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>–247<br />
years before, I’d stolen Andy Lange from Berkeley. I said to Buford, “Got him away from you.”<br />
He says, “Yeah. But I got something better.” I said, “What’s that?” He says, “I’m going to hire<br />
Fiona.” I don’t know who Fiona is! But I pretend. I said, “Oh, God. You’re a genius, Buford.<br />
You’re the smartest thing alive. I mean, you’re taking me, you know. You’re going to get<br />
Fiona, and I don’t even have a chance.” And I’m thinking, I have to find out who the hell Fiona<br />
is. We take a break and I come back up here to check something, and I look in my mailbox and<br />
there’s a note from one Fiona Harrison! Oh. And she’s a named postdoc here. She’s beginning<br />
to explore the possibility of applying for a faculty position. So I thought to myself, Oh, Buford,<br />
Oh, Buford. I go back and I don’t mention this, and I said, “Buford, you’re a genius. You got<br />
Fiona, and I don’t have a chance.” I thought to myself, she’s mine. [Laughter] So, first step<br />
was, I meet Fiona Harrison. I realize that she is clearly one of the great experimenters. I mean,<br />
this division is full of extraordinary people who can do experiments: Jeff Kimble, Andy Lange,<br />
Jonas Zmuidzinas, Tom Phillips, Ken Libbrecht. They’re just naturals. The list goes on and on.<br />
You put them in a lab, they can make something work and make something new. I realize,<br />
here’s another one.<br />
ASPATURIAN: And what was she working on?<br />
TOMBRELLO: She was working <strong>with</strong> Tom Prince, and they were doing X-ray astronomy. I check<br />
<strong>with</strong> Tom, and he says, “Oh, she’s good. Do you think we can hire her?” I said, “Oh”—to<br />
misuse a phrase from George Tenet—“a slam-dunk!’” I don’t know if I used those words or not,<br />
but I just thought this was a shoo-in. I was as proud of having captured Fiona as I was of<br />
capturing Andrew Lange. She is extraordinary. I’ve always been pleased <strong>with</strong> how well she<br />
does what she does. I’ve always been extremely pleased that she’s tough-minded about it. Now<br />
she’s got this spacecraft project, this NuSTAR, which has a terrible history as far as she’s<br />
concerned, because a lot of it coincided <strong>with</strong> the fact that her first baby, Erica, was dying. She<br />
lived for about eighteen months but was born <strong>with</strong> a terminal illness and was severely<br />
compromised. Fortunately, Joanna, who was born after Erica died, even looks a bit like Erica.<br />
ASPATURIAN: She was a beautiful little girl. Red hair, beautiful little face.<br />
http://resolver.caltech.edu/<strong>Caltech</strong>OH:OH_<strong>Tombrello</strong>_T