Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

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Tombrello–268 ASPATURIAN: When a sale like that is made, what percentage of the revenue comes back to Caltech? TOMBRELLO: Depends on what the original setup was. Previously Caltech did rather poorly. We took license fees. That worked well with [Leroy] Hood’s DNA sequencer; but Caltech never took equity. With small companies, there’s an interesting trade-off on whether it’s better for them to give you some percentage of the equity in the company or pay you license fees. That’s where Larry really was important, in trying to work out with the company what the proper mix was. Typically, at the maximum, Caltech will have 5 percent of the stock, which can be a lot of money, a lot of money—but not to be greedy. You know, the key was that Caltech essentially had put nothing into these things; 5 percent, when you put in nothing, is not shabby. It’s good! There may be license fees as well, and Caltech continues to own the patents except for that one case where we sold it. [Laughter] I’d love to think that Nathan made some money out of that. Someday I will ask Nathan, because I do see him periodically. In fact, I’ll probably see him in about a week; Maria Spiropulu has organized this “Physics of the Universe Conference” again this year. ASPATURIAN: Here on campus or off-site? TOMBRELLO: It will be one day at SpaceX and one day here. ASPATURIAN: SpaceX being? TOMBRELLO: Space Exploration Technologies; it’s owned or run, founded by Elon Musk. In the last year it has successfully launched two million-pound thrust rockets—the Falcon 9s. NASA is now becoming a big contractor with it, and it fits President Obama’s paradigm, which was maybe we can go to private companies to supply services in the big rocket business. The president loves Elon Musk, and he should. Elon is a very interesting model for the future of industrial growth in the country, between SpaceX and Tesla Motors, and of course SolarCity— the company that installs solar cell systems on houses and businesses. I think it’s a business model that people should not ignore. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T
Tombrello–269 ASPATURIAN: Is he originally from Russia? TOMBRELLO: He is originally from South Africa. The story can be found on the Web, so I won’t spend a lot of time on it. He ran away from home as a teenager. His mother had Canadian citizenship, so he got to Canada. Got himself into undergraduate school at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with degrees in physics and, I believe, business. And the rest is history. First, there was some little Web publishing thing, which probably brought in a couple of hundred million dollars, and then there was PayPal. Now, of course, he’s into manufacturing. I think the country, considering the loss of manufacturing jobs, ought to be paying very close attention to what he’s doing. Of course, you know, I’m a fan of Elon. But, as I’ve said in many interviews, I’m a critical fan. But being nine years old, I’m enthusiastic about a lot of things. ASPATURIAN: That’s right. It helps to be perpetually nine years old. TOMBRELLO: Underneath it all, I’m not willing to accept stuff that I don’t think meets standards. So far, everything Musk has done certainly meets any standard I could set. ASPATURIAN: Well, on that note— TOMBRELLO: Good! This has been delightful. 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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Tombrello-119 questions. But Murray
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Tombrello-121 marvelous teacher—h
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Tombrello-123 ASPATURIAN: What I ha
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Tombrello-125 ASPATURIAN: That woul
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Tombrello-127 and all sorts of thin
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Tombrello-129 ASPATURIAN: Someone e
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Tombrello-131 DuBridge interpreted
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Tombrello-133 sciences. They were g
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Tombrello-135 candidates came and g
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Tombrello-137 TOMBRELLO: I don’t
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Tombrello-139 TOMBRELLO: Yes. But I
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Tombrello-141 opposite sides. But h
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Tombrello-143 ASPATURIAN: Now, was
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Tombrello-145 ASPATURIAN: Really? T
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Tombrello-147 TOMBRELLO: Yes. I’d
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Tombrello-149 I believe he had a vi
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Tombrello-151 to predict something
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Tombrello-175 And then in the summe
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Tombrello-177 think you need that c
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Tombrello-179 nuclear counterterror
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Tombrello-181 spoiled by that. The
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Tombrello-183 particularly the weap
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Tombrello-185 set up to prevent wea
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Tombrello-187 with those that alrea
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Tombrello-189 powered by solar. The
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Tombrello-191 TOMBRELLO: I know. I
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Tombrello-193 THOMAS A. TOMBRELLO S
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Tombrello-195 discretionary $19,000
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Tombrello-197 Lange is PMA chairman
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Tombrello-199 Witten’s here, Zewa
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Tombrello-201 There were many thing
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Tombrello-203 the key—the hallmar
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Tombrello-205 TOMBRELLO: Not exactl
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Tombrello-207 pieces of hardware th
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Tombrello-209 TOMBRELLO: It’s nic
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Tombrello-211 Wendy, until well int
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Page 223 and 224: Tombrello-235 THOMAS A. TOMBRELLO S
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Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

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