California Institute of Technology Cal Tech - Big T Yearbook (Pasadena, CA)

Page 12 text:

HAD not DR. LINUs PAULING a sense of humor, he would be annoy- ed by the frequent references to his youth. Just nine years after his graduation from college he was made a full professor of physical chem- istry at the Institute, and in the same year he won the famous Langmuir prize for the most distinguished work by a young scientist. When he was elected to be the youngest member of the National Academy of Sciences, he disclaimed all credit by saying the honor was due to his good looks. By mathematical interpretations of Laue photographs and by the use of wave mechanics DR. PAULING has obtained the material for an astonish- ing number of papers on crystal structure, the size of ions, and the nature of the chemical bond. These papers, which are important contri- butions to modern chemistry, are sometimes rather polemical, and DR. PAULING enjoys demolishing a con- clusion which would be wrong even if its premise were correct, which it is not. PROFESSOR FRANKLIN T HOMAS did not abandon his practical and public work when he became head of the Division of- Civil and Mechanical Engineering, for he has been a mem- ber of the Board of Directors of Pasadena, president of the Chamber of Commerce, and president of the Community Chest. As the climax of his efforts to obtain water and power for Southern California he is now Pasadenais representative on the board of the Metropolitan Water District. As chairman of the Student Rela- tions Committee of the faculty, PROFESSOR THOMAS has helped to improve conditions on the campus, and this spring he became head of the committee of faculty members, 13 FACULTY Lima Pauling

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FACULTY THE MEMBERS OF THE FAC- Dr. T. H. Morgan ULTY OF THE INSTITUTE HAVE BEEN THE RECIPIENTS OF MANY HIGH HONORS. THIS year the honor of Nobel Lau- reate was bestowed upon DR. MOR- GAN. Other faculty members have received lesser honors. Some have worked upon interesting problems. Many have simply carried on their regular work, but from among all of the groups there are some Who have contributed to Tech history during the year. Comments upon sev- eral of the men are given. The ab- sence from the staff of DR. WILLIAM MORRIS DAVIS, geologist, and DR. EDWIN H. KURTH, physicist, is noted With regret. DR. THOMAS HUNT MORGAN, the latest Nobel Laureate in Physiology and Medicine, does not like to be called a llmechanist, because he be- lieves the word to be ill defined. However, he has always been a sup- porter of the view that physical phenomena can be explained purely on a physical basis. To DR. MORGAN this hypothesis is highly important, because he has worked in two fields, those of genetics and experimental embryology, Where not particularly well disguised mystical fancies have now and again obtained considerable credit. By the examination and analy- sis of millions of Drosophilaea fruit fly said to have been created by God 12 solely as the means of genetical re- searcheDR. MORGAN and his stu- dents have so overwhelmed with facts the armchair biologists that they have fled the field of heredity forever. The same victory has unfor- tunately not yet become complete in some of the other biological sciences, but DR. MORGAN once, perhaps face- tiously, remarked that the boldest of those who hold the theory that the phenomena of life admit of the same kind of analysis as those of the inor- ganic world uclaim that in time they hope to bring Within reach of their methods a study of the lucubrations, hallucinations, and obsessions of the human mind which, masquerading under the illumination of introspec- tive metaphysics and transcendental philosophy, pretend to solve all the riddles of the universe.

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FACULTY Russell Porter and ?r. 102m A. Anderson students, and alumni which has en- couraged student participation in extra-cutricular activities. EACH of RUSSELL PORTER,S explora- tions has reached farther than the last into cold and silent space. His first journey was into the Arctic with COOK on an expedition Which igno- miniously became lost, but his later voyages with PEARY and ZIEGLER, on Which he served as artist, astrono- mer, and topographer, penetrated the polar regions. During the two years he was marooned with ZIEGLER in the Arctic the observation of the stars became his passion. That astro- nomical enthusiasm continued after his return, for PORTER then began to build his own refiecting telescopes. He became so proficient in their con- 14 struction that the Institutes observa- tory council sought him in his uStella Faneii-his mountain temple to the stars-for his advice on the two- hundred inch telescope. Now, as an expert machinist and Optician, he is in charge of the Astrophysics Shop, Where the giant instrument is being built. PROFESSOR JOHN A. ANDERSON dis- likes publicity, and although he has been working on one of the most widely publicised scientific projects of the past few years, the 200-inch telescope, he declines to tell any more of himself than can be found in uXths Who. As Dean of Freshmen, DR. JOHN R. MACARTHUR helps, at one time or