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Stanford Oral History Collections

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1. Ernst, W. Gary

Title:
Ernst, W. Gary.
Author:
Ernst, W. Gary and Torre, Alicia
Corporate Author:
Stanford Historical Society
Description:
In this oral history, W. Gary Ernst, Stanford’s Benjamin M. Page Professor in Earth Sciences, Emeritus, and the former dean of the School of Earth Sciences, revisits his research and teaching career in geology and his experiences as an administrator. Ernst begins his interview by discussing his early life in St. Paul, Minnesota and his days at Carleton College where he was influenced by the charismatic Lawrence Gould. He describes his post-graduate pursuits at the University of Minnesota with Sam Goldich and at John Hopkins and the Carnegie Institution of Washington Geophysical Laboratory where he developed a special expertise in synthesizing amphiboles. Gary explains what drew him to UCLA in 1960 and his activities there. He shares his experiences doing research abroad as a Fulbright Scholar in Japan and on sabbaticals in Switzerland and Asia. Ernst explains how the emerging theory of plate tectonics provided the explanation for the high pressure, low-temperature minerals found in his California field research. Ernst was recruited to Stanford as dean of the School of Earth Sciences in 1989. He arrived at difficult time and was soon confronted with the destruction of the Loma Prieta earthquake, the indirect costs controversy, and budget cuts. He describes his successful efforts to bolster geochemistry through association with the United States Geological Survey and to establish the interdisciplinary Earth Systems Program. He also explains some of the challenges he faced and why he resigned as dean in 1994. Ernst concludes the interview by reflecting on teaching, the advantages and disadvantages of the breadth of his work, emerging trends in the geosciences, and how an undergraduate liberal arts education shaped his career.
Topic:
W. Gary Ernst, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, higher education, professors, Stanford University--School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, Stanford University--Department of Geological Sciences, universities and colleges--faculty, universities and colleges--administration, California Coast Ranges, geochemistry, and sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe
Imprint:
December 10, 2015 - December 22, 2015
Collection:
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012

2. Kailath, Thomas

Title:
Kailath, Thomas.
Author:
Kailath, Thomas and DiPaolo, Andy
Corporate Author:
Stanford Historical Society
Description:
In this oral history interview, Thomas Kailath, Stanford University’s Hitachi America Professor of Engineering, Emeritus, traces his path from the small town of Pune, India, to his appointment to the faculty of the Stanford Department of Electrical Engineering. He discusses his family background, his education in India and at MIT, and aspects of his varied research career in information theory, controls, signal processing, very-large-scale integration, and beyond. He reflects on his approach to working with graduate students, the academic environment at Stanford, and the interrelationship between teaching and research. Kailath begins the interview by speaking about his childhood in India, describing the state of Kerala where his parents were born, and explaining the Syrian Christian derivation of his first name. He describes his parents and the strong influence they had on him and his education at St. Vincent’s, a convent school run by Jesuit missionaries, where he became intrigued by geometry and proofs. He talks about his college education--first at Fergusson College and then in the highly selective Bachelor of Engineering in Telecom program led by Chandrashekhar Aiya at the College of Engineering, Pune. Interestingly, the only textbook he recalls using was the fourth edition of Frederick Terman’s Electronic and Radio Engineering. Kailath relates the story of how he came to attend graduate school at MIT when Dr. Ganugapati Stephen Krishnayya, the Indian educational attaché in Washington, DC and a man his family knew from church, encouraged him to apply to graduate programs and carried his transcript and letters of recommendation to universities in the United States. After Kailath received a research assistantship at MIT, his father’s employer at Pocha Seeds helped him to secure the funding needed to travel there. Kailath describes the late 1950s and early 1960s at MIT as “the golden time” due to the post-Sputnik availability of funding, including block grants from the Joint Services Electronics Program, and a particularly talented group of faculty and graduate students interested in the new field of information theory. Kailath speaks of his advisor, Jack Wozencraft, the MIT Research Lab of Electronics, his thesis research on linear time-variant filters, and jobs at the Lincoln Laboratory at MIT and Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Kailath recounts details of his recruitment to Stanford in 1963 and discusses the Information Systems Lab. He credits then provost Frederick Terman with creating a great teaching and research environment at Stanford and describes Terman’s approach to developing “steeples of excellence”--strong departments that attracted academic stars who in turn attracted more stars. Kailath recalls some of the challenges that he and his wife, Sarah, encountered as a newly married couple with young children living far from their families in India, and he reflects on the growth of the Indian community in Silicon Valley since the 1960s. Asked about his efforts on India’s behalf, he relates a story about meeting with officials in India’s defense establishment while on sabbatical at the Indian Institute of Science and encouraging them to set up a system of funding similar to the block grants offered by the Joint Services Electronics Program. Kailath reflects on the relationship between academic research and private industry in Silicon Valley, noting that many of his students went on to start companies. He reflects on the importance of “bridging between disciplines” (or interdisciplinary research) and comments on the difficulties that young faculty members face in developing expertise in multiple disciplines. Kailath describes his approach to working with graduate students and credits his wide professional network for directing excellent students to study with him at Stanford. He compares Stanford’s approach to engineering education to that of MIT and describes his students as his legacy, reflecting on the “multiplier effect” that occurs when one trains students. Kailath concludes his interview by talking about his children, the rationale behind his charitable scholarship donations, and his life since retirement.
Topic:
Thomas Kailath, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, higher education, professors, universities and colleges--research, universities and colleges--faculty, and telecommunications
Imprint:
March 19, 2015 - May 14, 2015
Collection:
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012

