memorial resolution alan t. waterman - Stanford Historical Society

MEMORIAL
RESOLUTION
ALAN
T.
WATERMAN
(1918­2008)
SenD#6447
Alan
Waterman,
scientist,
advisor
to
students,
outdoorsman,
lifelong
athlete,
passed
away
on
January
9,
2008
at
the
age
of
89.
Notable
as
a
pioneering
investigator
of
radio
propagation
in
the
earth’s
atmosphere
and
for
a
teaching
career
at
Stanford
that
spanned
some
31
years,
he
was
also
known
for
his
accomplishments
as
a
mountain
climber
and
as
a
lifelong
athletic
competitor.
Alan
was
born
in
1918
in
Northampton,
Mass.
As
a
youngster
he
took
long
canoe
trips
with
his
father
and
younger
brothers.
His
father,
a
Yale
physicist,
was
the
chief
scientist
of
the
Office
of
Naval
Research
after
World
War
II
and
was
then
chosen
by
President
Truman
to
become
the
first
director
of
the
National
Science
Foundation.
The
younger
Waterman
majored
in
Physics
at
Princeton
and
was
a
letterman
on
the
Princeton
track
team.
He
graduated
in
1939
and
then
moved
to
the
California
Institute
of
Technology,
where
he
earned
another
bachelor's
degree
and
during
the
wartime
years
1942‐46
investigated
the
effects
on
radio
propagation
of
turbulence
and
layers
in
the
Earth’s
atmosphere.
Alan
then
attended
Harvard,
where
his
Ph.D.
thesis,
completed
in
1952,
was
entitled
“Ionospheric
Absorption
of
Obliquely
Incident
Radio
Waves.”
In
1952
he
obtained
a
Research
Associate
position
in
the
Radioscience
Laboratory
at
Stanford
and
in
1958
received
the
faculty
appointment
in
Electrical
Engineering
that
he
held
until
becoming
emeritus
in
1983.
At
Stanford
Alan
established
a
research
program
on
various
aspects
of
trans‐horizon
signal
propagation,
employing
antenna
arrays
in
the
Dish
area
behind
Stanford.
In
the
early
years
his
research
focused
on
the
direct
problem
of
measuring
the
properties
of
waves
reflected
from
or
transmitted
through
the
complex
atmospheric
medium,
and
in
the
later
years
moved
to
the
difficult
inverse
problem
of
using
the
properties
of
received
scattered
and
transmitted
signals
to
infer
the
structure
and
dynamics
of
the
atmospheric
medium
through
which
they
had
passed.
In
the
course
of
this
work
Alan
served
as
author
or
coauthor
of
31
papers
and
reviews
that
appeared
in
the
Proceedings
of
the
IRE
(Institute
of
Radio
Engineers),
in
the
IRE
Transactions
on
Antennas
and
Propagation
and
in
the
Journal
Radioscience.
Alan
accomplished
much
as
an
advisor
and
teacher
of
students.
He
contributed
substantially
to
the
development
and
teaching
of
graduate
and
undergraduate
courses
in
electromagnetic
theory
and
wave
propagation.
Among
his
Ph.D.
students
were
several
who
went
on
to
distinguished
research
and
teaching
careers
in
major
universities
such
as
Dartmouth
and
Stanford.
Alan
was
elected
a
Fellow
of
the
IEEE
(Institute
of
Electrical
and
Electronic
Engineers)
in
1965.

