JOHN D. ROBERTS (1918-2016) INTERVIEWED BY RACHEL PRUD’HOMME February-May, 1985 Photograph by Chris Tschoegl. Courtesy Caltech’s Engineering & Science ARCHIVES CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Pasadena, California Subject area Chemistry, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy Abstract Interview in seven sessions, February–May 1985, with John D. Roberts, Institute Professor of Chemistry (now emeritus) in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Family background, early education, Los Angeles; Caltech open houses in early 1930s. Studies chemistry, UCLA (BA 1941). Graduate work Penn State University with F. Whitmore; return to UCLA, war-related research; theoretical organic chemistry with S. Winstein (PhD 1944). 1945, NRC Fellowship, Harvard; R. B. Woodward. Assistant professorship MIT; recollections of A. Cope, A. A. Morton; L. Pauling’s theory of molecular resonance; molecular orbital theory of R. S. Mulliken. Research on carbonium ions, carbon cations with R. Mazur; dispute with S. Winstein. Consultant at DuPont, starting 1950. Guggenheim, Caltech, 1952; joins chemistry faculty 1953. H. Lucas, L. Pauling, other colleagues. Guggenheim to England. J. H. Sturdivant, V. Schomaker, D. Semenow, G. Whitesides. Election (1956) to NAS; heads http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Roberts_J chemistry section; NAS response to W. Shockley and R. Lewontin affairs. NSF chemistry advisory panel (1957-1962); Mohole Seismological Drilling Project; faculty salaries. Writes Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1959), Basic Principles of Organic Chemistry (1964); W. A. Benjamin; collaboration with M. B. Caserio on Basic Principles of Organic Chemistry; writes Modern Organic Chemistry. NMR at Caltech; construction of NMR spectrometer lab; carbon-13 experiments; work of F. Wiegert, K. Kanamori; E. Swift, division chairman; H. McConnell; JDR as division chairman (1963-1968); faculty changes, role of H. Gray; construction of Noyes Laboratories; G. Hammond, acting chairman. Recollections of L. DuBridge and R. Bacher. L. Pauling and anti-nuclear movement. J. Baldeschwieler’s chairmanship (1973-1978); presidencies of R. Christy (1977-1978) and M. L. Goldberger (1978-1987). JDR as provost (1980-1983). Caltech administration 1970s and 1980s; R. Vogt as provost. L. E. Hood, biotechnology at Caltech. Computer scientists I. Sutherland, C. Mead. S. Wolfram, Symbolic Manipulation Program. JDR chairs Athenaeum Board; R. Ireland’s role in upgrading Athenaeum. JDR’s honors and awards. Administrative information Access The interview is unrestricted. Copyright Copyright has been assigned to the California Institute of Technology © 1987, 2010. All requests for permission to publish or quote from the transcript must be submitted in writing to the Head of Archives and Special Collections. Preferred citation Roberts, John D. Interview by Rachel Prud’homme. Pasadena, California, February 22, 28, March 7, 21, 25, April 12, and May 10, 1985. Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology Archives. Retrieved [supply date of retrieval] from the World Wide Web: http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Roberts_J Contact information Archives, California Institute of Technology Mail Code 015A-74 Pasadena, CA 91125 Phone: (626)395-2704 Fax: (626)395-4073 Email: [email protected] Graphics and content © 2010 California Institute of Technology. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Roberts_J CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ARCHIVES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT INTERVIEW WITH JOHN D. ROBERTS BY RACHEL PRUD’HOMME PASADENA, CALIFORNIA Caltech Archives, 1987 Copyright © 1987, 2010 by the California Institute of Technology http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Roberts_J Roberts–ii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTERVIEW WITH JOHN D. ROBERTS Tape 1, Side 1 1-10 Family history; childhood in Los Angeles; father’s financial reverses during Depression; extensive reading while convalescing from scarlet fever awakens interest in science; scientific studies encouraged by junior high and high school teachers; high school physics course stimulates interest in chemistry and astronomy; chemistry experiments at home; Einstein’s US visit in 1931-1932 prompts first trip to Caltech open house; impressed by demonstration experiments in Kellogg and Gates Laboratories; recollections of “Frankenstein’s Lab” effect of transformer demonstrations in Caltech’s high-voltage lab; visits to Griffith Observatory; difficulties with high school math and physics; decision to attend UCLA rather than Caltech; working way through UCLA; decision to major in chemistry; recollections of chemist William Conger Morgan. Tape 1, Side 2 10-19 Studies with chemist J. Vinograd; continuing difficulties with physics; learning