In all of our lives, there seems to be a few critical decision points – crossroad experiences – when the next decision could possibly change the rest of our lives, forever. Usually, we don’t seem to be particularly aware at the time on just how such a step could influence every other decision in the future, like a long, spiraling array of falling dominoes . Where would the last domino fall?
For me, such a critical time iswas taking place as I wrote this text in the summer of 1961, after successfully completing my four years of undergraduate studies in physics and mathematics at the Lowell Technological Institute, LTI,. Naturally, the first question that came to mind was, “What to do next?”
I had no capable mentors with experience in the world of atomic energy research. Nobody in the interwoven web of adult relatives ever even entered training beyond his or her high school years. I felt completely alone in handling this decision.
But, yes, there was one exception, Uncle Lucien, the West Point graduate with an excellent military record in the U.S. Army. At the time, he held the rank of a retired colonel living in State College, Pennsylvania, the town where the Pennsylvania State University, PSU, is located. Since West Point was known to produce officers with better than average engineering backgrounds, my uncle might serve nicely as a mentor in my case. Possibly, he could help me to make the right decision for a long-term career in scientific research and engineering development.
However, West Point was not recognized world-wide as an institution of advanced research leading to a doctoral degree in physics research. But, nevertheless, Colonel Lucien Bolduc would have to be my best advisor during these times of many unanswered questions. But, the details of this career choice still remained fraught with many open questions.
Of course, the option of getting an immediate, local position with a technical company remained a possibility. Such a firm might probably have a strong need for a person having a specialized expertise in chemical, electrical and mechanical technologies. Certainly, this solution presented several attractive possibilities, but it lacked a career track toward advanced R&D projects – more on this issue, later. Again, the best approach seemed elusive. Slowly, I was learning just how “elusive” played a key role in life’s choices.
A few, entry-level, technical jobs in the Lowell area were open to LTI graduates, who held Bachelor of Science, B.S., degrees in electrical or mechanical engineering, chemistry, electronics, plastics, etc. Others – not many, though – could be found in different industries located in various states along the Northeast Coast.
Also, there might be a low-level position open at the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories in Bedford, Massachusetts, for someone like me having only a humble B.S. degree in physics. The career pickings proved to be less than exciting with no glowing rainbow at the end of a arduous technical rainbow.
But, perhaps, I ought to have counted my blessings because, at the end of this last semester, I had been considered for employment at a paper mill factory located somewhere in one of the Carolinas – North or South, but I could not recall which.
The company representative, who interviewed me at the LTI campus library on University Avenue, explained to me the salary and associated benefits that came with the job. For me, being wanted as a potential, technical adjunct to a firm that transforms wood chips into paper pulp that is needed for the newspaper industry, came as a double-sided, or mixed, invitation.
Certainly, being a candidate for any legitimate position in any industry, in any field, in any geographical location felt good, even, reassuring. Having been an financial nobody for the first twenty years of existence in Lowell’s economic wasteland had left me somewhat tainted and unsure.
The economic landscape of the 1940s and 1950s had not been kind to the working classes of old Spindle City where perpetual belt-tightening had been considered an advanced form of self-preservation.
So, a real job paying an above-average salary sounded quite attractive. However, why did I not immediately jump at this first-class opportunity of a lifetime, which promised to take me from Lowell’s decaying cotton and textile industries to the possibility of a rewarding career in a paper-pulp industry down South?
If the new jobs were happening down South where the economic growth blossomed, why would I choose to stay in the gray, forlorn fields of eastern Massachusetts?
Does it not seem masochistic to stay behind, perhaps forever, watching a historical set of textile factories slowly and deliberately rust and crumble before our eyes? Maybe, my hesitation showed a troubling element of madness?
Perhaps, “man does not live by bread alone, etc.” A long-term goal might necessitate years of future austerity? Certainly, Feodor Dostoevsky might have concurred?
In contrast, the fantasies that filled my aching brain revolved around Rutherford’s work at the Cavendish Laboratories; on the spatial distribution of protons and electrons in an atom; on Pierre and Marie Curie’s experiments on radium in Paris; and on the Law of Conservation of Mass in chemical reactions by Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry.
