Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

Tombrello–57
USC. She said, “My nephew’s here. Is there something you can do?” “Sure, have him talk to
me.” Then you sort of realize that he’s got these family dynamics and that his family had
probably put him in a category that wasn’t a good one. He’d been cross-eyed as a kid—I learned
that later. His name was Will Galvin. His grandfather was Bob Galvin, who made Motorola
what it used to be. The family hadn’t completely written off Will, but after the summer here we
knew him well enough that he got into Caltech and Harvard as an undergrad. He’s doing rather
well. Finished at Harvard a couple of years ago. Cum laude—not shabby. You get people—
unexpected people—and you just have to spot something that other people for some reason had
been ignoring. I don’t know if they were ignoring Aurora, but they certainly weren’t making life
easier for her. With Will Galvin, I think his grandfather suddenly discovered he had a hotshot
grandson. I found that very interesting. I’d have thought grandfather would have been plenty
smart enough to spot he had a great grandson before that. Oh, well. Whatever it takes.
You’re sitting in Talulah Riley’s chair, when she’s here. I got a call a couple of years ago
from Elon Musk saying he was engaged to this young British actress—would I take her in? And
I did. And she’s delightful. She’s very smart. I think she’s going to apply to Caltech. I hope so.
[Professor of literature, emeritus] Jenijoy [La Belle] likes her. I put her in Jenijoy’s class, but
Talulah has a complicated life. She’s in films. She has a husband who needs to use her for Tesla
and SpaceX, on occasion. And she’s got five stepchildren now. So with students it’s always the
unexpected. The Mr. Chips story. There are thousands, and they don’t all look like Talulah, and
they don’t all look like Feynman, the way Dario does, but each of them has something interesting
about them. It’s fun watching them grow. There are some where you wonder if they’ll grow.
But I bet they will. And I think being in Physics 11 probably plays some role in that.
ASPATURIAN: What happens during a typical term in Physics 11? What are the students doing?
TOMBRELLO: OK. They start the beginning of the calendar year—January. They’ve been at
Caltech one quarter at that point. We start just getting acquainted with one another, and early on
I start thinking about various faculty they can be placed with for a research project. Caltech
doesn’t put any money into the summer stipends, which are $6,000 apiece. I’ve had to scrounge;
with nine in the class, that was $54,000. You have to find faculty who will pay it. Remember,
it’s twice what they pay for SURF. So there clearly has to be some added value for them there.
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