The Month at Caltech

THE MONTH AT CALTECH Pool and Gym WITHIN THE MONTH, plans were announced for construction of both a swimming pool and a gymnasium at the Institute. The pool came first. As contributions to the Alumni Fund approached the $150,000 goal, the Caltech Alumni Association announced contruction details of the new Alumni Swimming Pool. It will be located at the south end of the parking lot in Tournament Park. It will be L-shaped, covering 3,870 square feet. The adjacent locker rooms will cover 4,000 square feet and will include dressing rooms, showers and other facilities. The pool will be built in the shape of an "L" to make it more versatile than the usual rectangular pool. It will provide a relatively shallow, six-lane, 75-foot-long racing section in the long leg of the "L"—or a deeper, 40-by-50 foot water polo area by utilization of the short leg of the "L". Suitable placement of surface floats will make it possible to conduct diving competition and four-lane racing simultaneously. When either six-lane racing or water polo is in progress, the remainder of the pool will be available for swimming practice. The pool will be heated and lighted for night swimming. About 20 feet of concrete deck will surround the pool. An 8½-foot windbreak will shelter three sides. The dressing room structure will enclose the fourth side. 26 The Institute's consulting architects, Pereira & Luckman, Los Angeles, are supervising the design. Less than a week after the news of the new pool came the announcement that funds made available through a bequest of the late Scott Brown had been allocated by action of the Board of Trustees to the construction of a gymnasium in Tournament Park. Mr. Brown, a lawyer and a resident of Pasadena; left a trust fund of approximately $400,000 to the Institute, directing that it be used in whatever way the trustees decided. Because of the long-felt need for an athletic center the trustees voted to use the Brown funds for this purpose. Since this money has become available rather sud- denly, it will now be necessary to begin the long talked-of expansion plan for a gym-swimming pool combina-tion. Architects are already preparing working draw-ings. These will go out for bids in several months, and we can probably look forward to the completion of the athletic center in the spring or summer of 1954. How-ever, all efforts will be made to advance the construction schedule. Mr. Brown, in whose memory the gymnasium will be named, had been active in Pasadena civic and philanthropic affairs for two decades before his death last June 14. He was honored in 1938 with the Arthur Noble CONTINUED ON PAGE 28 THE MONTH ... CONTINUED Award as the city's outstanding citizen. In the preceding year he received an award from Pasadena Post No. 13 of the American Legion for distinguished civic service. A graduate of the University of Chicago, he practiced law in that city and came to Pasadena as a permanent resident in the early 1930's. He was a former general counsel of the Studebaker Corporation and vice president of the Illinois Power and Light Company and of the Illinois Traction Company. Mr. Brown had been a member of the California Institute Associates since 1931 and a director of the organization from 1940 until his death. He also was associated in Pasadena with the Community Chest and was a member of the Valley Hunt Club, Annandale Golf Club and the Twilight Club, of which he had at one time been President. New Trustees THE BOARD OF TrUSTEes of the Institute elected two new members last month: Dr. Arnold O. Beckman, president of Beckman Instruments, Inc., and Mr. Charles Stone Jones, president of the Richfield Oil Company. Dr. Beckman, a California Institute Associate since 1948, is the first Caltech alumnus to be elected a trustee. President of Beckman Instruments, Inc., its Berkeley Scientific Division and the Helipot Corporation, a sub-sidiary, he is also president of Arnold 0. Beckman, Inc., scientific instrument manufacturing company. His major professional interest has been the development of scientific and industrial instruments, particularly in the field of chemical analysis. During the war he did research on instruments for detecting war gases, and for the detection and measurement of radioactivity. Dr. Beckman has been consultant to the Los Angeles County Air Pollution Control District since its forma- tion in 1948. He is also chairman of the scientific committee of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the board of governors of the San Gabriel Valley Council of the Boy Scouts of America. A native of Cullom, Illinois, Dr. Beckman graduated from the University of Illinois in 1922. After receiving his Ph.D. from Caltech in 1928, he became instructor in chemistry here and was promoted to assistant professor in 1929 He left Caltech in 1940 to go into business for him-self, manufacturing scientific instruments. Beckman In-struments, Inc., is now a member of the Institute Industrial Associates. President of the Instrument Society of America last year, Dr. Beckman has been a councilor of the American Chemical Society for the past decade. He is also a member of the Electrochemical Society, Faraday Society of England, and Sigma Xi, honorary research fraternity. Mr. Jones has long been prominent