For the Centennial:

I arrived in the UA Physics Department shortly after Sputnick and Vanguard in September of 1960, feeling extremely fortunate that the US government had informed me that they would rather I study physics than go to Vietnam. After a couple of classes from Dr. Schwartz, I was not certain I had made a wise choice. i was part of a cascade of physics students from William Jewell College encouraged by Dr. Wallace Hilton who had a strong and positive relationship with the UA Physics Department and Dr. Sharrah.

It was time for a growth and optimism both for the department and for me. Frequently overlooked among many achievements, the Physics Department quickly became the most feared team in the Faculty Bowling League! We had sufficient talent for TWO teams most seasons. One was always captained by Dr. Ray Hughes. Regulars from the graduate student ranks (that I can remember) included Frank Biggs, Robert Graham, William Dixon, Bill Pendleton, Lynn Hatfield, and Dick Kay.

I met Bud Zinke in modern physics, survived reasonably well, began investigations of plasma guns, exploding wires, etc. under his direction and developed a life long interest in "high entropy" events. His group also developed a reputation as accomplished pranksters. Part of the lure of carrying out these pranks was the fact that Bud enjoyed them as much or more than we did, even if it was his office that one morning had no entry, just a blank wall behind his door; his office that was filled with balloons (many small balloons because we were unable to purchase the large 5 meter weather balloon that was to have been slid under his office door and inflated!); his office into which poured a thousand coke bottle caps when he slid out his cot for a nap; and many more.

Upon graduation, I became part of a wave (pretty close to a Tsunami) of the UA connected folks impacting the Texas College and University Systems. Many, including UA faculty Glenn Clayton and Charles Jones, became department heads, deans, or some such administrative "creature." The wave has largely subsided, as have many of us, but the effects will continue much longer. I believe that the interest in quality instruction and interest in the success of one's students, instilled in us at UA, has served us well indeed.

I have been able to continue my interest in high entropy events via association with the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. I've worked with multi-kilojoule lasers, terawatt lasers and "small" nuclear weapons in underground tests. I would sum it up by punning... it has really been a blast... and many of the first steps were taken here in the UA Physics Department. I am certain they will enjoy much success in the coming years.

Charles K. Manka
PhD 1965

Frank Biggs was one of the first Ph.D.s from this department.

I was here for the half "centennial" of the U. of Ark. Physics Dept. I can tell about it if you want. (Including the people here at the time).

Memories from Grad School Years (1982-1989)Two of my memories relate to some of the wildlife that used to frequent the old physics building in the 1980s.

Sometimes when the stress of studying of working in the lab got to be too much, we had to get up and move around for awhile. In the old physics building, Dave Mooney and I used to burn off a little stress by going on brown recluse spider hunts. They were fairly easy to find in some of the old labs and storerooms. We became quite adept at finding them and trapping them using a jar and sheet of paper. We would often take our catch to a faculty member in chemistry (biochemistry?) who was actually doing research effects of the venom of the brown recluse.

I remember a time when I was teaching a college or university physics lab section, one of the large cockroaches that used to appear now and then decided that he just had to have a little exercise. As I was going over the procedure for that day's experiment, this uber-roach came running out from under one of the lab benches. He proceeded to run around the room, and then unfortunately ran right up a desk, up a male student's back, over his head, then down his face and chest. The roach then returned to the floor and continued on its way under a bench and out an opening in the wall. I thought I was going to have to administer CPR to the poor student.

First of all, I appreciate Dr. Gupta and the centennial organization committee. I received several warm letters from them inviting me to join the celebration.

I am from Peking University of China. I graduated and got my Ph.D. from this department in 1986. My advisors were Dr. Hughes, Dr. Anderson, and Dr. Pederson. I thank them for giving me much guidance and help during my studying at the University of Arkansas. Also I would like to thank Dr. Chan, too. He gave me a lot of help. I am very proud, since I am the first student from mainland China to study at the University of Arkansas.

I lived in Fayetteville for about 6 years. I was very familiar with the city and knew ever street and building here. I loved the beautiful environment of the city. It felt like a second home to me. After I went back to China, I always would think of the life in this city. I missed my teachers and friends here very much. It was an unforgettable experience. But now, Fayetteville seems a little strange to me because it has changed so much and so has the physics department. Of course I am glad to see the big changes.

