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.
The obituary for
Philip Morrison, written by Leo Sartori and Kosta Tsipis, is lovely. Readers may be interested
to know of an online memorial site dedicated to Philip and Phylis Morrison: http://www.memoriesofmorrison.org.
The site contains many personal memories of Phil and Phylis, and readers may send contributions
they wish to share to stories@memoriesofmorrison.org.
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