Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

Tombrello–148
the division chair we wanted these two candidates. Go back to the provost and say the
committee wants it.
ASPATURIAN: The provost at this point being Koonin.
TOMBRELLO: And Koonin really treated Peck rather badly. With not much respect, and I think
everybody deserves respect. But after all, this was Charlie’s job. It was our job to put forward a
vision for staffing, and it was Charlie’s job to try to sell it. And if the upstart provost wants to
take exception, let him. [Laughter] But it really hurt Charlie Peck’s feelings, the way it was
handled. He came close to, I think, resigning over that.
ASPATURIAN: But did either of these guys come?
TOMBRELLO: No, but we sure tried. Maldacena has turned into one of the real hot shots in the
field.
But Koonin and I were critical fans of one another. We had been through the fire
together before. We knew how far we could push one another, and we knew what we could
expect of one another.
ASPATURIAN: Yes. Sometimes that makes for the best synergy, doesn’t it?
TOMBRELLO: It made wonderful synergy. I enjoyed working with Koonin. I enjoyed working
with Jennings. I thought they were superb provosts. And very different!
ASPATURIAN: What do you consider Koonin’s major accomplishments as provost? This takes us
into the Baltimore era, but we’ll get to Baltimore in a minute.
TOMBRELLO: Well, Steve did a number of things that are sort of at the margin, but which I think
improved things. He got the tuition aid program for the faculty. That was, I thought, important;
it was an idea whose time had come. Clearly, we had to have something. He was the one who
started kicking back money for faculty salaries that were paid on grants. He didn’t kick back the
overhead or fringe benefits, but he kicked back some fraction of the salary. That was important.
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