Another change is the "shopping." I remember it was very difficulty to get any products made in China back then. But now I see so many products made in China. Since returning to China, I have been at Peking University teaching laser and optics courses. I also did research. But I have recently retired, and have cut back on much of the teaching and research.

I am so glad that I have had several opportunities to see Dr. Salamo, Dr. Chan, Dr. Gupta, Dr. Singh, Dr. Harbson, and Dr. Vyas separately in Beijing during these years. I hope I can see more of my American friends in Beijing in the near future. I will be very glad to see you in China, and you will be warmly received.

"Seven years in our Physics Department:" "40 Years in the trenches."

Good morning, I am Bob Gruebel. My son Ralph and I are so pleased that we can be part of this occasion. I am a High School drop-out who joined the Navy out of boredom when in the 10th grade. I came to UofA after 21 years in the Navy. I arrived and found shipmates here. Glen Clayton, an electronics technician and Bud Zinke; a tin can sailor. Paul Sharrah worked on a torpedo problem at the NRL which was near and dear to me…you can never know the disappointment of fighting through Zero fighters and anti aircraft fire from the cruiser and destroyer screen of a Japanese battleship only to see your torpedo run too deep and pass under the battleship. The depth settings published were hydrostatic and the Bernoulli effect had not been properly accounted for, Paul was part of the final solution; but, on the other hand, we fixed it operationally by setting the depth at ? that designated and it worked.

Glen Clayton was my research advisor. A great teacher as well as a good friend. We first met at the IGA as my son Ralph struck up a conversation with Beth and Mary Jane Clayton When Glen saw Ralph hitting on his kids he went over and asked who, what, etc. and 5 year old Ralph told Glen that I was a physicist. We met and Glen took one look at this older fella and thought maybe Paul Sharrah had hired a new faculty member.

Dr. Hughes Optics course and Dr. Hobson’s Jackson E & M stand out. Dr. Hughes Optics was concise, lucid and exciting. When I mentioned this to him, he remarked that he wasn’t a good teacher. I must take issue with him... he is an inspiring teacher. I was on a NASA fellowship and since courses cost me nothing. I repeated courses with new faculty. I’d had E&M out of Slater and Frank, then Stratton, and Jackson later with Dr. Hobson. His course was a joy and the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment stayed with me. I also repeated Stat Mech, Solid State, and Quantum and the different faculty perspective was invaluable to me. In fact, David Ross claims that if there had been any way I could have continued for further degrees I would still be at it. He may be right.

In 1968, I joined the Diaspora to Texas. I joined John Decker, MS (UofA) at SFASU. Glen Clayton followed 6 years later as Dean then Graduate Dean. The caliber of service and accomplishment Glen provided has never been equaled. Tom Callaway, Ph.D. (UofA) came a year later. I teach Physics and Art History and I have stayed in the lab and classroom... Students are exciting and a key to my enjoyment of life. At 84 I am often asked: When will you retire? My answer: When I find something more rewarding. My take on life:

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty, well-kept body.

I.

My major professor, Steve Day, called me into his office to tell me that I had passed the Ph.D. prelim exam, though not with flying colors. Since he knew I had studied French as an undergraduate, he said he had signed me up to take the French reading exam for Ph.D. candidates. He further stated that the Physics Department would soon be voting to reduce the language requirement from two to one, so this would get this hurdle out of the way. The exam was only three weeks off, so he said to stop all research activities, do as little course work as possible and concentrate on boning up on my French. I did so, and passed the exam easily. However, a month later he again called me into his office, and with some embarrassment told me that in fact the physics faculty had voted to require only one language, but they had excluded French. He recommended that I get a German tutor and start studying German to take the exam the next semester.

So, I spent every Saturday for the next few months studying German and paid a tutor for an additional two hours each week. The German exam was given by an elderly German Chemistry Professor who would simply open up a volume of Zeitschrift fur Physik and randomly point to a line in the middle of an article. The test then was to translate the next 80 lines within two hours using a German-English dictionary as needed. At the end of the two hours I handed in my translation, but I had only translated 56 lines. A couple of weeks later I was summoned to the German professor’s office. He handed me back my translation with only one red mark on it—an “F” at the top of the page. He somewhat apologetically explained that, although it was one of the finer examples of German translations he had seen, he had a sixty-line minimum requirement. He said, “Passing requires 80 lines with only a couple of major mistakes and 4-5 minor ones, 70 lines with half as many mistakes or 60-65 lines with only one minor mistake; but you only did 56 lines.” I argued that I had clearly demonstrated my ability to translate and that, should the need arise, I was quite willing to spend the extra time. He was silent for a short while, but then said, “I think you should take the exam again.”

