Letters

Spring 2025 Volume LXXXVIII, Number 1 Caltech magazine EDITOR IN CHIEF Lor Olwensten PRODUCED BY CALTECH'S OFFICE OF SENIUN CUITORI Omar shamout COMMUNICATIONS AND EXTERNAL RELATIONS Shayna Chabner, Unier communications Omicer AKI DIKEGION Jenny K. Somerville Read Caltech magazine on the go at magazine.caltech.edu MANAGING EDITORI Sharon Kaplan Contact Caltech magazine at magazine@caltech.edu Caltech magazine ISSN 2475-9570 (print)/ ONLINE EDITOR ANDI SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR anarew Moceman ISSN 2475-9589 (online) is published at Caltech. 1200 East California Boulevard. Pasadena, CA 91125. CUNIKIBUTING WRITEKS Whitney Clavin, Lori Dajose, Cynthia Eller, Kimm Fesenmaier, Andrew Moseman, Julia Ehlert Nair, Neil Savage. Omar Shamout All rights reserved. Reproduction of material contained herein forbidden without authorzaton @702h. Caltorna netitute ot Technology. Published by Caltech. Image credits: Sergio Solorzano: cover DESIGNER ennv. omerve (hoto). 8 (unner left). 11: Christian Gralinaen: cover, 27 (kaleidoscope design); NASA/JPL-Caltech: TOC (left), 36; Omar Shamout: TOC ONLINE DESIGNER sergio solorzano (upper right); Rob Phillips: TOC (middle right); Shutterstock/trekandshoot: TOC (lower right); ILLUSTRATION, PHOTOGRAPHY, VIDEOGRAPHY Jieyu Zheng: 2; Jon Nalick: 3 (top), 9 (top); ance Havashida. Peter Holderness. Floyd Clark: 3; Matthew Anderson: 4-5; Peter Jon Nalick, Omar Shamout, Sergio Holderness: 6; Lance Hayashida: / (top), 10 (bottom), 12, 22, 24, 29; Wenjie Zhou: Solorzano, Jenny K. Somerville, Bill Youngblood 7 (bottom); Julia Gash: 8 (top right); Ketika Garg: 8 (bottom); Iceland Civil Protection/ Kiorn Ooosson: 9 (oottom: -sther Oxamodo COPY FDITORS Sharon Kaplan, Carolyn Waldron 10 (top); courtesy of Yaser Abu-Mostafa: 13; Jenny K. Somerville: 16, back cover; Bill Youngblood: 17 (top left), 33-35; courtesy Caltech Archives: 17 (lower left, right), 18 (left), 39 (top left, lower left, lower right); Erik Dinel- Allen Institute: 18 (middle); Vicki Chiu: 19; Wikipedia: 20 (top); TED: 20 (bottom); Clément Barbé: 21; Steve Babuljak: 28; Van Urtalian: 30, 31, 39 (top right); SPHEREX/ JPL-Caltech: 37; LindushaJosepha/creative- commons.orq/licenses/ov-s2/3.0/deed.ent 39 (middle left); Shutterstock/Romolo Tavani: 40 (lett): shutterstock/Roman samborskvi: 40 (right); Shutterstock/Astrid Gast: 41 (left); Shutterstock/Chokniti-Studio: 41 (right). Printed by Courier Graphics Corporation, Phoenix, AZ Dictured an the caver..lufa Ehlart Nair Left: Graduate student Jieyu Zheng took this photo of a snowy egret at a Caltech lily pond on January 2, 2025. Spring 2025 Caltech magazine Letters Cycling Celebrity Readers connected with our #SoCaltech profile of Caltech graduate student and cycling advocate Elina Sendonaris. Read it here I'm a JPL-er and Pasadena resident, and just wanted to reach out to thank you for taking that opportunity to promote the Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition [CSC]! I grew up in a car-centric suburb, then spent much of my early adulthood commuting by bicycle in a more walkable city and loving the feeling of freedom and connect-edness, and the health benefits it provided. Now I'm living in Pasadena feeling like we have such potential to be a cycling-friendly city but are really missing the necessary infrastructure. I have two young daughters, and I would love to be able to bike with them around town, but for the most part, it just doesn't feel safe. I signed the petition for the All Ages & Abilities Greenway and will continue to keep an eye on the CSC social media for opportunities to support their work. Thank you for using your platform to promote a worthwhile cause! -Joseph Russino PASADENA, CA Please thank Elina for her efforts to improve cycling. I am doing the same thing in her native Bay Area-Castro Valley. Sadly, it is far more challenging than it should be, and we recently lost a battle to install bike lanes on a spine of our connected bike network because nobody would remove parking-so disheartening. Any-way, I just want her to know there are others out there supporting her efforts. -Bruce Dughi CASTRO VALLEY, CA Laser Focus It's a Coherent 699 laser in the photograph (not 599). I have used both. -Mark Lindsay (BS '84) ESTES PARK, CO Editor's note: The laser described in our "Shine a Light" story (Fall 2024) was the Coherent 599 dye laser, but the photo wrongly depicted the 699. Organ Donation I read George Cannon's letter about Hunter Mead, the Caltech professor who had a large pipe organ in his home [Fall 2024]. As a member (originally) of the class of '76, I was not able to meet him. In fact, the end-of-year Caltech musical event was called the "Hunter Mead Memorial Concert!" I have been the Caltech organist for 50 years. I also served for a while on the LA Chapter of the American Guild of Organists Finance Committee, where I discovered Dr. Mead was one of only two major donors to our fund! Alas, the concerts are now called "Bandorama," and we are forgetting about a fascinating person. -Les Deutsch (BS '76, PhD '80) CHATSWORTH, CA Previous Paleontologists On page 16 of the Fall 2024 issue of Caltech magazine, you state: "Julia Tejada is only the second paleontologist to join the Caltech faculty," the first being Chester Stock. What about Heinz Lowenstam? During my sophomore year (1972- 73), I spent time working in his lab. Wasn't he a paleontologist? What I observed of his work would certainly be classified as paleontology. -Mary Eichbauer (BS '74) BENICIA, CA As a former inmate of Jerry Wasserburg's "Lunatic Asylum," I enjoyed the article "Signatures from the Past," but Julia Tejada is not the second paleontologist on the Caltech faculty. She may be the second vertebrate paleontologist. As far as I know, Heinz Lowenstam, professor of paleoecolo-gy from 1952-83, didn't work on vertebrates, but he was certainly a paleontologist. -G. Price Russ Ill (PhD '74) WALNUT CREEK, CA Editor's note: Indeed, in "Signatures from the Past" (Fall 2024), we should have identified Julia Tejada as the second vertebrate paleontologist to join Caltech's faculty. We appreciate those who wrote in defense of Heinz Lowenstam. Heinz Lowenstam (at left) magazine.caltech.edu