3. Reimers, Niels J

Title:
Reimers, Niels J.
Author:
Reimers, Niels J. and Horton, Larry
Corporate Author:
Stanford Historical Society
Description:
Niels J. Reimers, founder and former director of Stanford University's Office of Technology Licensing (OTL), begins his interview describing his family and living in Norway and Carmel, California. He describes his student days at Stanford and Oregon State as a mechanical engineering major, and he reflects on the three years he spent in the Navy on the USS Bon Homme Richard. Reimers also discusses his experience as an industrial engineer at Ampex and his transition into marketing at Philco Western Development Laboratories (later Philco-Ford) where he learned about contract law and how to develop new products from scratch. Reimers recounts his work as lead negotiator for Ford Aeronutronic on a contract change to the Reentry Management Program with the US Air Force and his departure from industry. Reimers describes his return to Stanford as Associate Director of Research Administration and his early interest in commercializing research inventions. He speaks of the system present at Stanford when he arrived in which there was no organized patent program. Inventions were sent to an outside company, Research Corporation, for licensing, and Stanford received minimal royalty income. Reimers describes the creation and approval of the pilot program for the Office of Technology Licensing and the development of a new royalty distribution system. He remembers the inventors and inventions he worked with, including Bill Johnson’s synthetic juvenile growth hormone for pest control, John Chowning’s work with altering the perceptual location of sound in space for electronic keyboards, Stan Cohen’s plasmid and Herb Boyer’s restriction enzyme which led to recombinant DNA, and Art Schawlow’s lasers for erasing. Reimers goes on to describe the autonomy he had managing OTL, his relationship with various deans of research, and working through potential conflicts of interest for inventors. He also discusses how OTL’s entrepreneurial model set it apart from other universities. Reimers recounts his involvement with the Bayh-Dole bill, which gave universities the right to the results of their research. He later reflects on his time spent at MIT, the University of California,Berkley, and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) working to help them reform their technology licensing programs. Reimers concludes the interview by summarizing his experience at Stanford, reminiscing about the research discoveries he came across, and reflecting on changes in the administration at Stanford, his retirement, and his activities after he left Stanford.
Topic:
Niels J. Reimers, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, higher education, administrators, Stanford University--Office of Technology Licensing, technology transfer, patents, patent licenses, license agreements, universities and colleges--research, universities and colleges--faculty, universities and colleges--administration, and Bayh-Dole Act
Imprint:
July 2, 2015
Collection:
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012