When I told Dr. Day about this, he suggested that instead I should take the SAT German test. I checked into this and found out that the U of A graduate school requirement for passing was only 50 percentile and that the next time the test was to be administered in the state of Arkansas was nine months away. Not wanting to let the German I had learned slip away, I signed up to take the exam at Texas A & M University, which was only a couple of months off. I took the test in College Station in late August of that year and felt good about it, but it took over two months for the test results to arrive. On arrival I was pleased to see that I had made 63 percentile, but a few days later I received a notice from the graduate school that I had failed to satisfy the German language requirement for the Ph.D. When I went to ask the German Chemistry Professor for an explanation, he said, “The graduate school language committee met in September and voted to increase the requirement from 50 percentile to 67 percentile.” I immediately replied that I had taken the exam prior to that meeting and that the percentile requirement in effect at that time should apply to me. He saw the logic in this, but didn’t want to give in. So, he somewhat angrily said, “Well, why did you take that exam anyway; why didn’t you take my exam!” To which I replied, “I did take your exam last spring, sir.” He looked surprised, got up, walked over to his file cabinet, and pulled out a thick file of translations. He hunted through the file until he found my paper and said, “Now, I remember you.” For a couple of minutes he looked over my translation and then glanced at my SAT percentile. He then picked up the graduate school notice of failure, crossed out that word and wrote “passed” and then handed me the paper saying, “Now, go away and don’t bother me anymore!”

Just over a year later, the U of A Physics Department faculty voted to entirely do away with the Ph.D. language requirement!

A corollary:

During the middle of my attempt to learn German, I and a couple of other graduate students were discussing the merits (or lack thereof) of requiring a reading knowledge of some language in order to get a Ph.D. in Physics. We were in the hall just outside Professor Hobson’s office. He had overheard our discussion and was disappointed that our consensus was that there was little merit in such a requirement. So, he exited his office and politely informed us that he couldn’t help but overhear our discussion. He spent the next 3-5 minutes telling us how important communication between scientists of different countries was and that American scientists were obligated to do their part in fostering such. Of course, we all agreed.

A year or so later, I was sitting at my desk in the NMR Lab just down the hall from Dr. Hobson’s office when he came in asking to borrow my French-English dictionary. He said he had gotten a preprint in the mail and couldn’t find his dictionary. About three hours later he brought my dictionary back and I said, “Well, that was quick!” He replied, “Actually, I gave up. I’m taking the article to a French professor who’s going to translate it for me.”

II.

In the late 60s and early 70s, there was a glut of Ph.D. physicists. Every position I applied for during the 70-71 school year had almost 200 applicants. Physics Today carried stories of Ph.D. physicist driving garbage trucks, teaching junior high, etc. The consensus was that physics departments had become too esoteric, concentrating on knowledge for the sake of knowledge without worrying about the practicality of it. Physics had let engineering take over the responsibility of satisfying the immediate needs of the world. In response the larger universities instituted applied physics degrees; and the smaller ones, such as the UofA at Fayetteville, hired at least one “applied physicist” to help steer them in a direction that would make their graduates more desirable to industry.

So, in the fall of 1970 the U of A acquired an applied physicist. That is, a fellow with a Ph.D. in Physics who had managed to work successfully in industry for about 20 years, but who was now willing to teach physics graduate students how to be more practical. Of course, this professor had to help earn his keep while developing the applied physics degree program by teaching at least one of the undergraduate courses. The U of A applied physics professor was given an office next to my NMR lab, and I was assigned to be the lab instructor for his course. One day in January just prior to the start of the spring semester I went to see the professor about the lab.

The physics department offices were long and narrow and were heated by steam radiators placed under the windows, opposite from the doorway into the hall. When I entered the room, the professor was seated at his desk with his coat on and his back very close to the steam radiator. I only had a long-sleeve shirt on; and, after being in the room discussing the lab with the professor for 15-20 minutes, I found myself shivering. I thought, “This guy must be from up north somewhere and likes it cold.” But, when I got up to leave I remarked about how cold it was. He immediately exclaimed, “Oh my gosh, I’ve been freezing all winter. This steam heating is worthless!”