These were all vital, pivot points in the development of present-day, scientific understanding of the physical world.
In passing, it was a sad comment regarding human nature that Lavoisier was guillotined by the Parisian mob of the French Revolution during the period called “La Terreur” in 1794. Seemingly, the fickle, under-educated and unwashed masses of that rabble had little to no tolerance for scientific inquiry, at least, at that time in history. Even then, I, sometimes, wondered when disgruntled citizens, somewhere on the planet, might, again, adopt such draconian measures when dealing with their intense discontent of the status quo.
Apparently, XXXXXXX
For me, the successful churning of wood chips into paper pulp lacked much of the scientific glory and excitement listed above, although I was prompt to admit that newspapers and magazines certainly added much value and excitement to our cultural well being. However, other, LTI engineers, might find the pulp-paper business quite rewarding. But, my dreams seemingly went beyond wood chips and pulp. But, where, indeed, might they lead?
Where and in what human endeavor was there an urgent need for someone like myself with a glowing passion and interest in applying the laws of physics, math and chemistry to important national projects?
I loved the fields of mechanics, electricity and magnetism, statistical mechanics, partial differential equations, matrix algebra, atomic physics and, yes, even quantum mechanics so as to better understand and appreciate the wonders of our world. Such an endeavor could result in patents and inventions – new devices that could make for a better world.
Where might one go after having reached first base in the ballgame of applied, basic science? Was there life after the Bachelor of Science degree in physics?
At this moment, everything seemed unclear, but also exciting.
[ENDE]
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In contrast to garden-variety applications, R&D work is usually the stuff for someone holding a fresh Ph.D. degree in physics, chemistry, mathematics, etc. from a nationally recognized university. Clearly, I need another five years, minimum and perhaps more, of experience to fall into that advanced category. Do I have that intestinal fortitude to plow on?
What to do? What to do? The exciting particle-physics-based research using cyclotrons, linear accelerators and a Tokamak, a Russian designed, controlled fusion device, is happening at national laboratories like Los Alamos National Labs, Sandia Labs, Lawrence Livermore Labs, Oak Ridge Labs, etc. Work at that level is simply not taking place in Lowell, Haverhill, Springfield, Newton, or even in Boston, although MIT does have some promising research in the field.
If I truly wanted to do research, to play ball, in those bigger research ballparks, then I would need to spread my wings and take a chance, at least, for a graduate physics degree from a well-known university. The physics department at LTI is fine, but as yet, it is an educational, scientific department with little name recognition across the nation or the planet.
Now, in contrast, the whole world has heard of the Pennsylvania State University, PSU. An advanced degree from PSU coupled with a fine recommendation or two from professors on the science faculty could be the necessary legitimacy that I seek for possibly being allowed to play in the big leagues, where Nobel Prize winning researchers hang their scientific hats. Maybe, I could learn from these master science craftsmen and craftswomen their special techniques for conducting research that is not taught at a small institution like LTI.
It seems that many factors and personal qualities go into becoming quite outstanding in a field. Some of these might only be conferred onto a newbie like me through osmosis in the daily exposure to that buzzing environment. I could be working in a modest capacity with the great minds in the field while still being a young green horn, the proverbial, New Kid on the Block. This setup would offer neat advantages for possible advancements in the future.
But, is all this psychological effort worth it? What if I don’t really enjoy decades of conducting experiments with their results being announced at the semi-annual American Physical Society, APS, conferences held across the nation.
These meetings, I am told, are often marked by confrontations of opposing technical teams each claiming its approach to be right and denouncing the shabby work of the competition. Confrontations and open technical disputes sound rather unappealing to me. Is this a part of the picture that I refuse to see at the moment?
Is this what I really hope to achieve? Where might there be a place for someone, who often seeks understanding, resolution, and a bit of respectful concord?
Where might there be a place for me, Paul E. Bolduc? Am I seeking fame and recognition in a world of sharp and cutting ego edges where “Publish or Perish” rule the game? Hopefully, Uncle Lucien might be of some help in my deciding for the long run..
[ENDE]