technique for glass-blowing chemistry equipment leads to summer research job in lab; first exposure to organic chemistry through work with G. Ross Robertson; teaching assistantship in analytical and organic chemistry; work with Charles Coryell and W. G. Young stimulates interest in thermochemistry; MS work with Saul Winstein; relationship with William McMillan; first professional contact with Caltech through Coryell and meets Edwin Buchman, Verner Schomaker, James Bonner; early experience writing research papers; PhD work at Penn State University with Frank Whitmore; recollection of hazardous chemicals in Whitmore’s office; Whitmore’s academic approach and teaching style; nature and range of research under way in Whitmore’s lab. Tape 2, Side 1 19-24 Student life and social life in State College, Pennsylvania; hears news of Pearl Harbor while listening to radio broadcast of childhood friend Eugene List on the piano; attends first National Chemistry Symposium; returns to UCLA to begin war-related research project on oxygenation compounds; first exposure to advanced chemistry techniques through work with cobalt complex compounds; details of war research project to reduce volatility and explosive potential of bomb cylinders by controlling oxygen pressure and enhancing chemical stability; involvement in assembling tiny incendiary bombs to be carried by bats and dropped on Japan; marriage and move to Westwood Village; air-raid warden work. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Roberts_J Roberts–iii Tape 2, Side 2 25-36 Begins work at UCLA in theoretical organic chemistry with S. Winstein; Winstein’s character and intellectual breadth; decision to remain at UCLA to complete PhD; choice of “simple problem” for PhD yields unexpectedly rich results—the first “single product” results from certain reagents; assembles fractionating column; awarded PhD despite UCLA’s concern over lack of certain course requirements; begins teaching career instructing Naval cadets on campus in analytical chemistry; initiates research program focusing on cyclopropane derivatives; receives National Research Council (NRC) Fellowship to pursue work on bridgehead compounds; explores job prospects in industry; accepts Harvard postdoc as NRC Fellow; difficulties finding housing in Cambridge; meets Harvard organic chemistry professor and future Nobel Laureate Robert B. Woodward; recalls Woodward’s gifts as equal to Linus Pauling’s; Woodward’s affinity for color blue, intellectual precocity, academic history, personality, and research achievements; Harvard’s practice of hiring, almost exclusively, established names in organic chemistry; Woodward’s unique lecturing style; Woodward disliked by some colleagues for “arrogance”; Roberts develops personal philosophy of research, i.e. “Always look for an unconventional outcome”; colleagues Gardner Swain, Elliott Alexander, George Hammond, and others; academic atmosphere at Harvard; applies for faculty position at Berkeley; interest in research using carbon 14 tracers to study photosynthesis; receives an unexpected offer of an assistant professorship from MIT. Tape 3, Side 1 36-43 Background to MIT offer; personnel problems facing new MIT chemistry department head Arthur Cope; entrenched “feudal structure” of department; internal political rivalries in department; problems posed by organic chemist Avery A. Morton; Morton’s discovery of seminal polymerization process; Roberts’s research on metallation challenges validity of Morton’s earlier results; scope of challenge facing Cope; growth of department under Cope; Roberts’s colleagues John Sheehan, Gardner Swain, Ernest Huntress, Jerrold Zacharias; introduces program in radioactive tracers; outfitting of lab; hiring of postdocs; Roberts’s students; discovery that problem of amide salt on chlorobenzene turns on a benzyne mechanism; confusion in chemistry community over Linus Pauling’s theory of molecular resonance; background to molecular orbital theory of Robert S. Mulliken; Roberts takes up problem of using molecular orbitals to predict site of charges on molecules; begins research in quantum chemistry. Tape 3, Side 2 43-50 Molecular orbital theory; research grows into series of lectures on molecular orbital theory; coauthors major paper on theory and publishes book on theory for organic chemists; success of research program on carbonium ions, carbon cations with graduate student Robert Mazur; research leads to breakthrough discovery in “non-classical ion” controversy; dispute with Saul Winstein over credit for cyclopropane work; reconciliation with Winstein; work on bridgehead compounds; use of radioactive tracers to study rearrangement of norbornyl compounds; contacts with Verner Schomaker at Caltech; consulting work at DuPont in explosives department in 1950; http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Roberts_J Roberts–iv research at DuPont