As I started out his door into the hallway, I glanced at the room’s thermostat and noticed that it was set on 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Since this was at the doorway, a good sixteen feet from where the professor was sitting with his back no more than four feet from the frosted windows, the temperature was probably only in the high 50s there. I stopped and said to the professor, “Do you know that your thermostat is only set at 65? He replied, “I know, I’ve tried to figure out how to change it; but it doesn’t seem to have an adjustment.” I asked him to come take a look. I showed him the little wheel on the bottom of the thermostat that allowed me to move the needle up to 75, so it would be about 70 at his desk. At least once a week for the rest of the winter, he thanked me for “fixing” his thermostat; and I knew that the graduate students behind me would have an easier time getting a job than I did.

III.

Two quotes that were posted while I was in physics at the U of A almost 40 years ago have stayed with me:

Steve Day had tucked into the lower right-hand corner of his elegant Ph.D. Diploma from Rice University: “Beware of those who fall at your feet, they may be reaching for the corner of the rug.”

David Ross had stuck on his equipment rack: “I have spent the day stringing and unstringing my instrument, while the song I came to sing remains unsung. Tagore.”

Recollections of Undergraduate Physics

I majored in physics at the U of A Physics Department, starting the Fall semester of 1963. I was awarded a BS in physics in the Spring of 1967. These are some of my memories of that time.

When I arrived as a new freshman, I introduced myself to Dr. Sharrah, asked for part-time employment and was given a job as the "stock clerk" for the physics lab and demonstration equipment. One thing I recall was that Dr. Sharrah had mounted a movie camera in his office and used it to take a sequence of single-frame shots of the new Science and Engineering Building being built across the street. When played back at normal speed, it made a fascinating movie. I still remember watching the reinforced concrete floors being jacked up into place in almost no time at all!

I still have a number of memories about the physics labs. For me, our greatest lab adventure was the Cavendish experiment. It was mounted in the "basement" on a support column in the corner lab at the front of the building. Its proximity to the street out front, and the extreme sensitivity of the apparatus to vibration required us to wait until the street traffic died down. This was a near all-night experiment. To this day I am still amazed that we could measure such a weak attraction as the force of gravity between those small lead balls. I taught the honors physics lab as a senior, and I couldn't resist being there a second time, while my students got their shot at it.

Another night-time experiment--not sanctioned by the department--conducted by several of us students one night was the launching of a small hot air balloon from the roof of the physics building. A light wind blew from the south. The device consisted of a thin plastic garment bag, the type your clothes are in when you get them back from the cleaners. The power source was a rack of birthday cake candles. It barely cleared the Science and Engineering Building. About that time we realized we had a potential fire hazard on our hands. (I think we were still freshmen, so not very capable of thinking ahead.) We hopped in a car and pursued it north of town until the road diverged from its path. I later grew up and served as a volunteer fire fighter and fire commissioner. I still can't believe we could have been so irresponsible! Which brings up another memory.

One day when I was working in the physics building, Dr. Sharrah informed me that he would be giving a tour to an important visitor. He asked me to sweep up one of the classrooms, which obviously hadn't seen a janitor in a while. I set about the business of moving the desks to and fro, gradually collecting a large pile of crud in the middle of the room. After I picked it up, I would move the desks back into place. I went off looking for a dust pan... I don't recall what diverted my attention, but I never gave another thought to that large pile of dust and trash sitting in the middle of that room, with the desks arranged along the walls as if in admiration. That was the scene that our distinguished visitor was shown by Dr. Sharrah. Afterward, I was on the receiving end of the only stern words I ever heard from Dr. Sharrah. I distinctly remember that one of them was the word, "irresponsible". What made it extra painful was that I knew it was appropriate. I have been making amends ever since.

But that was not the greatest lesson I ever learned from Dr. Sharrah. The greatest lesson I have ever learned from anyone occurred early in my first semester of the honors university physics course, which he taught. He observed that we would be using mathematics in the course that we would not encounter in our math courses for another year or two. He starting in, showing how one solves a simple first order differential equation. (You basically guess the answer, based on what you remember from differential calculus.) Then he gave us an assignment: to find out how to solve a particular second order differential equation. "Where can we find the answer?", we all wanted to know. His response was, "It's in the library." Indeed it was, and many other things besides. After that, it never mattered whether I had a good instructor in a course or not. I knew where I could find the answers. I still do.

