From page ii of my Ph.D. thesis, written in 1979:

Apart from my intellectual debt to Professor Kip S. Thorne, I can never fully express my personal debt. His wisdom, insight, kindness, enthusiasm, and unflagging encouragement of even the slightest signs of productivity among his students have been a continuous inspiration to all who know him. He is one of the great teachers of physics, as well as one of the great physicists, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity of studying for many years in his theoretical astrophysics and relativity group at the California Institute of Technology.

These words were adapted from Murray Rothbard's preface to his treatise on economic principles, Man, Economy, and State (1970), in which Dr. Rothbard spoke of his advisor, Ludwig von Mises.

Kip insisted on being addressed by his first name. The only exceptions he allowed were in the case of Asian students whose upbringing made it impossible for them to speak to him in so familiar a way. I remember Kip as a dragon, fire-red hair and beard streaming as he raced across campus, full of creative energy, combining meticulous attention to detail with cosmic vision. In this Year of the Dragon he turns 60. Happy Birthday, Kip!

(see RelativityPlusAstrophysics, CherishedBeliefs, NiAndMe, PulsarWaves, and SoftOutsideCrunchyCenter, for other ^z thesis work)

Saturday, March 25, 2000 at 21:35:23 (EST) = 2000-03-25

TopicPersonalHistory - TopicScience - TopicProfiles

(correlates: SilverNaga, 2008-09-11 - NWB Hill Work, RelativityPlusAstrophysics, ...)