Alan
T.
Waterman
Memorial
Resolution—continued…
After
becoming
emeritus
in
1983,
Alan
was
regularly
recalled
to
active
duty
in
the
EE
department,
both
for
the
purpose
of
teaching
his
favorite
courses
on
electromagnetism
and
radio
propagation
and
for
serving
in
the
important
role
of
advisor
to
freshman
and
sophomore
undergraduates.
He
was
an
advisor
to
the
IEEE
student
organization
and
in
1991
was
cited
by
the
EE
department
for
his
exceptional
service
“in
teaching,
research,
and
advising.”
Alan
was
involved
in
a
number
of
professional
activities
outside
the
university.
He
was
an
active
member
of
the
IRE/IEEE,
served
for
years
on
the
U.S.
National
Committee
of
the
International
Radioscience
Union
(U.R.S.I.),
and
from
1978
to
1981
was
Chair
of
one
of
the
U.R.S.I.
international
committees.
From
1988
to
1990
he
served
as
editor
of
the
journal
Radioscience
published
by
the
American
Geophysical
Union.
Alan
served
on
a
number
of
advisory
panels
of
the
National
Academy
of
Sciences
and
as
a
consultant
to
various
organizations.
In
1982
he
was
invited
to
visit
the
Max
Planck
Institute
for
Aeronomy
for
discussions
and
study
of
the
problem
of
wave
scattering
from
non‐ionized
air.
He
was
a
member
of
a
number
of
societies
devoted
to
scholarship,
including
the
American
Physical
Society,
the
American
Geophysical
Union,
the
New
York
Academy
of
Sciences,
and
the
American
Association
of
University
Professors.
Alan’s
work
on
radio
probing
of
the
Earth’s
atmosphere,
including
trans‐horizon
radio
propagation,
brought
him
research
support
from
the
Defense
Department,
but
in
the
late
1960s
and
early
1970s
made
him
a
target
for
campus
protests
against
military‐
sponsored
research.
Waterman
stoutly
defended
his
defense
contracts
at
an
Academic
Council
hearing
and
in
letters
to
the
editor
of
the
Stanford
Daily.
“He
stuck
to
the
line
that
what
he
was
doing
was
basic
research,
though
it
had
applications
in
all
sort
of
fields,”
said
Dane
Waterman,
one
of
Al’s
two
sons.
Alan
became
involved
in
the
celebrated
case
of
Associate
Professor
H.
Bruce
Franklin
involving
an
incident
at
the
campus
computer
center
in
1971,
testifying
against
Franklin
before
a
faculty
advisory
board.
In
the
aftermath
of
that
turbulent
period
the
university
pulled
away
from
classified
defense
contracts,
and
as
his
research
funding
ebbed,
Waterman
shifted
his
attention
from
research
to
teaching
and
raising
his
children.
Alan
met
his
wife,
Lori,
in
New
York
City
on
VE
Day
in
1945.
Lori
and
he
were
married
for
54
years,
until
her
death
in
2001.
They
loved
traveling
together;
an
artist,
she
would
sketch
the
landscape
while
he
went
rock
climbing.
Waterman
loved
mountain
climbing
and
was
reputed
by
a
family
member
to
have
“climbed
basically
anything
south
of
Alaska
in
the
Americas,”
including
peaks
in
the
Andes.
In
1997,
when
he
went
to
Colorado
to
climb
with
other
Princeton
alumni,
he
was
the
oldest
climber
there.
Running
was
another
of
Waterman's
passions.
Sometime
around
1964
he
helped
form
the
Angell
Field
Ancients
(AFA),
a
group
of
Stanford
and
community
runners
who
gathered
at
noon
at
Stanford’s
Angell
field
track.
He
was
an
early
recipient
of
the
AFA
Golden
Jock
award,
presented
annually
to
an
AFA
member
in
recognition
of
having

Alan
T.
Waterman
Memorial
Resolution—continued…
achieved
distinction
within
the
group,
however
modest.
He
enthusiastically
supported
his
fellow
runners,
helping
pace
them
through
time
trials
and
inviting
colleagues
attending
a
conference
in
a
foreign
city
to
join
him
in
exploratory
runs.
Noted
for
his
exceptionally
smooth
running
style,
strength,
and
balance,
Alan
in
his
50s
could
still
run
a
mile
in
less
than
five
minutes.
Family
members
said
he
once
held
a
national
steeplechase
record
for
runners
55
and
older.
In
the
final
years
of
his
life
Al
suffered
greatly
from
osteoporosis,
making
it
increasingly
difficult
for
him
to
be
physically
active.
He
welcomed
visitors
most
warmly
and
from
time
to
time
was
able
to
attend
functions
on
the
campus.
He
did
his
best
to
go
to
major
track
meets,
but
in
his
last
years
was
forced
to
give
that
up
with
regret.
He
was
a
guitarist
and
cellist
who
loved
opera,
Gilbert
and
Sullivan
operettas
and
folk
songs,
especially
old
Scottish
ballads.
Al
remained
mentally
alert
to
the
end.
In
the
last
two
weeks
of
his
life
he
was
still
reciting
from
memory
his
favorite
passages
from
Byron,
Scott,
Shakespeare,
Shelley
and
Wordsworth,
his
daughter‐in‐law
said.
“Two
days
before
he
died,
he
asked
that
my
two
girls
come
to
the
hospital
and
sing
him
some
Gilbert
and
Sullivan,”
she
said.
Al
was
a
quiet,
gentleman
who
was
much
respected
by
his
colleagues
and
was
particularly
loved
by
those
who
were
privileged
to
share
in
his
lifelong
enthusiasms
for
the
outdoors
and
for
track
and
field.
Committee:
Don
Carpenter
(Chair)
Donald
Cox
Dan
Stober
Tony
Fraser‐Smith