Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories
Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories
Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories
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<strong>Tombrello</strong>–199<br />
Witten’s here, Zewail wins the Nobel Prize. There’s the usual celebration across campus.<br />
There’s Champagne everywhere you go. I met up <strong>with</strong> the “stringers.” The “stringy” ones ask<br />
me, “Do you have any other Nobel Prizes in mind?” I said, “Oh, yeah! There’s one sitting on<br />
the corner of my desk for you guys in string theory.” I said, “I’m just ready to send it in, any<br />
minute. But all you have to do is give me a number. I mean calculate something that will nail<br />
the theory down, like the mass of the electron—you know, something. What got Niels Bohr the<br />
prize, really, when he did the first stuff on quantum theory, was that he could calculate the<br />
Rydberg constant. It was no longer a constant; it was something he calculated. You guys give<br />
me a number the equivalent of the Rydberg and, my, you’re off to Stockholm in the twinkling of<br />
an eye.” They all tittered, and I said, “But you’ve got to bring me the number, guys. Because<br />
it’s not going in <strong>with</strong>out a number.” And they’re still waiting for the number.<br />
ASPATURIAN: String theory is an interesting field.<br />
TOMBRELLO: It is a beautiful theory. It smells very good. I was certainly willing to make a big<br />
bet on it. But it’s been in a quiet period for a while. They still have not figured out a way to<br />
calculate things. It’s proved to be more complicated than they thought it would be.<br />
ASPATURIAN: One wonders if it is perhaps a more complex approximation of something else.<br />
TOMBRELLO: Anybody’s guess. So anyway, I had met the first goal and made the start of an<br />
honest try on the astrophysics building. With Gordon’s money all things were possible.<br />
If I may jump ahead a few years—since I’m on the building—I was at another dinner<br />
<strong>with</strong> Walter Burke. The stock market has recovered a bit now from the dot-com bust. He says,<br />
“We really liked what you did <strong>with</strong> the postdocs. I told you when you took the ten million for<br />
the postdocs that it was that or the building. How’d you like ten million for the building?” I<br />
said, “Walter, you’re making me look awfully good.” So, there was another $10 million. And<br />
he said, “We don’t even care if we have our name on anything.” I said, “Walter, you’re making<br />
me even better. I can sell some of this stuff twice now.” Walter’s a gentleman, and it’s fun<br />
working <strong>with</strong> him. But I will tell you, he backs winners. Since I’m on Walter, I will tell one<br />
more story. We were at an off-site meeting. Walter is a man of very strong opinions. He said,<br />
“You know, it really bothers me that you have to go <strong>with</strong> your hat in hand to those fund-raisers<br />
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