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Henry Gurr Professor of Physics Emeritus

I grew up on a farm in north central Ohio and have always been interested in machinery, electronics and building things. One of my earliest recollections is the model of the atom with the electrons whizzing in orbits around the central nucleus. When it came time to go to college, a good friend of the family suggested I go to Case Institute of Technology (now Case Western Reserve University) in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1959, I achieved a BS in Engineering concentrating in electronics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and instrumentation. During the last year of my engineering training, I did not desire to go out in the world to make money and had discovered that matter as we know it was composed both of particles and waves. Since I wanted to learn more about this seeming contradiction, I entered graduate school in physics at Case. A new graduate student out of necessity had to choose a PhD advisor. The only professor who needed graduate students was the new chairman of the Physics Department, Dr. Frederick Reines. I worked under him for my doctoral research in atmospheric neutrinos. It was my responsibility to assist in the setup of a 200 foot long neutrino detector in a mine tunnel 2 miles below the surface in the East Rand Proprietary Gold Mine, Johannsburg, South Africa. My dissertation used the data from this detector to establish that nuclear matter is highly resistant to disintegration with a half life exceeding the cube of the age of the universe. After I received my doctorate in 1966, I continued neutrino research in Aiken, SC, at the Savannah River Plant's reactors. It took fifteen years to eliminate overwhelming problems with nuclear radiation background. This research, sponsored by the University of California-Irvine, established that neutrinos coming from the reactor would collide with electrons in a multi-element scintillation detector at the rate predicted by Richard Feinman's V-A Theory.

During the time I was working in nuclear physics research, I became aware that our country had something like 20,000 nuclear warheads that could be delivered at intended targets in less than 40 minutes and that the Russians had the same capability. I began to see that humanity was facing a crisis. Although I understood that one person could not make much of a difference in reducing this threat to humanity, I switched into teaching in 1975 as my way of making a small contribution.

My career at the University of South Carolina Aiken has been devoted to finding better and more satisfying ways for students to learn physics (Henry Gurr, To the Beginning Student of Physics, August 1998). Sadly missing in contemporary instruction is direct, immediate experience with physical phenomena. To this end I have helped design and bring into being the following physical learning "experiences" at USCA:

The USCA Science Building has solar energy and peak load shedding features. Visitors to this building are struck by the cathedral-like high spaces in the hallways filled with striking color-coded ventilation and service pipes. Also on view in these hallways are the passive solar collector windows which augment the building's heating in winter.

The USCA Ruth Patrick Science Education Center likewise features solar energy and color-coded ducts and pipes. Visitors entering the building discover they are in a large sunny solar collector atrium and greenhouse filled with plants, greenery, and a colorful light bending/refracting aquarium. The beams in this building are color-coded to show load bearing "capacity" and their function in the structure of the building. Parts of the building that are normally hidden behind locked doors are exposed for visitors to see, for example, exposed elevator shaft and components, exposed phone wiring and cross connect fields, and exposed data wiring and data network electronic components. The electrical power distribution and circuit breaker panels are on display as well as the main power step-down transformer for the building. A special feature of the DuPont Planetarium at the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center is a giant "pinhole" camera. This so-called camera obscura projects a 40 foot wide upside down color image of the scenery outside the planetarium onto the planetarium dome. This fascinating image is accomplished with nothing more than a 2 inch diameter hole in one of the planetarium's exterior walls. In the entrance plaza of the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center are two giant sundials. Each sundial features monumental swirl-polished aluminum sculptures (Gnomons) that make the time-indicating shadows on the entrance plaza walkway. One sundial is a 5 foot high wedge that, as is case for all Roman sundials, points to the North Star. The other sundial is a 5 meter (16 feet) high modern adaptation of the classical Egyptian obelisk. The Ruth Patrick Science Education Center maintains its own list of other features of the Ruth Patrick Education Center building.

The British author, poet, philosopher, and linguist Owen Barfield wrote an article called "The Harp and the Camera". This article inspired the creation of both the USCA camera obscura and, more recently, the USCA aeolian harp as recreations of historical/literary "moments" in the development of the modern consciousness as well as interesting demonstrations of principles of science and physics. Whereas the camera obscura demonstrates fundamental principles of light and image formation, the aeolian harp demonstrates principles of wind instability and sound formation. Also demonstrated in the aeolian harp are principles of resonance, modes of vibration, and musical acoustics. A USC Venture Grant provided the funding for sculptor Rodney Carroll of Baltimore, Maryland, to build a 12 foot high aeolian harp for USCA. The harp will be placed on campus for public viewing and educational purposes on special occasions.

Now that I am retired, I hope to go on a trip that follows the route described in Robert Pirsig's book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. If you have information concerning the whereabouts of the buildings or roads or scenes described in this book, please consider contributing what you know to a collaborative effort to collect and make this information available to other people. To read more about my project or to send in any information you want to contribute, visit my new Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance site. My older site where I describe my research plans for the Zen book is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: Find Historical Site Information.

Spring 1999 Semester

Fall 1998 Semester

Case Western Reserve University, BS in Engineering Science (Electronics, Electrical, Mechanical, Instrumentation)

Case Western Reserve University, MS in Physics (Bubble Chamber Motion Detector and Scattering of Light)

Case Western Reserve University, PhD in Physics (Neutrino Research, Gold Mine, Johannesburg, South Africa) 1966