name on (wrong middle inieial)," if My company, Duende: Drama & Literature, will Faculty of Science Coordinator for rhe Univer­ now, but he has left poli tics. Though still a He rescued ir from the crash while he was still begi n touring {his play [0 schools in Central si ty Industry Liaison Office. registered Professional Engineer, mOSt of hi s at JPL in the late '50s, and ie sat in his junk box Cu li rorniu in October. More about my recent consulting is done for his business. lIe stnn ed in hi s garage fo r yea rs. "I offered it to JPL, bur work call be found on our website www.cluend­ James J. Duders tadt, MS, PhD '68, former a new boat·building compnny in New York last Dr. Pickering said chat it was a national artifact, president of rhe Universicy or Michigan, has edrama.org." year, and built a new wine and spirits store in and rhus belonged to the Smithsonian," Ri chter been appointed by rhe University orC.. liforn in Chaumont, New York, III a hi SlOric building offered it to rhem, but they said they had CO L962 regentS to n committee fo r iml)roving the re­ orig inall y construcred in 1872. He reports that get permi.ssion (rom NASA before accepting Stanley Flaltc, professor of physics, emeriUls, at gem s' oversight of rhe lllliversity systcm's execu­ t he amique-boat museum he smrted 40 years it. After months of paperwork, they said OK. UC Sama C ruz, has been honored by a colloqui­ rive compensation pracrices. ihe regents have ago in Clayton, New York, is doing fi ne, He Richter restOred it- he says that the batteri es um, organized by the department of physics fo r been under pressure from facu lty and legislators adds thut he is "working on making 100." were badly corroded--a.nd sene it to them . " I May I I . Scheduled speukers discussed Flaw!'s co justify pay .. nd benefit s to admin ismlcors. presumed ie would sir in some basement ar­ conrribut ion~ tn panicle physics, ro ~eismology, The committee will include academicians, busi­ Victor \'(fuuk, MS , PhD ' 12, II,,!> bt:en named (illV(', but \vhat a surpn .. e to see it on d isplay! " and to acean acoustics. A fellow of lilt:: Ameri­ n('ss execut ives, :md former legislators. posthumously [he rec llneut of the 2005 Sperry can Physical Society, the Acoustica l Sociery of Award "in recogni tion of hiS work developi ng L9 56 America, rhe Optical Society of America, and Li -San Hwang, PhD, is chairman, pres ident, hybrid veilicles." Unique in that it is the only Haymond Orbach , director of Office of L. the the America n Associarion ror the Ad vancement and CEO of Tena Tech Inc., which has been transportation engineering honor presented Science at the Department of Energy, has been of Science, Flom~ joined the UCSC faculty in awarded a five .year S5D million indefinite­ jointly by six professional eng ineering societ­ selected by President Bush ro be Under Secre­ 1971. I-I e received his PhD in physics from UC delivery/indefinite-quantity contract from the ies, the Sperry Award includes a medal and tary fo r Sc ience at the Department of Energy. Berkeley. Environmental Protection Agency to pt!rform ce rrificllte as well as a commemorative awu rd Orbach previously served as chancellor of UC scientific, rechnical, resea rch , eng inee ring, and booklet. The award "was es tab lished in 1955 to Riverside for 10 years, and prior to filM was commemOr'.lce tbe life of Elmer A. Sperry, whose provost of the College of Leners and Science at many inventions- including the gyroscope, the UCLA . He received hi s PhD from UC Berkeley. first electric aucomobile, and air and sea naviga­ KEEP US INFORMED THROUGH THE tiollal aids-

15 \ C,,/tech NelliS mIXIelin8 support (STREA MS). Awarued in of science and writing :tnc\ senior lecturer in various forms LO 1etra Tech five consecutive physics at MIT, and has hl'aded tile: Program in 197M rimes, the COrHracc will involve co ndu c lin~ Writing and Ilumanistic Studies there. He is Dwight Decker, PhD, cha irman and chief {:.Ioomtory \\1ld l)ilot-5(

wastewater trearment, ecosystem restoration, privately he ld company lhnt develops and com­ operations In India. watershed !>tressors, browllfields revitalization, merciali1.t!S amplification ~md de.tectio[\ systems sustainability, and groundwater. fo r genom ic and protcomic research. A partner Phil Engchilif has been appointed NASA's in the venture-investing firm Alloy Ventures r'ew chid (Ijghr director and will oversee the 1966 since 2004 , Hunkapiller spent the previous 2 1 space shuttle and lmernalional Space Station j ames Hoger Angel, MS, has be('1l ~ Ieued by years at Applied Biosystems (ABI)-n compnny nHSSlons as well as plans for missions to the the America n Astronomic;t l Society to rece ive A FISHY STORY,Anthony Gha,.,.ett thar supplies instrument and reagent systems for moon and Mars. A flight director since 1990, (above) '67. proressor or risheries at the Uni­ rhe 2006 Joseph \'(Iebcr Award for Astronomical lire science research- which during his renure he has led fli gh t-control teams ror 29 space versity of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), has received Instrument;ttion "for his superlative work span­ };few from n start-up to almost $2 billion in shurtle missions, of which he was lhe lead f1i ghr the research award that is one part or UAF's ning twO decades on the development of a new tripartite 2006 Emil Usibelli Distinguished annual revenues. At AU [, he held several pos i­ director for [L. J Ie was lead or rhe space shutrle genertlrion of large telescopes, his esrabl ishment Teaching. Research. and Public Service awards. tions, IllOSt reccntly as president :md general fli!