First Academic Positions (1926-1931)
What was your position in the physics department at Columbia? What courses did you teach? What problems in modern physics did you emphasize? When you left Columbia on your first European fellowship was it expected that you would return?
How had the curriculum, especially with respect to modern physics, changed in your absence? Did you have any influence in determining the material offered? Was there a general conviction of the need to "modernize?" How did the situation at Columbia compare in this respect with that in other important American Universities? How quickly was the change achieved and how was it accomplished?
How did you feel about Schrödinger's theory when it first appeared? Did you think it more fundamental than matrix mechanics? What did you think of the appeal to Hamilton's optical-mechanical analogy? Did you think then that a mechanical explanation of quantum phenomena was possible? Do you recall the opinions of others?
What was the origin of your interest in band spectra? Where did you acquire the mathematics necessary to handle such applications of the Schr6dinger equation?
Zurich
How did it happen that Pauli offered you the position as his assistant? Had you already decided to leave Columbia permanently? Why did you decide to pursue your academic career in Europe ?
Apparently you returned to Copenhagen before going to Zurich, and were there during the period when complementarity was developed. What can you tell us about the genesis and reception of this concept? Was everyone at Copenhagen convinced?
You indicate in "The Turning Point" that you, Pauli and Scherrer frequently discussed "subjects from physics" together. Can you give us some idea of the content of these discussions? For instance, what was said about the uncertainty principle and complementarity? How was Dirac's theory of the electron received, and what was thought of the idea of "holes?" What were then considered to be the most important questions in contemporary physics?
How had the curriculum, especially with respect to modern physics, changed in your absence? Did you have any influence in determining the material offered? Was there a general conviction of the need to "modernize?" How did the situation at Columbia compare in this respect with that in other important American Universities? How quickly was the change achieved and how was it accomplished?
How did you feel about Schrödinger's theory when it first appeared? Did you think it more fundamental than matrix mechanics? What did you think of the appeal to Hamilton's optical-mechanical analogy? Did you think then that a mechanical explanation of quantum phenomena was possible? Do you recall the opinions of others?
What was the origin of your interest in band spectra? Where did you acquire the mathematics necessary to handle such applications of the Schr6dinger equation?
Zurich
How did it happen that Pauli offered you the position as his assistant? Had you already decided to leave Columbia permanently? Why did you decide to pursue your academic career in Europe ?
Apparently you returned to Copenhagen before going to Zurich, and were there during the period when complementarity was developed. What can you tell us about the genesis and reception of this concept? Was everyone at Copenhagen convinced?
You indicate in "The Turning Point" that you, Pauli and Scherrer frequently discussed "subjects from physics" together. Can you give us some idea of the content of these discussions? For instance, what was said about the uncertainty principle and complementarity? How was Dirac's theory of the electron received, and what was thought of the idea of "holes?" What were then considered to be the most important questions in contemporary physics?
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