Memories of Philip Morrison

I was saddened to read in the March 2006 issue of Physics Today (page 83 ) of the death of Philip Morrison. As a graduate student in chemistry at Cornell University (1950–54) with minors in math and physics, I was fortunate that Morrison was the teacher of my first graduate physics class, Theoretical Mechanics. What a teacher he was! At the end of a class, his face often running with sweat from his exertions, he would beam at the class with a smile I remember vividly still.

I was also fortunate that Morrison agreed to represent the physics department on my doctoral committee, and at my oral qualifying exam, he demonstrated both his sense of humor and his quickness of mind. I arrived for my oral at Baker Laboratory to find that a final doctoral exam for an organic chemist had also been scheduled for the same room and time. The organic chemist had been working with an obscure and complex organic compound, a molecular model of which was lying on the lecture-room table. While my major professor, Frank Long, and the other professor were discussing which exam would be moved, Morrison entered.

He stopped by the table, gazed at the complicated molecular model, and then remarked, “Ah, I see you have been studying ___” and gave the correct chemical name of the compound. A profound silence followed as the assembled chemists marveled at the chemical erudition of this physics professor. I did not know then, nor do I remember now, what the compound was, and I suspect that Long, a physical chemist, was equally unsure.

As department chairman, Long won the argument as to which group would leave. After the organic chemistry student and his committee had departed, Long turned to Morrison and asked how in the world he had recognized that obscure chemical compound. Morrison flashed his charming smile and explained that as he had walked over to the lab, the organic chemistry student had passed by, carrying his thesis, and Morrison had glimpsed the thesis title in which the compound was named. He deduced that the molecular model on the table most probably represented the compound named in the thesis title and was thus able to astound the assembled chemists.

It was a great privilege to have known Philip Morrison.