, alit rUta VOLUME CV, NUMBER 11 oonlnIi Provost By MATTHEW WALKER President Baltimore announced to tion ofprovost, he said, "Caltech is the campus in a Friday afternoon about extraordinary people doing e-mail that Professor Steven extraordinary things. The opportu­ Koonin would be stepping down as nity to foster that process is one of Caltech's seventh Provost after nine the main attractions ofthe job. The years on the job. Dr. Koonin will biggest challenge facing Caltech is also be taking a leave of absence to continue to have exceptional ef­ from his professorship to pursue a fects on science, technology and career in industry. education, as we have in the past." The Brooklyn native first came to During his nine years as provost, Caltech as a member ofthe class of Koonin has had a chance to tackle '72. He successfully completed his his challenge and enjoy fostering degree in physics and moved on to Caltech's extraordinary work. Once MIT where he received his PhD in asked about what he hoped his physics in 1975. Koonin then re­ legacy as provost would be, he re­ turned to Caltech to join the faculty. sponded, "I think having helped to After only a year on the job, he was hire good faculty and energizing awarded the Caltech Associated and facilitating life for faculty and Students Teaching Award. He also others on campus would certainly received the Humboldt Senior Sci­ be one of the prime things." At the entist Award in 1985 and the E.O. same time, the "identification and Lawrence Award in Physics in 1999 hiring and nurturing ofnew faculty" •• •<- ._• • Courtesy ofmarsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov from the Department of Energy. has been one ofthe joys he's had in ThIS Image ofthe Mars landscape from the lander SpIrIt IS one ofthe first color images ever transmitted In 1981, Koonin became a full the job. Since becoming provost, from the surface of the red planet. professor of physics. He served as Koonin has hired 30% of the cur­ the Chairman of the Faculty from rent faculty, by his own estimate. 1989 to 1991 before he began his Undertaking large projects has JPL, NASA Triumphant After Spirit stint as vice president and provost been another ofhis delights. Among on February 20, 1995. At nearly his favorites was the Biological Successfully Makes Planetfall on Mars nine years, Koonin is one of Sciences Initiative that he spear­ Caltech's longest serving provosts. headed, beginning in 1998. This By GUY WEBSTER and learned that NASA's Deep Space twin rover, headed for the opposite When Koonin accepted the posi- initiative was a three year effort that FRANKLIN O'DONNELL Network had received a post-land­ side ofMars. ing signal from Spirit. The cheer­ Dr. Charles Elachi, JPL director, Continued on Page 2, Column 1 January 4 ing resumed about three hours later said, "To achieve this mission, we when the rover transmitted its first have assembled the best team of A traveling robotic geologist from images to Earth, relaying them young women and men this coun­ NASA has landed on Mars and re­ through NASA's Mars Odyssey or­ try can put together. Essential work turned stunning images of the area biter. was done by other NASA centers around its landing site in Gusev "We've got many steps to go be­ and by our industrial and academic Crater. fore this mission is over, but we've partners. Mars Exploration Rover Spirit retired a lot of risk with this land­ Spirit stopped rolling with its base successfully sent a radio signal af­ ing," said JPL's Pete Theisinger, petal down, though that favorable ter the spacecraft had bounced and project manager for the Mars Ex­ position could change as airbags rolled for several minutes follow­ ploration Rover Project. deflate, said JPL's Rob Manning, ing its initial impact at 11 :35 p.m. Deputy project manager for the development manager for the EST (8:35 p.m. Pacific Standard rovers, JPL's Richard Cook, said, rover's descent through Mars' at­ Time) on January 3. "We're certainly looking forward to mosphere and landing on the sur­ "This is a big night for NASA," Opportunity landing three weeks face. said NASA Administrator Sean from now." Opportunity is Spirit's O'Keefe. "We're back. lam very, Continued on Page 7, Column 1 very proud of this team and we're on Mars." Members of the mission's flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., cheered and clapped when they By LEA HILDEBRANDT On Sunday, November 23, 2003, The audience, enjoying a great se- MusicaAntiqua Koeln initiated this lection ofmusic and exemplary per­ year's Coleman Chamber Music formance, thanked the artists with Heavy concert series. The concert, starting plentiful applause. One member of ------==-------- at 3.30pm was