\ ht-direcwr team for three yenrs before be ing of the Steward Observatory Mirror L.'lb , and a During his three decades on the Alaska manager, and he helped found AJ3[ 's sister promoted ro deputy chief of the Flight Di rector hust of extraordinary conceptual ide"s thaI have raculty, Gharrett has rocused his research on company Cclera Genomics and served as sen ior Office in March 2005. Before becoming a flight been tUrned into practical engineering solutions Alaska fish, primarily salmon and rockfish. vice presi dent of Applem Corpomtion (thei r par­ director, he worked as a fIighr planner in the for astronomy." Presented llI1nually since 2002, and genetic markers within their populations. em company). A former senior research fellow Mi ss ion Concrol Center, beginning wid, STS-1 the award consists of $2,500 ancl II cemficate. A The award. which includes a S I 0,000 prize, at Caltl'Ch, I-I unkapi ll er during his career has in 1982. He had transferred (() the johnson Regems' Professor at the University of Arizan;' recognizes Gharrett both as an international authored more (han [00 s(ienrific publications Space Center that same year after begll1nmg Ius leader in his field of genedcs and an out­ who is on the faculty of che universi ty 's astrono­ and has served on the editori:11 boards of seveml cu reer With NASA at rhe Ames Research Center standing mentor to students, my dcpartmclll and Coll ege of Optical Sciences, journals. He is an inventor 011 more rhan tWO in SlHlnyvale, Ca li forn ia, in 1978. I Je received Angel is the director of the Steward Observatory dozen patents. the NASA Disting uished Service Meda l, [he Mi rror 1... 'lboraLOry and the Center for Astro­ agency's highest honor, in 2004 in recognition nomica l Adaptivt' OptICS. Angel is a member of (.eremonies. in recog nition of 11Is outsrand- 1975 nfhis having supported mort' missions IlS lead the National Academy of Sciences, a MacArthur IIlg acl1lcvcmenrs. A fellow of the Ameri cn n Paul Goodson has been appointed seninr fli ght direccor (hun any other flight director Pdlow. and .1 Fcllow of the Royal Soc ICty. lie phys ic;1i Soc lelY and the: AmNIGII1 AC:l.(lt,OlY of dIrector, inV{'stOr reiJ.ri Olls. for XOMA Ltd" t[lrnu!!IIOllr NASA's hl~lor)' ofhlrnl.ln sp,\Cc­ reLclvl·d IlL!> dOltorale from Oxfurd University In Arts and Sciences and a member of the National a blopharmaceutical company In therapeu- ti lght. 1967, (hen raught physics and worked in X-ray Academy of Sc iences, 'furner received his doc­ ric antibod ies. With more than 20 yea rs of astronomy for six years at Columbia University. (Omte in physics from Stanford Universicy in invesror-relations and general-management 1979 lie joined the University of Arizona in 1974. 1978. Ilis research focuses on the earliest mo­ experience, Goodson comes co XOM A from Licw-Chuang Chill , MS 'SO, PhI) '83, who m('IUS of the universe, and he is regarded as an Shareholder Va lue Partners, an invcscor-rel:ttions joined Optical ComrnuniCll(ion Prod uCts Inc. and managemem-consult ing firm he founded in 197 1 importdnt contribuwr (0 infl:uionary universe in 2005 as director of manuf:lctlIrin!!, has lx·t·11 Rena Ili zios, MS, has been mimed a Peter T. theory, to Big Bang nucleosynthesis rheory, and 200t Prior ro that he scrved as vice president promOled to vice pres idelH of manufaCturing. Flawn Distinguished Professor of Biomedica l to Ollf understanding of dnrk cnergy and how of investor relations at Invi trogen CQrpora- Prior to ioinin~ DCI', Chiu served for a year as I!ngintering lit {he UnivCr$iry of Ttxas al $;,m galaXies and larger srructures formed. tlon, and earlier as president of tWO research cllrcctOr of opt!mrions at JDS Ulliphase Corporn­ Amonio (UTSA). She is one of tWO winners and development firm s. Afler gn1duating (rom tlon . From 1998 to 2004, he hdd the position of the 2005-06 Pcter T. Flawn Di stinguished 1973 Calrcch, Goodson receivl-d an M in chemi cal of vi ce president of operations (I( E20, a fibcr­ Professorships, which ~\Te the n'lmt:sake of the Pierre H . J ungels, PhD, former chier execu­ engil)cering ftom the University of Wisconsin optic subsystems comp:my thal J OS acquired UTSA president who served from 197 3 to rive officer of Enterprise Oi l PLC, has been and an MB A from UC LA. in 200t1 . E:lrlier he had served as ma nager 1977 and are awarded to faculty considered ro IIppoimed II director of Ilaker Hughes Incorpo­ of research and development with I-I ewlett­ "epitomize the beSt qualities of (he UT System rated, which provides drilling, formaci on evalu­ 1976 P<\ckard's coml'oncms operation in Sing"apore. and higher educarion in Texas." The rec ipient :uion, and other products and services to the oil Howard Bubb has OC"t'n appointed to the board OCP designs, manufactures, and se lls fiber-optic of severn I honors related co englllccring and lind gas industry worldwide. Jungels will serve of directors or Kasenn:l, the [PlY Company, "a subsystems nnd modu les for metropolilan, locIII , biomarerials science, Bizios has established thra' on the compensation and finance committees. A leading provider of video-on-demand (VOO) and stomge area networks. pmems, published nearly a hundred