I did attend last week's picnic celebrating Jim Gordon's 80th birthday. I was amazed to see a group of world-class physicists who had come to attend the picnic. They spoke praising Jim Gordon for his exceptional leadership skills. Notable among those who spoke were: Herwig Kogelnik, Arthur Ashkin, Linn Mollenauer. It was inspiring to hear these people say that Jim was just a great colleague and manager, and created a great atmosphere for research. I could imagine the electric atmosphere for research at Bell Labs those days!
The most exciting moment came when Jerry introduced me to Bob Wilson, who won the Nobel prize in Physics for his discovery of cosmic background radiation, that provided the experimental evidence for the Big Bang. "Nice to meet you" he said, as I shook his hand. I immediately started asking him some questions. "Did you build this telescope?" I asked, pointing to the horn antenna behind me. He said, "that horn was already there when I joined". "It's a section of a parabola," he said, pointing to the curvature of the horn antenna.
"Where were the pigeons?" I asked, as I had read the story of pigeons being killed. "Oh! the pigeons are dead! We shot'em. They were in the small chamber and I sent it as far as the campus mail could get". He meant the Whippany campus, when he said "as far". "There was a guy who loved pigeons and we sent it to him. He found that they were junk pigeons and let them free. They came back to the antenna. We finally had to shoot them," he sounded sad.
"Do they pay the Nobel prize money in Swedish currency?" I asked. He said, "Yes! they do. I had to convert to US dollars here. Those days the Nobel prize money was tax-free. Nowadays, it is not." He was apparently 72 years old and he still works in a Radio Astronomy lab at Boston. He was also telling us about the radio telescope they built in Hawaii.
It was great to meet and talk to a Nobel Laureate. They are normal human beings, do not have a great ego. I guess they just work hard to earn their fame!
The most exciting moment came when Jerry introduced me to Bob Wilson, who won the Nobel prize in Physics for his discovery of cosmic background radiation, that provided the experimental evidence for the Big Bang. "Nice to meet you" he said, as I shook his hand. I immediately started asking him some questions. "Did you build this telescope?" I asked, pointing to the horn antenna behind me. He said, "that horn was already there when I joined". "It's a section of a parabola," he said, pointing to the curvature of the horn antenna.
"Where were the pigeons?" I asked, as I had read the story of pigeons being killed. "Oh! the pigeons are dead! We shot'em. They were in the small chamber and I sent it as far as the campus mail could get". He meant the Whippany campus, when he said "as far". "There was a guy who loved pigeons and we sent it to him. He found that they were junk pigeons and let them free. They came back to the antenna. We finally had to shoot them," he sounded sad.
"Do they pay the Nobel prize money in Swedish currency?" I asked. He said, "Yes! they do. I had to convert to US dollars here. Those days the Nobel prize money was tax-free. Nowadays, it is not." He was apparently 72 years old and he still works in a Radio Astronomy lab at Boston. He was also telling us about the radio telescope they built in Hawaii.
It was great to meet and talk to a Nobel Laureate. They are normal human beings, do not have a great ego. I guess they just work hard to earn their fame!
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