Dr. Sharrah taught a full, rich and interesting junior mechanics course. I still know what a catenary is, and when I later encountered Feynman's integrals in graduate school, I already knew what they were all about. But the course that made a man out of me--or, rather, a physicist--was Dr. Zinke's electricity and magnetism. That was the most challenging course I ever took! Some educators frown on making a course too hard. But there needs to be at least one hurdle in a physicist's career, where he or she can look back in pride and say, "I made it!". There needs to be a course that causes the student to dig down really deep, to push as hard as he can push, to learn to think analytically. It was Dr. Zinke more than anyone else who taught me to think like a physicist. After one acquires those skills, no subsequent course is ever very difficult.

I took almost every physics course offered by the department for undergraduate majors. I didn't know it at the time, but I soon came to realize that I had received an absolutely first class education in physics. I still consider myself very, very fortunate to have had the benefit of that program of instruction.

Thomas L. Atwood, Ph.D.

Some fine memories do come to mind. Coming to Arkansas in ’71 with two goals, succeeding in math and physics, and the same in cross country. Set frosh records in cross country, injured my Achilles, and bore down on the physics. Ran for John McDonnell his first year (fall of ’72) then reinjured that Achilles. In about December of ’72, a “rich kid” showed off his new calculator (the first in history!) which was an HP 35. $350 when students rented 2 bedroom houses on Wedington for $75 a month… As he showed it off, our jaws were dropping, and I’ll never forget his exact words, “…this thing does so much, the guys who designed it don’t even know what all it will do…” Then later that school year (or was it next?) constructing the physics department’s first hologram, in a sandbox, in the basement in the old acoustics room. We imaged points of light, under Dr. Anderson’s direction.

Computer facilities were the IBM 370 “across the way” running on decks of punch cards, which generate the most awesome of confetti for the many practical jokes we did in those days. The physics department had a couple of Altair’s, programmed (if I remember correctly) with toggle switches on the front. The SPS was strong socially, and in several notable pranks (which I won’t go into, ha!)

Dr. Pederson conducted the department’s first “solid state physics” course, and I remember turning in homework literally on brown paper bags (we were the “back to the earth generation” right?) and acing the class. This junior year had me taking many of your courses, including electromagnetics which were to play a huge role in my successful career as a radar systems engineer in southern California. That year concluded with me receiving the George Lingelbach Scholarship, the grapevine telling me you had a role in my selection, and for which I will always be extremely grateful.

My senior year included the department’s elementary particles course under Dr. Lieber, and after a Phys. Rev. B article on strings, I wrote a class paper on these in spring of ’75. Aerospace then started where I led many efforts at Hughes and Northrop, in tactical fighter radar concepts and design. That U of A physics background held me in good stead, in fact supervising such as PhD’s from USC and UCLA. I always kept up with the department on summer vacations, running across Dr. Anderson a couple times after his NSF appointment and Dr. Pederson “up on the hill.” Defense downturn led me back to the department in ’91, hoping to work on that neutrino telescope no matter congress’s rejection of supercollider funding. Clinton’s presidential election sealed the fate of the neutrino telescope, Dr. Lieber’s chair of a multinational effort notwithstanding—some aversion to “pork barreling” getting mentioned. It was in grad school ’91 through ’96 that I developed very close ties with Dr. Lacy in astronomy, Lin Oliver in high pressure research, and Gaye Stewart in education research. We saw the basement getting a ceiling, a wondrous change as the entire building got remodeled under Dr. Gupta’s great direction. I hosted the last of the planetarium’s shows as it was replaced with the new library.

These wonderful ties all continue quite strongly today! My path has me in Little Rock at Pulaski Tech as “instructor of physics and chemistry” and which has a similarly collegial atmosphere as our Physics department’s. The best way to describe my 37 year-old ties in Fayetteville, and present ones now at PTC, is simply the smiles, hellos, and encouragement. Staff and students, all. It is certainly my ties to the Physics department which are greater; and I treasure the memories, the present days, and the future possibilities which will no doubt exceed our imagination.

Bruce Schulte
Class of 1971

Reflections on the Centennial Reunion (Paraphrased)

The set was good, the production was good, the direction was good, but the casting was superb.