journal Chartered Engineer, he served until Ol'Ce mbcr conrenr and MPEG-4 ready IJ>TV applica- articles , and submitted and presented papers at 2003 as president o( rhe Instit'Ut e of Petroleum, lions for Trip[e Play se rvi ces over bro.'ldband Anna Siomovic, a privacy issucs t:xpert, hns conferences worldwide. She has served on rhe lind from 1996 through 200 I as a direcmr and net works." i3u bb, who is chairrnllll and chi ef ex ­ joine:d Revol ution Ilealth Group:ls chief privacy editorial boards of five bioscience journals and chief executive officer of Enterprise Oil, one of ecutive officer or Ambric, an e:arly-srage sta rt-up officer; she will oversee daca prOl ectioli and on the Commitcee of Examiners for rhe GRE the largest independent Europcan oil compa­ specializing in semiconductor development and privacy practices. She previously served as chief Enginl-erin8 Test. Bizios received her PhD in nies at the time. Prior to that, he worked in a design, has held previous executive positions ar privacy officcr and senior privacy strategist at biomedical engineering from MIT. variety of posi lions in the oi l ;tnc! g:ls industry. Intel Corporation, Dialogic, and Lexar. SRA International, a provider of technology J ungels IS also a director of Woodside Petroleum and consulting services in the national-securiry, Terrence M. Morri s, MS, has joined the board Ltd . and of Imperinl Tobacco Group Ple. The 1977 hea lrh-clre, and public-health arenas, and prior of di rectors of Narural Health Trends Corpora­ recipient in 1989 of an Honomry Commander Be:l rriz V. Infante, MS, hns Ix'en aPlx)imed to fhac she managed privacy issues ae Va lu(Op­ tion, an international direct-sell ing company ()f the Ilrirish Empire (CBE), he resides in New­ CEO of Voi ceObjects, "the worldwidt' le:lder in lions, a behavior:!. 1 health-care management operating in more than 30 markets throughout bury, England. Voi ce Application Manageml·nt Systems." She company owned by FIIC I lealth Sysrems. Slo~ Asia, Nonh Ameri ca, Eastern Eu rope, and Latin will also take a scat on rhe company's board of movi c has a PhD in public-policy analysis from

America. A general p:mner at Morningside A I ~ 1Il Li J.: hfman, MS, PhD 7t1, has been select­ directors. She has served in executive posi tions the RAND Graduate School and an MBA (rom Ventures. Morris serves IlS the firm 's president ed by Sigma Xi , rhe Scientific Research Society, at SYfhron, Aspect Communications. and Oracle Loyola Marymounr University. and managing director and directs irs private co receive the 2006 John P. McGovern Science Corporarion, and she is currently on rhe bo:l rds venture capiral ponfolio. Prior to Morningside, \Ind Society Award, presented nnnua ll y si nce of Netli and of Join( Venture Silicon Valley 1984 he worked at IB M's Watson Research Cemer. 1984 "for contributions to sc ience and sociery." Network. as well as on the advisory board co the Stuart E. Goodni ck has lx'l'll appolilted vi ct: Baxter 11 ealthcare, the Boston Consulting The award consists of a medal and $4,000. A Prince ton University School of Engineering. president of profession:d services and support Group, and Bay Partners. o.nd he is a current or physicist, nove list, and essayist, Lig hlman hIlS by Liquid Machines Inc., a firm specializi ng in past member of rhe boMds of directors of Fam il y served on the faculty at Harvard University, and j ay Puri, MS, has joined NVIDIA Corporarion enterprise riglHs manngemellC. I-I e will oversee Educo.tiol1 Network, Va riagenics, Eurona Medi ­ (rom 1979 to 1989 was a reseo.rc h sc iemist at as senior vice president of worldwide sales. Puri profeSSIO nal services, custom consu lting, and ca l AB , Cell Ther'.lpeurics, and Dendreon. Mor­ rhe Harvard-Smithsonian Center for AsrropllY s­ spent 22 ycars at Sun Mi crosys tellls. where he solution implem(·nwtlon !>etvices. Goodnick ris is a graduate of the Harvard Busll1t'ss School. ics. 1-1 is essays about science, AS well as short held positions in sales, marketing, and general joined Liquid Machint-s in 2004 ns p:m of fi ction and reviews. have appeared in m{IIlY management. Ill' has :ll so held marketing, that company's acquisiuon or Omniva Policy Michael S. Turner, Rauncr Disting ui shed Ser­ publications, including Harperi, the Nelu Yorker, management-consulting, lI nd product-develop­ Systems, :mcl has been serving as direc ror of vi ce Professor at the University of Chicago and SmitiJJonirlf/, lJiJeol'tr, Nrl/llre. and the New York mt,'nr positions at I-Iew len-Packard, Booz Allen technicll l se rvi ces. \'(Iith more fhan 18 years assistant direCtor of tbe National Science Foun­ Time;. Il is books include '{'be lJirlgfJI)JiJ, Reunion, & I-I amilton, and Tex:ls Instruments. Consid­ of t'xpcrienct: in engi neering (Ind openttional dation for Mathematical ancl Physiclil Sciences, A Senst' oJ the AlymrioflJ, and The Disaweril'J, and cn'd rhe worldwide leader in programmable rnan;lgcment, he has held eXl'Cutive positions at received an honorary degree from Michigan his 1993 novel, Eimlei1l '; Drt'oms, was an inrer­ graphics processor technologics, NV [OIA is State University during its fall comn'\enc~ meOl nntional beSt seller. He has served as professor headquartered in Santa Clara, California. Omniva Poli cy Sys fC.' ms and with tht! Compu· motor dLvis ion or Parkt!r HtIl1LlLfiLl . Goodllick ea rned his MS in phys ics :Lt UC S.Ulta Cruz.