in both the oil 28 John D. Roberts, Professor of Organic Chemistry industry and civic affairs. He entered the oil business in Texas, his native state, and later became president of the Rio Grande Oil Company of California. He has been president of the Richfield Oil Company since its reorganization in 1937. The Richfield Oil Company is a member of the Institute Industrial Associates. A member of the California Institute Associates for more than ten years, Mr. Jones has been president of the group for the past two years. Community beautification is one of his deep interests and he recently ported an ordinance banning advertising on freeways. He was one of the founders and first president of the Los Angeles Men's Garden Club, an organization that works to beautify the area. Mr. Jones is a director of the American Petroleum Institute and the Western Oil and Gas Association. He also is a member of the California Club, Hunt and Fish Club, Bohemian Club and the Flintridge Riding Club. Organic Chemistry Professor DR. JOHN D. RoBERTS, 34, Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-nology, has been appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry at Caltech. He joins the staff about July 1. Dr. Roberts is a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellow for 1952-53. On a year's leave of absence from M.I.T. he has been conducting research at Caltech since last September on the theory of the structure of organic compounds. He leaves this month on a 10-week trip to England, France and Switzerland to continue his research. CONTINUED ON PAGE 30 Buld a rewarding career as an S.S. White sales engineer... THE MONTH ... CONTINUED Here is an opportunity for qualified engineering graduates to become associated with one of the country's leading manufacturers in a sales engineering job that will bring you in contact with top engineers in all branches of industry. We are looking for graduate engineers who desire to utilize their engineering training in the sales and application of mechanical products in industry. As an S.S. White sales engineer you will start at an attractive salary and be trained right on the job to undertake immediate responsibility. Your opportunities for a lifetime career with S.S. White are unlimited. Promotions are made from within and your accomplishments will be quickly recognized and rewarded. We will be glad to arrange an interview either at your school or in New York at the S.S.White Industrial Division offices. Write to Department C and include a snapshot of yourself and a brief resume of your education, background and experience. Te Alhile INDUSTRIAL DIVISION DENTAL MFG. CO. Dept. C, 10 East 401h St._ NEW YORK 16, N. Y. Professor Roberts will teach the undergraduate course in organic chemistry at Caltech, conducted for 38 years by Professor Howard Lucas, who will devote his time to research after this year. Both scientists are physical organic chemists, interested in the mechanisms of organic chemical reactions. A native Californian, Dr. Roberts graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1936. He was graduated from U.C.L.A. in 1941 and received his Ph.D. there in 1944. In 1945 he went to Harvard as a National Research Fellow and Instructor in Chemistry. He joined the M.I.T. staff in 1947. He has conducted research in organic chemistry since 1940. His present investigations include radio-active tracer research, studies on small-ring organic compounds and research in theoretical organic chemistry. Since 1949 he has been a consultant for the DuPont Company and for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Caltech and the ACS PRESIDENT DUBRIDGE is due to speak on "Science and Government" at the opening general session of the 123rd National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, to be held in Los Angeles March 15-19. Dr. DuBridge will address ACS members in the Pacific Ballroom of the Hotel Statler on the night of March 16. His talk will follow presentation of special ACS awards - among them the Scientific Apparatus Makers $1,000 Award in Chemical Education to Dr. Howard J. Lucas, Caltech Professor of Organic Chemistry (see page 21). Among other Caltech staff members participating in the ACS meeting will be Professor Linus Pauling, Chairman of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engi. neering, who will address a joint meeting of three ACS divisions on "Configuration of Polypeptide Chains in Proteins," at 10 a.m. March 17. Recent research developments at Caltech will be presented in more than a dozen papers, given at various symposia by Caltech staff members including Drs. Lucas, Pauling, Gordon A. Alles, Harrison Brown, A. J. Haagen-Smit, Henry Dan Piper, Ernest H. Swift and L. Zech-meister. Dr. Frank F. Grout, Visiting Professor of Geology at Caltech, will be honored with a 50-year ACS membership certificate. Professor-Emeritus of Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Grout has been a consultant to the U. S. Geological Survey since 1945. A luncheon for alumni of Caltech will be held at 12:15 on March 16 in the New York Room of the Statler Hotel, and an open house will be held for ACS visitors at Caltech March 17 from 2 to 5 p.m., when various research facilities and laboratories will be open for their inspection. 30