Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

Tombrello–63
ASPATURIAN: Consciousness.
TOMBRELLO: —than any of theirs, but if you talk about the characters, the interesting
personalities, who are just on a different page, Christof is clearly one of them. Eventually I will
think of some others to put in there. But the first one that comes to mind is Christof.
ASPATURIAN: What do you think of the quality of teaching at Caltech overall?
TOMBRELLO: Pretty good. Could be a lot better, considering what we have. I think there is too
much acceptance of a paradigm that is probably much more justified at a large state university:
Large classes, recitation sections. If any place can have a lot of human contact with the students,
Caltech would be it. We make up for it really pretty well with things like the SURF program.
They get a lot more attention there. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be interaction with the
professor, though that helps. It’s nice to have the professor there to serve as a mentor and as a
helper at the next stage when these students need jobs and career advice later on, but working
with postdocs or with an eager grad student while doing a SURF is not bad at all. You get much
more of their time, and they can often be a big help. At some point the professor has got to write
the letters. I don’t think people nominate students enough for prizes. Physics 11 students do win
a lot of prizes and a lot of scholarships, but I write a lot of letters on their behalf. The
willingness to write a recommendation letter or to nominate somebody for something is so
important. I think a lot of professors just don’t do that. I don’t think they’re consciously saying,
“I’m going to deny these students this extra chance.” I just don’t think they think about it. And
that’s a bit sad. I think there should be a lot more competition for these prizes where people are
nominated by their advisors. You just have to do it. You have to speak up. As I say, you have
to put your reputation a little bit on the line. If you believe in the student, speak up for them.
Get them a good job. Get them a prize. The prizes mean a great deal. It means a lot to their
parents.
ASPATURIAN: That’s very true.
TOMBRELLO: I like to reward the parents. I have four children, and I’m pleased when they get
some attention. I think of the four, the one who probably got the most attention in college was
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