1985 Richard G iJbrech , MS, PhD '9 1. has been llamt!d d Lrcctor or NASA's Stcnnis Space Cen· ter. Gi lbrech has served as depllt y direcror of NASA's L.'l llgley Research Ccnccr and of NASA's Engineering Safety Center. 1-1(' starred hi s ca ree r :ll Stennis in 1991, and he has worked at the J ohnson Space Fl ig ht Cemer's White Sands Facili ty, the Marshall Space Flig ht Ceneer, and the G lenn Research Cenrer. YOU SPEND YOUR LIFE John Platt, MS, PhD '89, a senior res{'archer at Mic rosoft, has rece ived an Academy Award for technical achievement. lie shared the awa rd HELPING OTHERS with University of Toronto professor Dcmetri Terzopoulos for techniqlles they developed in HAVE A FUTURE. the 1980s that make computer-simulated cloth look and move like the rea l th ing. Accepting the award at the tcchnical and sc ienrific ceremo­ WE SPEND OURS ny that preceded the televised Oscar ceremony, Platt r(.'ce ived a laugh from the audience by thankLnB Rachel McAdams. the actress hosting HELPING YOU the ceremony, for recluci ng his "Kevin Bacon number" to three, a reference to the lO ngue- in ­ HAVE ONE. check game in whLch people determine thei r "degree of separation" from thc acror. In I:lct, Plan did rhe work when he was a grad srudenr You see, in the end it all balances out. After all, you dedicate your career to at Cli lrech: he anci TerzoJ>oulos developed :m helping others have a better life. It's only fair that following that career you algornhm, basto on reill-worlo physICS, that si mulatt-u clmh with unprcccdtntcd accuracy. should have a better life too. One called-retirement. We are TIAA-CREF Plan joined M icrosofr in 1997 and is curren tl y and for more than 85 years we've been providing long-term financial manager of Microsoft Research's Know ledge solutions speCifically created for people In the academic, medical, cultural Tools Grollp. and research fields whose lifework enriches everyone, As a $370 billion financial services group with a lengthy nonprofit heritage, our mission to 1986 serve includes operating with a low fee structure, not paying commissions \'(fi lliam J. Dally, PhD, Bell Professor of Cam· pllter Scicnce and El ectrica l Engineering and to our employees and mandates we work closely with you, our partiCipants, chairman or the computer scicncc dcpartment at to provide the best financial solutions to fit your life now and during Sw nford Uni versity, has been named a new inde­ retirement. It's simple really, You help our future, we'll help yours, pendent member of Porenl Player Inc.·s boa rd of dirL'C tors. A fellow or (he Institute of Elecrri- Find out how we can serve you at tiaa-cref.org/greatergood. ca l ancl Electronics Eng ineers (IEEE) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Dally's numerOliS honors incl ude rhe IEEE Sey­ mour Cray Award and the ACM Maurice Wilkes Award. I-Ie currently heads projectS on hig h­ speed signaling, computer archi tecrure, network archi tecture, and programming systems, and he is an author of the textbooks Dlglfal S)'s/eIllJ E"gmeeri1l1: and Prll1riplu amI Prarlirtl o/l merro1l­ l1KtlOl1 Netu'Ork;. lie has published more than 170 papers. Prior to joi ning Stanford in 1997, he was a professor At MIT for II yea rs. He also cofounded Vella Communications, a provider of hig h-spee<1 imerconll C'C f and switch f.'lbric rhat was acquire<1 by LS I 1..0J.:lc in 2004, and Stream Processors Inc., a semiconductor company prov iding hi g h.performancc signal and imnge processors. Portal Player develops semicon­ ductor, firmwa re, and software platrorms for of sciemific and resea rch leadership positions in am a Certified Ilealing C(xles Coach. This is an publisher«(l\pjvoice.colTI . His filmily is ex pecring portable multimedia produCts such as personal both government and industry. lie serves 0 11 incred ibly effec ti ve healing modality that people irs rounh child . "Ilden and I, Gabby, Jonathan media players and notebook compllters ena bling the boa rd of directors of the Air Force Stud ies do for themselves. So much of my work is by and Benjamin cn ll 't wait! " secondary dL splay. Boord or (he National Academi es, is Bil advisor te lephone. I work with Ziquin Educarional fO (he Defense Sc ience Bo:ml and Defense Policy Group's extraordi nar il y cfft'ctive nutritional 1987 Taylor \ VI. Lawrence has been appointed Board, and is 11 liferune member of (he Ameri ­ products. \'(lith rhis combinarion, I feci like I Hosemary Macedo has lx"Cn (' I(,(tcd ex('Cutive by [he Raythcon Company as vice president, ca n 1ns(iune of Aeron:1Urics ;lIld Asrronautics. havc found tbe answer fo r healing. I am speak. director of the Thomas J. \'Uarson Fellowship, a engineering, technology tmd mi ss ion assurance, Lawrence received his PhD in applied physics illg before larger ,groups of people, and making prog ram of the Thomas J. \'V'arson Foundat ion. effective April 10. He comes to Rayrheon fro m from Stanford in 1992, and he W:l" honored