Haverford College - Record Yearbook (Haverford, PA)

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J ■ . i» e I I DOUGLAS H. HEATH GEORGE V. COELHO CHARLES E. MAYER PSYCHOLOGY Animal Lahoraiory : an unobtrusive sign on the fourth floor of Sharpless hides a dozen sad-eyed white rats peeking from behind empty water bottles, sharing their meager quarters with some imperious looking rabbits marked ' Property of the Biology Department. This seene is perhaps typieal of the plaee psyehology occupies among its sister bioU)gieal sciences even at enlightened Haverford : a kind of Cinderella scorned by the rest of the family and shuttled between the social and the natural sciences in true fairy tale fashion. But like Cinderella, psychology at Haverford has a certain pioneering spirit introduced by its dynamic head, Douglas Heath, whose unlimited faith in the ability of students to do advanced work — if given the opportunity — has made the department ideal for any- one interested in mastering the fundamentals of re- search. The center of his educational philosophy is in- deed the student, who, when given encouragement, can take his place early in the community of seekers of scientific truth. At the same time Heath has remained interested in the personal development of his students, and thus has succeeded in giving the department an air of scientific excitement as well as understanding of the personal needs of the scientists. Since psychology may be said to represent a fusion of the biological and social views of man, George Coelho leans more heavily toward the social interpretation. Accordingly, his contribution has been to present a thoughtful, rigorous approach to the less well defined problems of personality and social psychology, which with him become scientifically manageable while re- taining the flavor of their complexity. His sensitive grasp of significant literature has been mentioned by Gordon Allport, a noted psychological theorist — who has said of him, He can distinguish a significant book better than anyone else I know. Yet in spite of his serious grasp of the psychological meat, Coelho at home, in the midst of French House din, is one of the most friendly and informal members of the Haverford community, as are his wife Rani and three bright, lovable children. Representing the other psychological camp, the rigorous positivist Charles E. Mayer has already estab- lished himself in Haverford society as the somewhat caustic introductory psychology professor with a lean- ing toward impossible objective exams, intense interest in animals of all kinds — including human ones — and a predisposition for viewing the world as the central nervous system extended. If he were not a universal tinkerer as well, even the meager beginnings of an instrumented lab would still be in the blueprint stage. Thus he may be seen scurrying about extolling the rat and the implanted electrode, all the while reclaiming psychology as a true science. While still the Cinderella of the campus, psychology at Haverford is growing, and more than other departments can say confidently, Wait till next year! Sixteen

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He is an organic chemist concerned with structural problems. This year he taught the second semester of general organic and the first semester of the advanced course. Chemistry (i} . Word has it that ' Yi.V was a character builder. Colin MacKay is a bright young nuclear chemist who is very congenial and helpful to interested students. Like Bob Walters, he burns the midnight oil. MacKay often spends v .x ' ekends doing research at Yale. This year he taught the second semester of physical chemis- try while Dean Cadbury was on leave. Robert ( R.I. ) Walter is already a legend. He teaches one of the most notoriously difficult courses on campus — general organic. No student can forget this one. Those who last through it, come out knowing and retaining a lot, their mark, no matter how high, being a real purple heart. Students like Walter ' s friendli- ness and are often awed by his tireless and productive devotion to teaching both in and out of the class room. Walter ' s research interest concerns many problems — prominent among these is free radical chemistry. This interest ignited the Defense Department Controversy of 1957. The remaining spark of the teaching team during the last semester was Frederick ( 79 ) Brutcher, alias: Beware, visiting lecturer from the University of Pennsylvania. His intormation p.icked lectures, sprin- kled with generally good anecdotes (in the best Haav- ard accent), provided advanced organic students with an almost palatable dose of reactions and reaction mechanisms. Brucher ' s research interest concerns syn- thesis of natural jiroducts and reaction mechanisms. It may strike some that having a strong and active chemistry department on an admittedly liberal arts campus is a bit incongruous. Yet, following out the uniqueness theme, the department is strong because of its faculty .md students, and also because of its prox- imity to the humanities. Thus, it is possible that through the interaction and complementation of quality training in both areas, those who leave here will have the concerned initiative and sound direction so vita! to meaningful progress for mankind. COLIN F. MacKAY HARMON C. DUNATHAN Fifteen

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W.r ARIEL G. LOEWY MELVIN SANTER IRVING FINGER ROBERT L. CONNER BIOLOGY Second floor Sharpless, principal home of the biology department, has undergone a major face-lifting in the last few years, the lift being supplied by our new, aggressive bio profs. The principal change has been an academic shift from classical biology (botany, zool- ogy, vertebrate morphology, etc.) to the modern fron- tiers of biology (bio-chemistry, cellular physiology, genetics, etc.). Through grants of money from several foundations, the academic shift has resulted in a labor- atory ' shift from dissection kits and microscopes to Warburg respirometers, walk-in freezers, sterilizing tanks, and spectrophotometers. The initiation of the Senior Research Tutorial has given bio majors excellent experience in original research. A major part of the credit for the modernization of subject material and laboratory equipment goes to Ariel Loewy, the big bird of the biology department. Loewy has shed much blood for Haverford, especially in 195 7, when he did research on the disulfide bond in blood. Once, students really wanted to see blood flow when he told one class that he had lost their exams on the train. Often seen dashing around campus on an English bicycle with a rumble-seat, Loewy has plenty of time to converse with his majors on subjects ranging from politics to art. It has been rumored that when he obtains sabbatic leave he will spend most of the time cleaning up his hopelessly disorganized office desk. Melvin Santer is a microbiologist who grows bugs (bacteria) by the bottlcful. His 1957-58 research grant ( magnificent, just magnificent ) involved thiobacilli, and for the research Santer preferred mud imported from New Haven ( it ' s got good ' bugs ' . ) Almost daily he can be seen in his white lab smock, slapping and rubbing his hands together and vowing to his senior majors: All right, boys, today we gotta clean up the lab. Besides capably teaching complex biochemistry ' , Mel Santer leads his students to be aware and critical of the non-science world, especially the A.M. A. Perhaps the toughest teacher in the department, he maintains high standards by driving his students hard. The third member of the department that had such an excellent Philips Lecture Series for 1957-58 is Irving Finger, who ended 1957 by winning a research grant in his special field, genetics. An alumnus of Swarthmore College, Finger lost a Coca-cola bet to his genetics class that the Garnet would beat the Fords in their latest football clash. He often produces a big stink in Sharpless when he boils lettuce for his Paramecium. The zoology assignments are held down by Robert Conner. Each second semester slim, suave, smiling Conner drives over from Bryn Mawr to spend morn- ings lecturing on the weird, multicolored, anatomical cross-sections which cover his blackboards, and after- noons requiring his students to do lab dissections ( I think the instructions are fairly simple. ) He is in- trigued with the problem of whether protozoans are smarter than men. Seventeen