Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

Tombrello–88
through to completion, and Barish was that person. But [Alan] Weinstein [professor of physics]
has moved over now, probably more or less full-time, from high-energy physics. [Ken]
Libbrecht is there at least part-time. I think I had something to do with talking Ken into doing
that, in fact. I was chair when we hired the one person in LIGO who’s really in LIGO, and that’s
[professor of physics] Rana Adhikari. They had never really had a LIGO professor before. Then
of course, there’s the whole story of LIGO and how things got crosswise with the rest of the
institution because Ron [Ronald W. P.] Drever [professor of physics, emeritus] was brought in.
Yes, that was a special committee. Frank Sciulli and Kip Thorne and I, and—I can’t
remember, probably Barish—were a committee to make a recommendation to hire somebody in
gravitational physics. We hired Ron Drever, who for some years was only half time here
because he was still trying to keep his gravitational-wave program alive back in Glasgow, partly
because he felt responsible to the people there. So, in fact, Adhikari was not the first
gravitational radiation person—Drever was. That was in the late 1970s.
ASPATURIAN: This reminds me I’d like to go back to something you said a little earlier about
how physics in those days was really a collection of fiefdoms. What was the role of the division
chairs? Did they set a tone for the division?
TOMBRELLO: Well, with Bacher, I suspect Bacher set the rules down. I don’t think anybody
argued with Bob Bacher. He had been there when the place really became a different place.
ASPATURIAN: Now, did he take over from Carl Anderson?
TOMBRELLO: No, Carl took over from him [1962-70].
ASPATURIAN: OK.
TOMBRELLO: But you see Bacher had become provost, so I think I’m quoting Carl accurately
that, “Well, he’s over there in Throop, but he’s still trying to run physics.” And I think he did, to
some extent. Carl was smart. He was good, but my guess is he was still pretty much, if not told
what to do, strongly advised by Bacher about how things would run. Then [Robert] Leighton
replaced Anderson [1970-75]. Leighton, of course, had been here since he was a grad student.
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