in a bigger differencc. Now, here's something for The dir{"Cto rship rotatcs among fo rmer fe llows, Northrop Grumman, which he joined in 1999 1996 with the Secretary of Defense Medal fo r you. Bmlfl1t." with each terlll lusring rwo or three yea rs. as vice pres ident, products and tedmology, Meritorious Civilian Service. Macedo, who wi ll be bas{"(1 in New York, takes for the company's Systems Dcvtlopmenr and Daniel E. Loeb reports lh:Lt he is still working over on July I. Umd March she had served Technology Division; he WIl" prommed to sec­ Sandra L. I..ce writes: "Life is wonderful. in Statistia d Arbitrage at Susquehan na Imerna­ as senior vice president ar Bailard Inc., where tOr vi ce presi dent and general manager of that Everything has changed. In November 2005, I ti onal Group. In whar he Gills his nonexistcnt she creatcd andl11anaged domesri c, global , and division in 200 1, and was appo inted senor vice married Ken Si lbernagel, and in April , I moved spnre time, he is also part of a grollp working internarional cquity stnuegies, ro r rhe pasr I I presidem and general manager for the El ec­ ro rhe Okanagan Vall ey, British Colum bia, on a new nonprofit volu nt eer-based online com­ ye:Lrs managing the company's imernariomll tronic Systems Division in 200,1. Before join ing Ca nada. After 13 years in ful -rime massage munity newspaper. Tbe Pbilfldell,bifJ j ell'iJb Voia Northrop Grumman, Lnwrence held a variety prac ti ce, 1 am now doing new hea ling work. (http://www.pjvoice.com). lie can be reached at

17[ Cal tub Nfl/'J equity mutual fund , whi ch covers more rhan 50 moting vi sua l arts in general." They now offer a 'n/ r u r etl IJ ukJ. f r om prlge / ,' countries. Her research has been published in line ofT·shirrs featuring art-rclalCd quotations, numerous nmmci\\t journals and ~\S chapters in and their products "have received a considerable Matthews, who says that Soifer has investment books. amount of attention frolll art educarors." The been hi s constam sou nding board and comp:lIly offers custom desig ns for fund· raisers has made in va lu able co ntributions co Robert M , Waymourh, PhD, Swain Professor and other promotions, and can be contacted at many of his instruments, sums up the in Chemistry at Stanford University, has been http://artoutoftheframe.com . .. We ell rrent I y situation rather succinctly: "Without named rhe Stanford Friends University Fell ow offer qUOfes frolll a diverse g roup of artists in· being able to meas ure thi ngs. as[[on· in Underg raduate Ed ucation, one of the fifth c1ud ing Andy Warhol, Vincent van Gogh, M.arc and fmal group of Bass University Fellows in Cha.galt, Pablo Picasso, Rene Matisse, Wass il y amy is like re ligion. Astronomy isn 't Underg rad uare Education. Nine lIniversi lY Knndinsky and many Ofher influential artists. science unless YOLi observe. ft's specul a­ professors have ~e n cho:>en for t he fell owship, The quo(ations focus on an and how it relates to tion. I co ncentrated on instruments, "which recogni zes exceprional commirment lire. For example, rhe Marc Ch:lgaJl quote reads, whi ch is as tronomy toO , 1 think it was PROTEAN to reaching and mentonng underg mduate 'Grea t an picks up where nature ends ... · The [UCLA asHonomer Lawrence) Aller students." A major initi ~ili ve of rhe $ 1 bi llion website provides shorr biographical sketches who once sa id , 'The te/escope should PYROTECHNICS Ca mpaign for Underg raduate EducOi tion, the for each anisr quoted, highlig hting some of rhe get [he medals.'" program is named in recognition of Anne T. a!'ld more interesting aspectS of each artist's Life, plus CharaCteristically, Matthews also Wi[h [he July 4 holiday gone R o~ rt M. BliSS, Stanford MBA '74. Fellowship links to more complete biog raphies. has hi s own rake on the distinction bu[ nO[ (o rgo[[en, Caltech NeM appoilHments are for fi ve years. between observers and astronomers, takes pleasure in presenting, on Ke ith Kuwata, PhD, associate professor in the saying, "I'm a plumber, I'm not a hi gh our back-page posrer, thi s explo­ 1990 chemistry department or Macalester College in David B. Kirk, MS, PhD '9" chi ef sc icm ist at St. Paul , Minneso(a , has been g ranted renure priest." While he enj oys bui lding in­ sive image of cosmic fireworks. NVIDIA Corporation, has been elet.ted 10 the SUltu S. A phys ica l chemist with a backg round struments, he also likes the more im­ courtesy of d,e Spi[zer Space N ational Academy of Engineering in recogni. in laser sptctroscopy and atmospheric chemisu y, mediate g ratification that comes from Telescope. LeS[ readers co ncl ude rion of hi s rol e in bring ing hig h. performance Kuwaw has been teaching at Macalester since observin g by coming up with "tech­ that the image is ev id ence of a g raphics (0 personal computers . "Among the 2000. Jl is research involves the use of both ni ques to measure things that are hard spectacular new extragalactic