Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

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Tombrello–192 Union and the United States had every reason to keep everybody under very tight control. We prevented a lot of things from happening just by sheer intimidation. It was as if you had a pressure cooker and you kept the lid nailed down tight. And my prediction in 1992 was that we’re no longer controlling the pressure cooker, and it’s building up; and we don’t know where everything is going, but it’s not just two players anymore, it’s everybody. That’s when I suggested that Livermore get into another line of business. That even if peace were coming, we still want to read other people’s mail. I said they should get into the surveillance business, intelligence business. Widgets for the intelligence crowd. I made a basic mistake in that. I looked on the CIA, with its enormous budget, as being a monolith to whom you could sell all sorts of things. But I got it completely wrong. The CIA is huge. It has a huge budget. But you will sell a widget in one office, and the guy next door couldn’t care less; he wants a different widget. So it became a much more interesting sales job, and the people that worked with that program at Livermore were geniuses at marketing something that was a marketing nightmare, which is equipment to help you determine proliferation and things like that. ASPATURIAN: Well, it’s very necessary, isn’t it? TOMBRELLO: It’s very necessary, but it was a different marketing challenge than I had anticipated. It was not what I expected at all. I was right, but it was a much bigger challenge. I’m pleased that Livermore made it into about a $300-million-a-year enterprise. ASPATURIAN: Anything else you’d like to add to this particular session? TOMBRELLO: No. I think I mentioned that the ultimate thing is, What is the ultimate role of, not just the weapons labs in the future but all the national laboratories? What is their long-term function? Do they have a vision? The origin of the Argonne National Laboratory was the reactor program, the Light Water Reactor Program. Well, they don’t do that anymore. I’m not just picking on Argonne National Lab—I’m picking on Brookhaven; I’m picking on Livermore; Sandia; Los Alamos. I think that’s probably it. I think there’s not much more to the national labs. We can do the division tomorrow, starting on that. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T
Tombrello–193 THOMAS A. TOMBRELLO SESSION 8 December 29, 2010 ASPATURIAN: We are primarily going to talk today about your years as division chairman. That would be chairman of the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, from 1998 to 2008? TOMBRELLO: That’s right. Ten years and one month. You carefully stated the name of the division, so I have to tell a little story about the name of the division. I was at an event that was organized by Caltech’s Development group. They had a little program of the presentations that would be made at dinner. I was listed as the chairman of the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astrology. And so if there is a theme to all of this, it is how you can work around the limitations of Caltech’s Development group and raise, in the process, a third of a billion dollars over ten years. ASPATURIAN: When was this? TOMBRELLO: This must have been probably a year or two into my term—probably about the year 2000. It was not a joke. I’m sure they thought it was correct. The event was in the Athenaeum Library, and I read it to the guests. I said that I thought it was a very good little side business for the division to raise money, because, after all, who could do better astrology than somebody with two 10-meter telescopes on the top of Mauna Kea? ASPATURIAN: Quick save! TOMBRELLO: It wasn’t a save; a knife job on Development is what it was! Anyway I got in at the end of the summer of 1998. ASPATURIAN: What were the circumstances of your appointment? http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T
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THOMAS A. TOMBRELLO (b. 1936) INTER
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Contact information Archives, Calif
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NOTE TO READERS Per agreement betwe
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Tombrello-iv TABLE OF CONTENTS INTE
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Tombrello-vi Session 4 68-72 Colleg
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Tombrello-viii his presidency. Tomb
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Tombrello-x 206-213 Establishes (wi
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CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
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Tombrello-3 TOMBRELLO: Bisacquino.
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Tombrello-5 TOMBRELLO: This proceed
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Tombrello-7 Memphis, and I believe
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Tombrello-9 otherwise, we mostly we
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Tombrello-11 of the ability of the
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Tombrello-13 truly bigger than life
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Tombrello-15 I associated with the
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Tombrello-17 they’re probably rig
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Tombrello-19 ASPATURIAN: Your thesi
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Tombrello-21 wonderful time. And yo
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Tombrello-23 TOMBRELLO: Let me go o
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Tombrello-25 ASPATURIAN: When you s
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Tombrello-27 We did that again in t
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Tombrello-29 funding our research t
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Tombrello-31 from the NSF grant, bu
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Tombrello-33 doing great stuff, bec
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Tombrello-35 TOMBRELLO: I wasn’t
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Tombrello-37 [Morrisroe Professor o
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Tombrello-39 clearly willing to pay
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Tombrello-41 my teaching assignment
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Tombrello-43 ASPATURIAN: No. TOMBRE
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Tombrello-45 Charlie, that’s numb
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Tombrello-47 heavy ions. Jancaitis
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Tombrello-49 because, no surprise,
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Tombrello-51 of a wreck somewhere.
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Tombrello-53 concurrent computers,
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Tombrello-55 your green card.” He
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Tombrello-57 USC. She said, “My n
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Tombrello-59 video of it. Brian was
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Tombrello-61 ASPATURIAN: Without th
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Tombrello-63 ASPATURIAN: Consciousn
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Tombrello-65 Stone reported this co
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Tombrello-67 says, “That is so im
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Tombrello-69 basement was where I l
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Tombrello-71 Graaff generators] at
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Tombrello-73 groups at Chicago, and
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Tombrello-75 TOMBRELLO: I think it
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Tombrello-77 TOMBRELLO: Yes. I reme
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Tombrello-79 TOMBRELLO: Well, it wa
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Tombrello-81 were made up of these
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Tombrello-83 TOMBRELLO: It had a re
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Tombrello-85 ASPATURIAN: It wasn’
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Tombrello-87 Remington bronzes but
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Tombrello-89 He’d done all kinds
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Tombrello-91 side, with totally ira
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Tombrello-93 TOMBRELLO: Yes. It too
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Tombrello-95 wouldn’t have asked
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Tombrello-97 U.S. independent of fo
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Tombrello-99 own operating people a
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Tombrello-101 particularly in compa
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Tombrello-103 Six months later, “
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Tombrello-105 necessary—that was
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Tombrello-107 make things harder. A
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Tombrello-109 TOMBRELLO: It really
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Tombrello-111 it. It was clearly an
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Tombrello-113 little bit—he had h
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Tombrello-115 protons, you didn’t
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Tombrello-117 Did she have an affai
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Page 151 and 152: Tombrello-137 TOMBRELLO: I don’t
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Page 167 and 168: Tombrello-175 And then in the summe
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Page 171 and 172: Tombrello-179 nuclear counterterror
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Tombrello-247 years before, I’d s
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Tombrello-249 as good as you can im
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Tombrello-251 Los Alamos is a wonde
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Tombrello-253 TOMBRELLO: No. I thin
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Tombrello-255 navy, done the submar
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Tombrello-257 TOMBRELLO: —had don
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Tombrello-259 interesting people wh
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Tombrello-261 putting up a substant
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Tombrello-263 TOMBRELLO: I think so
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Tombrello-265 TOMBRELLO: There were
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Tombrello-267 at that, just to see
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Tombrello-269 ASPATURIAN: Is he ori
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Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

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