held inCaltech's the audience remarked after the By KEVIN BARTZ it, "is just one GQR butt-l<isser af- out on a limb and supported herpo­ ter another. Itjust can'tbe taken se­ sition; the license, he argued, should sold-out Beckman Auditorium. concert that "this was a memorable Detractors call him talk radio's riously." be a certification of driving ability The program included Antionio afternoon." I am sure that many version of affirmative action. Sup­ Indeed, the obstacles are many for rather than a means of identifica­ Caldara's "Sinfonia Concertata in more members of the audience porters call him a nun in a whore­ a progressive talker. A recent Pew tion. Callers excoriated him, but C Major," one ofthe first works to agreed. house. Local 50,000-watt power­ poll pegged talk's audience at Wendell held firm. be given such a title and a hybrid Unfortunately, this concert, espe­ house KFI-AM 640 has among its nearly 70% conservative and at Nor were many listeners too form that draws from the sinfonia cially the pieces by Vivaldi (for ranks a traitor-a leftie amidst a Clear Channel-owned KFI, every pleased when Wendell came out and sonata as well as the concerto. Soprano and orchestra) and the field that's been chock full of weekday host is a Republican. unequivocally against the Iraq war. This piece was followed by piece by Pergolesi (for Soprano, righties ever since the Federal Com­ Wendell still remembers one ofhis "Americans have no idea what the Tomaso Albinoni's Sinfonia in C Alto and orchestra) was also a re­ munications Commission first callers, an old man dribbling Golden Rule means anymore," he Major and his Sinfonia in G minor, minder that Beckman Auditorium canned the Fairness Doctrine in "Commie, commie-you said. "Psychopaths take down two published by his biographer Remo is a lecture hall- not a concert hall. 1987. commie!" who said nothing else. buildings. and now that's a license Giazotti and allegedly recon- The wonderful sounds produced He's Johnny Wendell, television In a lineup dominated by the likes to brutalize anyone and everyone? structed from a fragment of a lost by the artists could not resound be­ actor, bar bouncer, L.A. Weekly of Limbaugh and Laura, Wendell Why do these guys hate humanity trio sonata by Albinoni found in a fore they were absorbed in the walls crime-beat writer, rock 'n' roll afi­ has his work cut out for him. "It's so much? Iraq had nothing in for Dresden library in the 1940s. of the auditorium. While the con- cionado. And now, he's KFl's self­ about security. These people want us." Next was Antonio Vivaldi's "In cert was certainly enjoyable, the proclaimed "masterblaster ofdisas­ to be reassured that they're right," It's music to the ears ofWendell's furore guistissimjae irae," which skill of the musicians could not be ter, the raw power, the full explained WendelL "Their politics L.A. Weekly crowd, perhaps, but has an operatic style and links two fully appreciated because of the flower"-radio's top-rated talker are based so much on paranoia and more like nails on a chalkboard for da capo arias of contrasting tempo acoustical limitations of Beckman Sunday evenings from five to fear that there's noequanimity at an audience accustomed to 24­ with a short plaintive recitative. auditorium. seven. alL" In part to break such molds, seven applause for White House After the intermission, the orches- Musica Antiqua Koeln was "My goal is to not get complacent, Wendell makes a point of empha­ foreign policy. tra, accompanied Soprano Nancy founded as an ensemble in 1973 by to be as much of a contrarian as sizing his disagreement-even But Wendell has a certain flair for Argenta and Contralto Nathalie Reinhard Goebel and was expanded possible," said Wendell. "It's funny when his is the less popular posi­ handling those who'd "like to cut Stutzmann in Giovanni Battista ten years later to form a Baroque that it's usually those hosts obeisant tion. my head off." At least that's what Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater." This orchestra. The ensemble's interna­ to the Republican party that talk Take Sultaana Freeman, the KFl booster Jeff Cabot saw when piece, composed by Pergolesi in his tional breakthrough came in 1979 about being independent. Don't you Florida Muslim who refused to re­ he first invited the Weekly's ac­ final days, has been used in many with its debut performances at understand you can't be a satirist move her veil for a driver's license claimed "Johnny Angel," known movies including "Amadeus," London'sQueenElizabethHalland and suck up at the same time?" photo. According to a Gallup poll, then for his investigation of Secret where it accompanied Salieri'srec- at the Holland Festival.