highest profess ional d istinctions accorded to an quaJl(lIrTI chemistry ancl statistical mt(' theory to measLlre" or are unknown. phenomenon. we should note engineer," academy mem bersh ip "honors those to unravel the mechanisms of r('actions in the Par all [he successes that Neugebau­ who have made olltsmnding comriburions" atmosphere, with a particular interest in study· er, Soi fer, and Ma[[hews have ach ieved, that some artistic license has ( 0 eng ineering. According to NV1DIA , Kirk ing rhe role of ozone in rhe producrion ofOH t here may be a bittersweet ending to been taken with the picture, "is the inventor of 50 p.1tem s, patent applica· mel icals. Seveml of his numerous publications their infrared astronomy story, in that which actually merges twO unre­ tions, and arricles relating to g raphics des ig n include M:K.des ter studem coaurhors, and 11(.' the research environment that maJe lated images. The one on cop, re­ and has published more than 50 articles on has received grams from the American Chemi· se mbling a psychedelic jellyfish, g mphics technology." In 2002 he received the cal Society'S Petroleum Research Fund and t he t heir co ll aborations so fr uitfu l appears SJGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement National Science Foundation. [0 be going [he way of cl oud-chamber is actuall y a composite image of Award. Considered the worldwide leader in physics. I n a sense, infrared astronomy the Cartwheel Galaxy as seen by programmable g raphics processor technolo· Hilla Sh aviv has ~e n appointed product man· has become a cas ualty of its own suc­ four instruments, in cluding the g ies, NVIDIA i ~ headquartered in Santa Clara, \\gcr by MIV Therapeutics subsidiary agaX, cess-so popular that it is now domi­ Spitzer's infrared array camera. whose Aortic Embolic Protection Devi ce is Ca lifornia. nated by I"[ge-sca le proje([s and s",fTed The image in the lower half (a lso being developed to reduce stroke occurrence by scores of astronomers and engineers taken by Spitzer'S infrared ar- 1992 following he!lrt surgery. Shaviv rece ived an at many institutions. All in all , says ray ca mera), which looks like an Bo nnie \'(IaJ lace and Kevin Archie welcomed MSc in bi omedical eng ineering from Tel Aviv Neugebauer, it's ",ken a bi[ of the joy the arrival of Fiona Skye Archi e \'(Iallace on University, and she has specialized in the cardio· accelerating rocket or a tornado, out of astronomical exploration. J I\nuary 20 , 2006. "She's happy and growing vascular system and rhe mechanics of blood Aow. "I nfrared as tronomy has become is known as Ile[big-Ham 49/50, and very imer(,SlOO in learning how to Silo" During her work at Calcech she designoo and and i t's a shock from created constructed It novel , feedback·controllcd , valve­ such a part of regular astronomy that by a jet of Ina[erial [hrown ofT 1994 less heart·assist devi ce, and as an R&D eng ineer the fun of experimenting has gone from J .150n T. Lee reports rhat he has fin all y com· at Bi omenix she managed the devdopment of it," Neugebauer says. "It's true that by a newborn and S[ill-forming plcted eig ht years of postgraduate surg ic:11 train· novel mt.-d icsl equi pment, from concept co pro· res ults are more remarkable than ever. star. The jet has slammed into ing. having spent six years in genera l surgery at totype. MIV Thempeutics Inc. is a developer of The line between producing exciting the surrounding dust clouds at Harbor· UCLA Medical Center and two years in bi ocompatible coatings and advanced drug-de· results and getting personal satisfac­ more than 100 miles per second, vascular and endovascular surgery :It Stanford livery systems for cardiovascular stents and other ti on is, however, impossible to define. heating the dust CO incandes­ University Medical Center. He wi ll now join implanmble medical devices. What's mi SS ing is not the pleasure of ce nce and ca using the region to the faculty at Stanford University School of doing something worthwhile-and Medicine as an assistant professor of surgery and 200 1 g low with in(mred li glu. The perhaps even fundamental- but rhe wi II serve as chief of vascular surgery at the Vet­ J ames Cooley married Rebecca Edson in Boston images were released in January pleasure-co paraphrase Leighron-of emns AfFdi rs hospital in Palo Alto, Ca lifornia. on January 28 . The wedding and reception 2006. Fo r more on Spi[zer and doi ng something wo rthwhile and im ~ His resea rch interes ts will focus on minimally were held at the Cyclorama, Boston Center on Cal[ech's role in the birth and invasive appro.1ches ro ttncurysm diseases of the for the Arts. Edson r(.'Ce ived her bachelor's in porrant that no one else is doing, or evolution of infrared astronomy, aorta, med ic:11 device design and clinical trials. architec(lIre from {he University of Virg inia, doing it in a unique way." surg ical simulation and education, and vascular is studying for her mastds in architecture at But as long as there are new tele­ see the article that begins on surgery outcomes. "Please visi t our vascul ar MIT, and is due ro g raduate in 2007. Cooley scopes, [here wi ll be a need for [he page 3. surgcry websire where I :trn rhe webmasrer, vas· is studying Itt PrincetOn for hi s docrotate in latest generation of infrared instru­ cul ar.sranford .ec/u. In personal news, my wife, aerospace eng ineering. The couple spent their ments, keeping scientists like Mat­ Maisie, and I also recently welcom(:d the birth honeymoon in Vermont and resides in Cam. t hews and Soifer in busin ess for the of our fi rs r son, Justin, on February 17." bridge, Massachusetts. rest of their ca reers. And with Caltech, the University of California, Canadian 1998 2003 universities, and a hand ful of other Ma.rt in G remm, PhD, a native of Germany, Alice Shapley, PhD, an astrophysics professor to Clime to rhe United Scates to pursue an academic at Princecon University, has received a 2006 institutions joining fo rces build an cart:f! r in physics. He spent a few years in Sloan Research Fellowshi p. "There are no unprecedented 30-me[er g round-based academia afrer receiving hi s doctorate from strings attached ," she remarked to the D(IIly [elescope (now dubbed [he TMT), [hey Ca ltech, but then changed direction and began Pr;flrelo fl;an . "Maybe 1'\1 buy a nice car." Previ · could have many years of professional applyi ng hi s mathemarica l experience to trading ously a Miller Fellow at UC Berkeley, she join(.'(1 chall enges ahead. Faced with that pros· in lhe financial markers, which is still hi s main the Princeton faculty in the fall of 2005. She peer, however, Matthews simply says, occupation. He spends his spare time, however, plans to use some of the fellowship money to "I don't even want to think about the running Art out of the Frame LLC, of Bellaire, navel to observational facilities and make lise of TMT." Which, in his idiosyncratic way. Texas, with vice presidem and cofounder Esther resources such as the H ubble Space Telescope. means [ha[ he's probably [hinking a 10[ Sung, who is a hi storian by (mining. They "Recently I've been studying how galaxies con· .1bout it. founded the company in 2004 "with a focus rribure to the re· ionizarion or the unive rse ... as on promoring Texas Art. More reCently the well as how galaxies are g rowing in size." compllny has t'x panded its scope to include pro·

J81 Califo rnia J l1 !1 itll l e 0/ T uh nol ogy • VOLUMli 4 0 NO.2, 2006 o b t u a r e 5

RUBEN F. METTLER 1946 1924-2006 Charles G. Beatty, MS, on Decembe r 22, 2004; Theodore R. Goodman, MS, on February I, 1922 Ruben F. Mettler '44, PhD '49, a 1998. George C. Henny, MS, on Stptember 14, 1988. g ui d ing force in che Ameri can aero­ 1947 space program, advocate of the d is­ 1932 J ames A. Le wis, on November 10, 200 1. a dva ~taged, and a long time Caltecl, E. Nelson Han,hman, MS ':H, on March 16, trustee, d ied May 23. I-Ie was 82. 2005; Randal Maass, on February In, 200 I; 1948 Metcler was responsible during his W'illiam C. Hau, on April 15, 1992. Gerald D. n yan, MS, on November 12, 2004. tenure at TRW Inc. for ch e Pionee r and 1933 the Orbiting Geophys ical Obse rvatory \Vill ard C. Ro binette, on May 5, 1999; Dcan 1949 sacell ites, as well as the lunar modul e Lowell G. Wayne, PhD, on Novt!mber 9, 2001. F. Saurenman, on J uly 8. 1997. descent engine used fo r the moon land­ ings. Prio r CO chat, he was responsible 1950 1934 fo r technical supervi sion of che Atlas, Stanl ey Campbell Burket, PhD, on October Jack M. Desmond, on November 24, 1997; 12,2005; Richard M . Mcintyre , on March 13, Tican, and Minuteman mi ss il e pro­ Franc is \VI. Wyal. r, on J une 7. 2001. 1993. grams at the Ramo-Wooldridge Corpo­ rac ion, which lacer bec me TRW. 1935 Born in Shafter, Californ ia, in Feb­ Chester A. Davis, on March 29. 1998; James 195 1 \X'illi am E. Eilau, on February 16,2005; ruary 1924, Metrler bri eny attended J. Hallo ran, on April 24, 2001. Robert E. Odening, MS, on January 2, 2005; Stanfo rd Unive rsity as a Gamble Manuel A. Sanchez, MS, on January 2 1,2005. 1937 Scholar before t ransferring to Caltech, Milton W. Arnold, MS, on M.IY 27 , 200-1 ; where he earned his bachelor's degree Hobert A. Decker, MS, PhD ' 11 . on Aug ust 1953 in electri cal eng ineering. After a stint Engineer Award in 1954 fro m Eta Kap­ Al an I-laber, on February 12,2005. 19, 1997; Paul C. Schaffn er, Oil October 3 1, with the army during World War II, pa Nu; t he One ofTen Outstanding 2001 . when he speciali zed in radar systems, Young Men of America award fro m the 19)4 Robert O. Oikkcrs, MS. on J anuary 17, 20M. he returned to Cal tec h fo r his PhD and U .S. Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1938 then began his ca reer in che aeronautics 1955; che Meritorious Civilian Service Will G. Gesclbracht, MS , on AUl-l lisr 13, 199·1; industry ac Hug hes Aircraft as associace Aw ard from the Department of Defense Oran A. Gra),beaJ, on February 25, 2005; Wil­ 1955 Do nald A. Vogel. on Fl·bru"ry 1. 2001, systems di rector for systems research in 1969; and the Roy W ilkins Memo­ li am \VI. \'(fofKtbury, on J l Llll' 20, .WO i and development. ri al Awa rd from the L. A. Chapter of the 1919 1957 Afce r serving as special ass istant to N AA CP in 198 1. H. Darden Powers, MS, PhD '62, on February John W. Black , on Oece mbt-r II , 2003; I ~i c h ­ the assistant secretary of defense in che Metrler, who chaired Cal tech's Board 24,200). arel A. Fischer, on February 3, 200 ~ ; Michael Ei se nhower Administration, he went co of Trus tees from 1985 ro 1993, was a E. Jlie hle, on Aug ust 30, 1993; Harlowe J . work at Ramo-Wooldridge Corp., and board member from 1968 to the time 1960 Longfclder, BS '40, Eng '4 1, on February 17, in 1958 began his long associat io n with of hi s death. H e was also a life member \"qilliam A. Sinoff, on December 23 , 1992. 2005; Jamcs C. Ritchey, on February 28, 2005. TRW Inc., where he rose co the posi­ of the Caltech Associates, the Presi­ tions of chairman, CEO , and director. dent's Ci rcl e, and the Caltec h Alumni 1940 1961 J ohn Lawrence " Larry" Long, Eng, on Febru­ Mettler was also widely known for Association. His many g ifts to Caltec h Leo Bre wer, on February 22, 2005; Mo rtimcr ury 20, 200) . his advocacy of prog rams for the dis­ included the funding of the Ruben and 1-1 . Stantz, on April 16,2004 . abled . In a 1986 article in the Cal tec h Donna Metrler Professorship. 194 1 1963 research publica tion Engineering & According co long time fri ends and E. Leo n DeLano Jr., MS, all Augusr 14,2003; Robert B. Galeski, on J uly 13, 2000. Science, he spoke of h is experi ences assoc iaces at Caltech, Metcler was es­ Antho ny S.-Y. Lau, on Novt!mber 15 , 1994. with his autistic son Daniel, a musical pecia ll y proud of his having been a 1942 prodigy who had bee n unable to speak member of the undefeated Caltech Jo hn C. Freeman, MS, on November 1S , 2004; 1965 during earl y childhood. Mettler's own football team in 1944. He and other Theodo re \"q. Parr)', MS, on February 1S, Robert S. Worthington, MS, on April 7.2002. abi li ty to play the pi ano led to his ini ­ tea m members had encered Caltec h as 2005. tial communica tion brea kthroug h wich part of the armed forces' V- 12 training 1943 1968 hi s son, he said . prog ram, and their skil l on the football Jo hn \ VI. Bew ley, on April I, 1997; Kenneth P. Bogan, PhD, on March 30, 2005. Mettler had a kee n incerest in the fi eld led co an aggregate poine tOtal of James M . Brown, MS, on Murch 2, 2005; welfare of all people suffe ring from 159-0 for the season. Rcdgnald D. Bushell , M ,on March 12, the problems assoc iated wi t h phys ical, He is survived by his wife, Donna 200 1; Ted L. Crosthwait, MS. on J anuary 7, 197 1 Conrad J . Ko walski, MS, PhD '74, on Decem­ 2001 ; Hewson l...nwrence , MS, on December economi c, or ethnic di sadvantage. Ap­ J ean Smith, and his sons, Macchew ber I 1,2004. 12, 2004; J o hn E. Pearson , MS, on February pointed in 1977 by Ptesident Carrer Frederick Mettler, an eng inee r at TRW 1, 2005; \"qalter F. Rhoades, MS, all May 6, co develop a prog ram CO promoce the In c., and Daniel Frederi ck Meecl er, who 199R. 197 3 hiring of Vi etnam veterans, Metcler res ides at the Jay Nolan Center in Can ­ Douglas C. Mo hr, PhD, on March 11 , 2005. spearheaded a prog ram for locating yo n Country, Californi a. 19~4 employ ment fo r several hundred thou­ 1974 Herbert R. Bclchcr, CAVU, on July 25, 1985; sand d isadvantaged Ameri cans, includ­ James A. Boa, PhD, on May 12, 2001. Ralph Brown Jr., CAVU. on February 2N, ing l 50,OOO veterans. This work was 2005; L'lwrence E. Hug hes Jr., MS, on May credited for driving the unemployment 24,2004; Irwin I. "\X'ynn" Kent , CAV U, on mte of Vi etnam veterans down from 15 Februa ry 2, 2005; Do nald E. Ogden, CAVU, percent per year co less than 8 percent, on March 3 1,2003; \'(Iilliam \"qi lkes O len­ OBITUARIES HAVE bush, on January 20, 2005; H. Orian Proctor, Mettler was credited with rai sing on February 12,2005; Mayo G. Shults. MS, MOVED ONL IN E $ LLO million in two years as chairman on March 11 , 200S; Lawrence G. Stevenson , of the national ca mpaig n for the U nited CAVU , on J anuary 1, 1998. The full en/tech Neil'S obitua r- N egro Coll ege Fund, and he was hon­ ies have moved online co h[[p:/1 ored in 1979 with the N ational Human 194 ) alu m n i .ca leech .ed u/neewo rk/obi [U­ Relatio ns Award of the National Con­ Kenneth G. Anderson, on J anuary 5, 2005; aries, where readers can browse ference of Christ ia ns and J ews. Shih-\Vlei Loo, PhD, on September 24, 1998; expanded coneent and additional His many ocher honors include the Robert E. Phillips, as '48, PhD '5 3, on March biog raphical information abouc N ation's Mos t Outstanding El ec trical 1, 200). the alumni li sced here.

191 Ca/llch N eul!